Not-Back-To-School Time for Massachusetts Homeschoolers

Back-to-school sales are in full swing in stores across the Commonwealth, as parents and young people gather fresh pencils, notebooks, and other classroom accoutrements to begin a bright, new academic year. But for a growing number of Massachusetts families, not-back-to-school time is a more fitting term for this annual season. 

For homeschooling families, particularly those like mine who embrace self-directed education, learning happens all the time, all year round. There are no arbitrary starts and stops, no subject silos, no designated spaces in which to learn, or appointed people to learn from. Learning is ongoing and ubiquitous, occurring constantly from the people, places, and things around us. Legendary Boston educator John Holt, who pioneered the liberal homeschooling movement in the 1970s, wrote in his book Learning All The Time:  "Children learn from anything and everything they see. They learn wherever they are, not just in special learning places."