Hi, I’m Blake.

Welcome. Here’s a bit about me.

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

I’m the author of The Art of Self-Directed Learning (2014), Better Than College (2012), and College Without High School (2009).

I also write a monthly column for The Alliance for Self-Directed Education.

On my podcast, Off-Trail Learning, I interview innovative educators, parents, and young people. Find it on iTunes, Soundcloud, or your preferred app.

I give presentations for alternative schools, parent groups, and conferences. Check out my 2018 speaking schedule.

I coach a handful of young people (and their parents) through my side business, Indie Guidance Counselor.

My work and I have appeared in The New York Times, Psychology Today, The Huffington Post, Fox Business, The Christian Science Monitor, TEDx, Ignite, and NPR affiliate radio.

Learn more about me on my about page, by reading this profile, or listening to this interview.

Here’s what I’m up to now.

Thanks for visiting.

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:

Read my articles What Does it Mean to Be Educated and Four Reasons to Quit School and Become a Teenage Homeschooler
Explore my free online course, The Way of Adventure
Read my books College Without High School and The Art of Self-Directed Learning
Read Grace Llewellyn’s classic book, The Teenage Liberation Handbook
Explore my resource website Off-Trail Learning and my podcast interviews with young people like yourself
Meet me in person when I’m on tour
Drop me a line and tell me your story

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 Better Than College, which young people can get for free
Watch Really Good Reasons to Skip College, What Could You Do With $20,000?, and my (somewhat awkward) appearance on Fox Business
Read my advice for building a cheap and meaningful gap year
Read William Deresiewicz’s book, Excellent Sheep (one of my favorites)
Listen to my podcast interviews with young people who opted out of college
Meet me in person when I’m on tour
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:

Read these articles about unschooling and self-directed learning: Psychology Today / Christian Science Monitor
Read my articles What Does it Mean to Be Educated and Give High School Students the Same Freedom as College Students
Read my book The Art of Self-Directed Learning and College Without High School
Listen to some of my recent podcast appearances, especially this one
Explore my resource website Off-Trail Learning and my podcast interviews with educators, parents, and young people
Meet me in person when I’m on tour
Join my email newsletter to receive my favorite education-related links each month
Drop me a line and tell me your story

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 14- to 20-year-old self-directed learners
Read my article, What Does it Mean to Be Educated
Watch my commencement speech for graduating homeschoolers (transcript) and keynote talk for teen unschoolers
Explore my podcast interviews with grown unschoolers
Meet me in person when I’m on tour
Join my email newsletter to receive my favorite education-related links each month
Drop me a line and tell me your story

I want to build an adventurous, self-directed life as an adult.

Oh man, this is big subject! Here are a few ways I can help:

Read my free online book about nomadic living, How to Live Nowhere
Browse my free online course, The Way of Adventure
Explore my personal blog
Listen to some of my recent podcast appearances as well as my own podcast interviews with adventurous young adults
Join my email newsletter to receive my favorite education-related links each month
Drop me a line and share your story

Email Newsletter

Each month I send email to 4500+ subscribers, packed with my favorite education-related links. You also get a free digital copies of my books Better Than College and The Art of Self-Directed Learning when you sign up.

These emails are spam-free and I promise to never share your address with third parties, telemarketers, or high-seas pirates.

Latest Blog Posts

You Can’t Ruin Your Kids

Life Update / Spring 2018

Are Teenage Brains Really So Different?

2017 in Review

Tools for Building a Cheap and Meaningful Gap Year

How to Get Stuff Done as a Self-Directed Learner

Career Trajectory Update

What if It All Falls Apart?

Who I Want to Be at Age 35

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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