As much as I question college, I love studying. I’m a major academics geek. Randomly put me in a room with 10 people, and most of the time I will be the one who sounds like a college professor; I’m almost always passionately studying some arcane or academic subject on the side, sourcing obscure books, visiting research libraries, conducting experiments or doing field research. When I’m not independently studying something, usually it means I’m overextended.

There’s an obvious reason why I’m studying like an independent scholar while most people are not: Studies and learning have always been integrated into my daily life as an ongoing process, whereas institutionalized education usually encourages education to be the whole thing or nothing, a means to an end. I rarely spent a full day studying when I was school age, but I also never stopped studying; I always blended it with the other things in my life, whether that was bodybuilding, writing to girls, producing my magazine as a teen, attending college or managing magazines professionally. (Yes, many homeschoolers continue independent scholarship even while in college—one grown homeschooler in Grown Without Schooling said it was a way to keep sane.) A lot of people study full-time but then stop studying almost completely when they’re onto the next thing. I didn’t.

This is a point of difference between me as an unschooler and the majority of people who went to school. This also introduces a problem: My world isn’t built for lifelong scholarship! We’re getting there, because things change so fast these days that everyone needs to be updating their skillset constantly. But even this societal evolution toward lifelong learning is not really built for my needs because it still is institutionalized at its core and usually it is aimed at career success.

Peter Kowalke studying Islamic theology in 2009.

Some of my studies are career-oriented, such as digital reader technology, and classes can be helpful when I have the time and money. My interests are broader than just success in business, however, and often I have time to study as a hobby but no time or interest to studying in a structured, institutional way.

Where does that leave me and other grown homeschoolers?

Largely it leaves me studying alone, without much in the way of support. For years I actively studied magazine history, for instance. During my college years I spun some independent study from a journalism professor of mine, and after college I attended a few living history events sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. But usually I was alone, creating my own curriculum, sourcing my own material, reading and thinking about it by myself.

I went so far as to register a bunch of domain names, journalismhistory.org being one, in the hopes of creating a space to study my topic with others. I’ve since dropped the idea because there isn’t demand; most people don’t study on the side, and it is even harder to study with others when the topic is not extremely popular or broad.

There are some opportunities to study with professors or the occasional eccentric, of course; nationally I did find opportunities to connect with the magazine historian community, such as it is. But these are not people doing it the way I am doing it, however, so the fit isn’t good. Perhaps more important, this also is overkill for subjects that I am not intending to study long-term.

I’m undaunted, though. Perhaps it will be awhile before someone breaks through the entrenched college monopoly system and creates a 24/7, ongoing online university that blends the best of self-directed and institutionalized education (sorry, Udemy, I don’t think you’re it). Until then, however, there’s got to be a way that I can study and share my academic enthusiasm with others, even if it is just a small group.

My current experiment involves dynamic, informal study groups. I’m on an Asian history kick, and for the Chinese portion of my study I’ve created a curriculum and advertised my study plans to friends and family. Each portion is self-contained to some degree, so anyone can join me for all or some of the study. If those who join me flake halfway through the material, I’m no worse than I started. If some or all stay, we hold a periodic study group meeting. The study moves forward because someone is studying it, me, and the more the merrier if others are interested. So far, interest has been strong.

Maybe I’m still doing the heavy lifting, and maybe I’ll be the expert in my little study circle, but if this latest experiment works then at least I’m not alone in my studies. That’s a start.