Are you telling kids to drop out of school?
No. There is no one right educational path for any kid. But I do present unschooling and purposefully skipping college as serious life options. Done thoughtfully and carefully, many young people can succeed without formal school or college. This site exists to inform them of those (and many other) options.
Can you give a talk at my school?
I’d love to. Drop me a line.
Are you trying to sell me something?
In order to reach as many people as possible, I decided at the beginning to make the site free, even though it takes a ton of time to build, maintain, and publish new content. I don’t accept ads or sponsored content, because I detest that stuff on other websites. If you respect this approach, please consider supporting the site directly.
That being said, I do use Amazon Affiliates links when linking to books, which provides me with a small commission when you make a purchase. These commissions come at no cost to you, and I never promote books, programs, or anything else I don’t believe in. Just so you know.
Why don’t you reflect my beliefs about unschooling / self-directed learning / etc.?
Let’s be clear: Off-Trail Learning is not an impartial, unbiased, or catch-all website. It reflects the beliefs, interests, weirdness, and proclivities of me, Blake Boles. I use this website to promote my own interpretation of self-directed learning and the other ideas, organizations, and people with whom I’m experienced. I don’t promote anything for which I cannot personally vouch. I invite you to submit a resource that you think belongs on this website, but ultimately I will decide whether it’s a good fit or not.
When did this site launch?
August 2016.
Have a question that’s not on the FAQ? Ask it here.