Joyful Learning: How to Find Freedom, Happiness, and Success Beyond Conventional Schooling

McDonald (Unschooled), a school reform advocate, cheerleads microschools in this upbeat survey. Intending her narrative to serve as a guidebook for school-hunting parents as well as “education entrepreneurs,” McDonald presents strategies gleaned from her profile subjects, including New Jerseyan Jill Perez, who homeschooled her four children during Covid by joining “pods” with other families. The model the parent group created—with “abundant outside time before focusing on academic content”—attracted neighborhood interest, and led to Perez starting a microschool grounded in a similar approach. McDonald dispenses advice for entrepreneurs about how to run a profitable microschool, which is no small feat given the intentionally low enrollment; the key, she says, is to franchise. For parents, she also notes that startup microschools are generally cheaper than more established “unconventional” brands like Montessori. Though the project being advocated here can come off a bit like upper-class secessionism, some of McDonald’s anecdotes offer hope even to the hoi polloi—when one Arizona public school allowed a franchised microschool to operate on its premises, it gave the public school kids a taste of a small classroom experience (just 10 students instead of the normal 30) that was so positive some reported having their entire approach to school shift for the better. This offers rich pedagogical insights, even for educators dead set against privatization. (Aug.)