Questioning College?

Browsing posts in the ‘College’ category

Questioning College?

By Jessica Barker, 02/13/2012, 8:16 am

Skipping or dropping out of college is a huge decision. Even temporarily bypassing higher education is a choice that must be made consciously and intentionally. The thing is, there aren't very many guidance counselors that tell you not to go to college, or advisors to tell...

Dream-Catching Formula 2.0

By Jessica Barker, 02/06/2012, 8:09 am

You've heard it a million times: "You're not sure about college, huh? Well, you'd better figure it out soon or you'll be working at McDonald's for the rest of your life." (This is invariably how well-meaning people quickly get categorized as small-minded imbeciles, alas.) But...

DIY College Course

By Jessica Barker, 01/20/2012, 7:18 pm

The ability to customize your learning experience is both liberating and intimidating. One way to do this is to design your own college course or "Unit Study." When it comes down to buckling down and learning something specific, conceiving a well-rounded course of study is...

Grown Unschooler Needs Help with Research Study

By Jessica Barker, 01/16/2012, 2:45 am

Attention autodidacts: Erin Katherine Johnson, a lifelong learner herself, is a graduate student at Goddard College in Vermont getting her MA in Education-Individualized Studies. And she needs your help with her thesis project!

For my graduate thesis project I desire to collect personal stories about...
READ MORE »

“I would not have gone to college.”

By Jessica Barker, 01/11/2012, 3:00 pm

Over the past couple of years, I have befriended an interesting fellow named Brian Fritz. We met at a local contra dance and get together every so often to reflect on life and the universe. Brian is 31 and has always struck me as a...

#20: Against the Grain

By Peter Kowalke, 12/27/2011, 5:47 am

This is part eight of an eight-part series. Read the other parts here... Today Idzie Desmarais, a 20-year-old grown unschooler from Montreal, reads the complete Week of the Idzie series. The series tackles Idzie's...

Dealing with the Here and Now

By Idzie Desmarais, 12/25/2011, 3:35 am

This is part six of an eight-part series. Read the other parts here... While my goals, such as they are, are clear in at least a fairly big picture way, I don’t know the details in how I’ll achieve them,...

What do I ultimately want from college?

By Jessica Barker, 12/06/2011, 6:12 am

James loved literature. The "Great Books" were his passion and he was even learning Latin and Greek so as to broaden and enhance what he could bury his nose in. At 19-years-old he had his own apartment and was working as a waiter to support...