Everywhere All the Time: A New Deschooling Reader

Debates about education often revolve around standardized testing, taxes and funding, teacher certification—everything except how to best help kids develop learning skills. Everywhere All the Timepresents an array of historical and contemporary alternatives to traditional schooling, demonstrating that children’s capacity to learn decreases as soon as they enter bureaucratic, institutional facilities.

Census data in the United States alone places the number of home-schooled children at five hundred thousand. Trends point toward an increasing skepticism of the ability of public schools—and private ones, based on similar pedagogy—to give kids what they need to be healthy, self-directed life learners. Major themes in this book include: children’s self-directed learning, encouraging community-building and participation from parents in the learning process, critical thinking for active engagement and democratic self-governance, and alleviating the negative psychological effects of traditional schooling methods. It also includes the voices and artwork of alternatively schooled children themselves.