The Unschooler Experiment

Confronting a World Where People Don’t Study

Adult Learning, Child Learning, College, Holism, Lasting Influence, Learning, Passions, Self-direction, Teen Learning, Work

Going in Peter's Book

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...

Building a Career in Music

Julian Baptista

Career, College, Community, Passions, Work

People often ask me what I"m doing with my life. I"m sure this is pretty common for most people, but especially for unschoolers. I"ve never been much for the seemingly snarky response, "following my passions," although that"s certainly what I"ve done. Ever since I can...

#4: How to Be a Librarian

Peter Kowalke

Career, Child Learning, College, Passions, Podcasts, Questioning, Work

Many, many unschoolers want to be librarians. It could be because so many unschoolers are library power users. It could be because librarians act a lot like unschoolers. It could be because the thought of living among books all day is pretty...

Choosing School

Charlotte Clark

Self-direction, Socialization, Teen Learning

I never thought I would go to high school. I’m 16 and the youngest of four children, none of whom went to “real school,” so I assumed I would do the same. But here I am in school, and I’m not rabidly against unschooling. In...

Second Generation Unschooling and New Zealand Yarn

Peter Kowalke

Career, Child Learning, Entrepreneurship, Lasting Influence, Learning, Parenting, Passions, Podcasts, Social Life, Socialization, Work

Today we talk with Lynda Young, a second generation unschooler in Walpole, Maine who is homeschooling her own kids and running a yarn business with her mom. We discuss how she unschools differently than her...

See Peter and Sandra Dodd Talk Unschooling in NYC

Peter Kowalke

Events, Holism, Identity, Individualism, Lasting Influence, Postmaterialism, Questioning, Self-direction, Site News, Socialization, The Unschooler Experiment

We recorded the talk! Listen to it here. Live in or near New York City? Come watch Peter and popular unschooling speaker Sandra Dodd discuss the...

Fighting the Expectation to Be Awesome

Peter Kowalke

Identity, Passions, Self-direction

I made the Grown Without Schooling Documentary partially to dispel the myth and expectation that I had to be awesome all the time. This feeling of needing to be awesome is an occupational hazard if you're an unschooler, especially for those of us who started...