Matt Hern compiled a wonderful collection of essays in his short, quick read, Deschooling Our Lives. From John Holt to Grace Lewellyn to John Taylor Gatto to Hern himself, the book contains short but powerful, strong essays from several of our most prominent educational reform minds and serves as a wonderful introduction to people who want to learn more about homeschooling, unschooling, and school reform and history in general.

The essays in the book range from those written by actual homeschoolers and unschoolers to some written by people who founded alternative education centers, such as Summherill, where “unschooling” takes place instead of a formal education. Arguments against formal education, against centers where it’s supposed to take place, and against education in general are all contained within the text.

One of the most powerful arguments that I came to know in the book was that we should stop looking at high school dropouts as failures. Many go on to do amazing things—but the important thing is that they each live an authentic, happy life. My own husband, for example, needs nothing he learned in high school for his trade; he learned all of it on the job, and that is where he is most happy. I can count on one hand the things I learned about my job in high school as well; most of my time was spent doing lab work and worksheets that I discovered I would never, ever need to know about later in life. And I didn’t learn a thing about parenting in school; that all came from caring for my sisters as well as the job itself!

But the biggest part of this equation is that learning takes place everywhere. The government would have us believe it can only happen in a schoolhouse, but in reality that’s where the least amount of learning seems to occur. If you want to be a doctor, sure, go to school—but the rest of us could have probably started working much earlier had we not had to comply with state regulations based on our age alone.

Other notable essays, including how parents in poverty can still homeschool, are also in the text. I would highly recommend the book to any parent, as well as any homeschooler or school reform activist. It’s brief and highly enjoyable, though readers should be warned that there are some disturbing notes, particularly when delving into the history of education.