Hi, I’m Blake.

Welcome to my home on the web.

Me in 10 Seconds

I’m an advocate for self-directed learning.

I write, speak, podcast, and build things online.

Since 2008 I’ve taken teenagers on life-changing trips through my company Unschool Adventures.

California native. Heavily traveled. Mountain lover.

Me in 10 minutes? See my About page.

2018 Speaking Tour

This fall I’m giving a new talk entitled “Yes, You Can Quit Traditional High School and Everything Will Be Okay.” Come say hi.

Sept 5 – Eugene, OR – The Hive – event page
Sept 14 – Minneapolis, MN – Gaia Democratic School – event page
Sept 17 – Chicago, IL – Greenfields Academy – event page
Sept 20 – Ann Arbor, MI – Clonlara School – event page
Sept 25 – New Haven, CT – Beacon – event page
Sept 27 – Dover, NH – Big Fish Learning Community – event page
Oct 1 – Watertown, MA – Bay State Learning Center – event page
Oct 3 – Framingham, MA – Macomber Center – event page
Oct 29 – Sunderland, MA – North Star – event page
Nov 6 – Brooklyn, NY – private audience (email if interested)
Nov 8 – Princeton, NJ – The Learning Cooperatives – event page
Nov 9 – Staunton, VA – Raw Learning – event page
Nov 14 – Charlotte, NC – ALC Mosaic – event page
Nov 17 – Leesburg, VA – Embark Center – event page

Email Newsletter

Each month I send one thoughtfully crafted newsletter to 4500+ followers, sharing my favorite education-related links. Browse the archives and sign up below.

Select Appearances

School Sucks podcast / part two (March 2018)

NatChat podcast (Oct 2017)

The World Wanderers podcast (Dec 2016)

Zero to Travel podcast (Oct 2016)

Chris Guillebeau: “One Man’s Journey to Year-Round Summer Camp” (Aug 2016)

Psychology Today: The Golden Age of Autodidacts (July 2016)

Christian Science Monitor: Free Range Education (Feb 2016)

Writing

Recent Articles (all)

Don’t Like High School? Then Quit. (Oct 2018)
Give Kids Control (Oct 2018)
How to Quit Parenting (June 2018)
Teens and Screens (May 2018)
You Can’t Ruin Your Kids (April 2018)
Hail the Almighty Diploma (March 2018)
What Does it Mean to Be Educated? (May 2017)

Books

The Art of Self-Directed Learning (2014)
Better Than College (2012)
College Without High School (2009)

Personal Posts (all)

Podcast

I interview fascinating people from the worlds of alternative and experiential education on my podcast, Off Trail Learning. Find new episodes on iTunes, Soundcloud, or your preferred app.

Side Projects

Launchpad (2017): a 3-week, email-based workshop for self-directed learners ages 14-21, all about getting stuff done

The Way of Adventure (2017): a free online course for adventurous young people

How to Live Nowhere (2017): a free online book about nomadic living, written for twenty- and thirty-somethings

Off-Trail Learning (2016): a free resource website for teenagers, young adults, and parents considering alternative

The Unschool Adventures Guide to Online Travel Fundraising (2012): a free guide to crowdfunding for travel adventures

New Videos

In 2018 I published four short original videos about topics close to my heart. View them below or on Facebook.

How Can I Help?

High school is slowly sucking the life from me.

I’ve been there—forever waiting for that bell to ring. Here are a few ways I can help:

I’m not sure whether college is right for me.

Most young people only consider which colleges to apply to—but what if you’re unsure whether you should go to college at all? I’ve thought and written a lot about this issue, and here are my top suggestions:

Read my book, Better Than College, and William Deresiewicz’s book, Excellent Sheep (one of my favorites)
Watch these videos: Really Good Reasons to Skip College, What Could You Do With $20,000?, and my (awkward) appearance on Fox Business
Listen to my podcast interviews with young people who opted out of college
Drop me a line and tell me your story

I’m a parent researching alternatives to school.

If you’re new to the world of unschooling, alternative education, and self-directed learning, here are some good places to begin:

I’m a homeschooling or unschooling parent looking for resources.

I’ve spent a lot of time working with homeschooled, unschooled, and self-directed young people (especially teenagers), and here are a few insights I have to share:

Read my book The Art of Self-Directed Learning (or watch a bootleg copy of one my presentations about the book)
Check out Launchpad, my online course all about getting stuff done as a self-directed learner
Watch my commencement speech for graduating homeschoolers (transcript) and keynote talk for teen unschoolers

A Few Kind Words

Blake Boles is open-minded, interested in everything, courageous, and passionately committed to individual development. I would expect good things to happen for young people who had the good fortune to hang out with Blake for a while.

John Taylor Gatto

New York State Teacher of the Year

Teenagers from all over Los Angeles came out of the woodwork to be a part of [Blake’s workshops] and left happy, inspired, and energized. Parents immediately started asking for him to come back to do workshops for them. We started plotting his return before he left.

Anna Smith & Brenna Gibson

Co-Founders, Urban Homeschoolers

Blake’s talk offered more than just great arguments for giving kids more control over their own education—he gave creative, inspiring, and practical advice for children and adults to exploit their strengths and pursue their passions. His talk is still reverberating through the Macomber community.

Ben Draper

Director, Macomber Center

Your work with my son has been paramount in his young adult growth and development. What stood out for me were the stories you shared of specific experiences that spoke directly to his own heart and life. The humor, lightness and laughter you weave into the support sessions you offer is also a great gift.

Laura Carpine

Unschooling Mom

Blake is an extraordinary figure and his presentation at Community Night was not only hilarious but exceptionally motivating for our students. . . I’ve talked to kids who were really impacted by Blake’s message and have taken steps to build some of his ideas into their own self-directed learning paths.

George Popham

Executive Director, Bay State Learning Center

I dropped out of high school, and now I’ve got a master’s degree and I work in higher education. I created an online college class for students with non-traditional educational backgrounds. I was looking for assigned texts for the class and found The Art of Self-Directed Learning. It is the only required text in the class.

anonymous

Visitor to BlakeBoles.com

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