When families come to me wanting to leave traditional school and “come to the dark side,” my first bit of advice is almost always to do a deschooling period, and I am almost always met with confusion and worry. Unstructured time? Won’t they fall behind? What do mean do nothing? For how long? But, won’t they fall behind? Before we get into what deschooling is, I think it’s important first to discuss why it’s necessary. Why should I Deschool? Traditional education models, inclu