The Book
Learning is Natural, School is Optional: The North Star approach to offering teens a head start on life
For as long as there has been compulsory schooling, students have asked, “Do I really have to go to school through 12th grade? Isn’t there some other way?”
The conventional answer, “No, there is no other way. You just have to make the best of it,” didn’t satisfy Kenneth Danford and Joshua Hornick. In 1996, they left their public school teaching jobs to help students live, learn, and grow in a different environment. The method is simple, powerful, and relatively easily accessible, but most teens and families need some support to choose this path.
Here is the story of North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens, which has provided this support to hundreds of students over the past two decades.
In this combination memoir/how-to, you will learn that this “other way” is actually an opportunity for young people to get a tremendous head start on adulthood. Not only do these young people generally start college early, gain meaningful work experience, and travel or pursue interesting passions, they also have the time and space for self-exploration. They develop intrinsic motivation, self-awareness, and maturity beyond their years.
This other way to live and learn is not a trick. There is no catch. There is no secret trap. One simply has to want more out of life than settling for traditional school, and have enough immediate support in their family and community to take on this challenge.
It’s one thing to know there’s another way. It’s something far more moving and profound to make this other way possible for any interested family. As Danford shares his experience facilitating young people and their families in this pursuit of “unschooling,” you may be surprised and inspired by the information and stories in this book.
Empowered by this knowledge, you, too, may even find yourself telling teens in your life, “Hey, there’s another way! I’d like to help you!”
More than ever, students and parents need to know that there are viable—and often superior—alternatives for them, when a traditional school setting isn’t working. I am so deeply impressed with what the North Star team has been able to provide to its community, and it is a model well worth emulating. This book will open eyes.
For over 20 years, North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens has been making joyful, inspired, consent-based learning possible for every youth in the vicinity who wants to try it (and, of course, whose parents are willing to give it a chance). Ken and his team have accrued an astounding body of stories and wisdom, from nitty-gritty to existential to unexpected and uplifting. In person, Ken is a delightful human—funny, sincere, blunt, generous, and understated. I’m thrilled to find that reading his book is just like listening to him talk.
North Star is a revolutionary alternative for teenagers who don’t click with traditional school: not quite homeschooling, not quite an alternative school, and financially accessible to all. Ken’s story of founding (and spreading) the North Star model offers hope and inspiration for anxious parents, disgruntled educators, and curious students who know there must be a better way.
More than 20 years ago, Ken Danford left a secure job as a public middle school teacher because he could see that the system was not working and many kids were suffering under it. He and a colleague started a new kind of place—now called North Star—where teens could take charge of their own activities, learning, and life. This is the story of that journey and a report on the remarkable success of the young people who have taken advantage of the North Star opportunity. North Star is now a model emulated by new learning centers. Everyone concerned about our educational system should read this book. Here is hope; here is a way out of our oppressive, failing educational system.
Ken Danford has been a pioneer in the world of self-directed education since the 1990s. Not only has he freed hundreds of young people from the confines of the conventional classroom, he has inspired countless educators around the world to seek or build alternatives to school. This book is a gem, and a must-read for parents, educators, and teens who know something is not right with standard schooling and want a peek into what real learning looks like. Ken Danford is a visionary educator and his book explains how and why the North Star education model works. This is a book to read and share widely.
