Libertarians tend to support school choice. But for whom? In the voucher model, parents may choose among various private schooling options for their children and designate their vouchers to the schools they’ve selected.

But what if school itself is a matter of choice? And what does it look like when students and parents choose unstructured learning instead? Is this unconventional choice an option that libertarians should prefer? Perhaps: much about the conventional experience of primary and secondary schooling is the product of bureaucratization and standardization—and much of that comes directly from state involvement in education.

So what is the relationship between libertarian politics and unstructured schooling? How seriously should libertarians take the idea of scrapping school as we know it, and replacing it with child-directed learning?

Our lead essayist this month is education policy writer and unschooling advocate Kerry McDonald, who argues that we should indeed rethink conventional schooling. While each of the respondents is to some degree sympathetic to unstructured learning, the question we’re focusing on this month may still divide them to some degree: Is being open to unstructured learning implicit in the recognition of children’s rights, if only as an option? Joining us to discuss the question will be Corey DeAngelis, Director of School Choice at the Reason Foundation; author and educator Michael Strong; and Professor Kevin Currie-Knight of East Carolina University. Each will write an essay, and conversation will continue through the end of the month. Comments will be open for one month as well, and readers are invited to join the discussion.