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Schools Don’t Just Fail to Develop Critical Thinkers. They Punish Them.
The evidence has been accumulating for decades. Your child’s curiosity didn’t disappear by accident.
20 hrs ago
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Katy Purviance
23
3
7
"I stay up at night wondering if keeping my kid in school is the decision I’ll regret most."
What parents call anxiety, school refusal, and a lost spark might be something simpler: your child telling you the truth.
May 7
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Katy Purviance
24
11
4
Why You Feel Like You’re Never Enough: How Schools Taught You to Measure Your Worth by What You Produce
The perfectionism, the workaholism, the persistent feeling that you're never quite enough. It wasn't a personal failing. It was the curriculum.
May 5
•
Katy Purviance
25
2
5
April 2026
School: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
The School Decision Is Harder Than It Should Be. Find out Why, and What to Do About It, in this Substack Live conversation with Katy Purviance & Haide…
Apr 30
•
Katy Purviance
and
Haide Wall Giesbrecht
6
3
1
1:09:12
What Happens When Children Make the Rules: Self-Governance in a Self-Directed Learning Community
The moment a child realizes his voice actually changes things.
Apr 28
•
Katy Purviance
9
3
School Called Them Troublemakers. I Call Them Leaders.
What conventional school calls a behavior problem, the rest of the world calls a person who refuses to be treated badly. There is a difference worth…
Apr 23
•
Katy Purviance
14
6
6
What Self-Directed Education Looks Like on the Very First Day
Ten kids, a talking rock named Dwayne Johnson, a tiny frog, and a mom who carried a child she had just met. This is what it looks like when learning…
Apr 21
•
Katy Purviance
9
1
We Built the School We Always Wanted
Inside Washington’s Only Outdoor Self-Directed Education Center, and Why the Parents Who Visit Sometimes Leave in Tears
Apr 16
•
Katy Purviance
11
7
2
Live with Katy Purviance & Haide Wall Giesbrecht: Unconventional Learning - Unschooling, & More
A conversation between a therapist-turned-homeschool-mom and the founder of Washington State's only outdoor self-directed education center — and it got…
Apr 12
•
Katy Purviance
and
Haide Wall Giesbrecht
4
2
1:11:58
Schools Don't Know How to Develop Their Most Creative Students
You were the child who made adults lean forward in their chairs. They called it potential. What they meant, without knowing it, was: we see something…
Apr 9
•
Katy Purviance
10
3
3
Should I Pull My Kid From School? You Already Know the Answer
The morning meltdowns, the empty promises, the child who stopped being themselves. This is for the parent who is done pretending everything is fine.
Apr 7
•
Katy Purviance
18
4
3
March 2026
She Wrote My Name on the Board. I Thought It Was an Honor.
What second-grade detention taught me about why children shut down in school, and how they come back to life when we stop correcting their growth.
Mar 31
•
Katy Purviance
14
5
2
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