ABOUT THE BOOK
Reviews
Families interested in a balanced exploration of today's educational options will find this a boon.
— Publishers Weekly
Since the pandemic, once-rare species of "school" have been springing up across the country. Mickey Revenaugh tracks them down like a modern William Bartram, the 18th-century botanist the Seminoles called "the flower hunter." To show us 1,000 flowers in bloom, she logged 100,000+ miles en route to School’s Out.
— Ron Matus, Director of Research and Special Projects at Step Up For Students
Mickey Revenaugh gives us a fun-to-read tour of the rapidly growing variety of educational options for those who find that the one-size-fits-all traditional system isn't working for their kids.
— Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life
School's Out is a great presentation of the growth and importance of unconventional education in post-pandemic America. Revenaugh paints a hopeful picture of how parents and alternative schools enable learning for children that is more communal and personalized than what conventional school offers.
— Patrick Farenga, coauthor of Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling
Inside the quiet revolution reshaping how American children learn.
In the wake of the pandemic, millions of American families have made a quiet but consequential decision: to leave traditional schools behind. In School's Out, education journalist and online-learning pioneer Mickey Revenaugh takes readers inside the rapidly expanding world of unconventional education.
From homeschooling and virtual public schools to microschools, from hybrid programs to roadschooling, Revenaugh traces the many paths parents are choosing for their children—and the deeply personal reasons behind them. Each chapter centers on families navigating questions of safety, identity, flexibility, and belonging, revealing a movement far more diverse and complex than common stereotypes suggest.
The book introduces readers to Black homeschool collectives in the South, neurodiverse learners thriving online, families wrestling with ideological divides, and parents seeking refuge from bullying, rigid curricula, or institutional mistrust. Rather than advocating for a single solution, Revenaugh presents these stories as windows into a broader transformation of American education—one accelerated by technology, remote work, and shifting expectations about how children learn best.
School's Out explores both the promise and the risks of this educational shift. As personalization increases, so do concerns about isolation, equity, and community. Revenaugh argues that the future of education will depend on how well families and institutions balance flexibility with connection and offers a clear-eyed look at an educational landscape being reshaped in real time.