About this Event
About The Book:
Inside the quiet revolution reshaping how American children learn.
In the wake of the pandemic, millions of American families have made a quiet but consequential decision: to leave traditional schools behind. In School's Out, education journalist and online-learning pioneer Mickey Revenaugh takes readers inside the rapidly expanding world of unconventional education.
From homeschooling and virtual public schools to microschools, from hybrid programs to roadschooling, Revenaugh traces the many paths parents are choosing for their children — and the deeply personal reasons behind them. Each chapter centers on families navigating questions of safety, identity, flexibility, and belonging, revealing a movement far more diverse and complex than common stereotypes suggest. The book introduces readers to Black homeschool collectives in the South, neurodiverse learners thriving online, families wrestling with ideological divides, and parents seeking refuge from bullying, rigid curricula, or institutional mistrust. Rather than advocating a single solution, Revenaugh presents these stories as windows into a broader transformation of American education — one accelerated by technology, remote work, and shifting expectations about how children learn best.
School's Out explores both the promise and the risks of this educational shift. As personalization increases, so do concerns about isolation, equity, and community. Revenaugh argues that the future of education will depend on how well families and institutions balance flexibility with connection, and offers a clear-eyed look at an educational landscape being reshaped in real time.
About The Author:
Mickey Revenaugh is an education innovator, thought-leader, and journalist. She is the co-founder of Connections Academy, a groundbreaking K-12 online school provider that launched in 2001 and now serves more than 110,000 virtual school students worldwide as part of Pearson. Before her retirement at the end of 2022, Mickey focused on bringing emerging education opportunities such as Harrow School Online and Pearson Online Academy to families around the globe. Previously, Mickey helped launch the E-rate to connect every American school to the Internet, covered edtech and online learning for leading education publications, and served as editorial director of professional magazines at Scholastic. Mickey currently serves as Board Chair of Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School, winner of the $10M prize for innovative school design from XQ Institute, and also chairs the non-profit boards of Yellow Arrow Publishing and the Barbara J. Dreyer Cares Foundation.
Mickey earned a dual-genre MFA from Bennington College in 2017, and her creative nonfiction and fiction work has since appeared in publications as diverse as Chautauqua, LA Review of Books, and VICE. Mickey also holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from New York University. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her website is www.mickeyrevenaugh.com, and you can find her on Instagram, X, and Threads @mickeyrevenaugh.
Event venue & nearby stays
First Baptist Church of Decatur, 308 Clairemont Avenue, Decatur, United States
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