Building a New Reality

More Voice. More Choice. More Responsibility.

School Is Optional

A series of excerpts from Kenneth Danford’s book, “Learning is Natural, School is Optional: The North Star approach to giving teens a head start in life.” The book details Danford’s founding of the North Star Self-Directed Learning Center, and its evolution as a successful alternative for teens who want to learn but don’t thrive in a traditional classroom atmosphere.

1. Who Knew?

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Editor’s Comments  by Ted Wachtel I’m not against schools. Rather, I am against the continued monopoly that schools have over the resources for learning. I applaud the many students who thrive in schools. But millions do not, and they should be allowed to choose their own paths to learning. When I wrote my first book, […]

3. A Simple Path to College

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“In school I was a freak, a punk, an outcast, and nobody at all. I was afraid to be myself and afraid to try to be anyone else. School was never an enjoyable experience for me.”

4. Alumni Outcomes

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North Star coaches teens to leave school and embark on a self-directed path. It turns out that for 82% of our members, the first activity after North Star is: school.

5. Liberated Learners

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North Star Self-Directed Learning for Teens program is neither an alternative school, nor a private progressive school, nor a homeschooling resource program. As Kenneth Danford recounts in this excerpt from his book, Learning is Natural, School is Optional, until recently North Star was unique. That is, until others wanted to emulate it and he created a way to do that — he calls it “Liberated Learners.”