The World Is Our Classroom: Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling

294 Pages·2021·1.754 MB·English

by  Jennie Germann Molz

The World Is Our Classroom
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York
Critical Perspectives on Youth
General Editors: Amy L. Best, Lorena Garcia, and Jessica K. Taf
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Margaret A. Hagerman
Growing Up Queer: Kids and the Remaking of LGBTQ Identity
Mary Robertson
The Kids Are in Charge: Activism and Power in Peru’s Movement of Working
Children
Jessica K. Taf
Coming of Age in Iran: Poverty and the Struggle for Dignity
Manata Hashemi
The World Is Our Classroom: Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling
Jennie Germann Molz
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York
The World Is Our Classroom
Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling
Jennie Germann Molz
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
www.nyupress.org
© 2021 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the
author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or
changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Molz, Jennie Germann, 1969– author.
Title: Te world is our classroom : extreme parenting and the rise of worldschooling /
Jennie Germann Molz.
Description: New York : New York University Press, [2021] |
Series: Critical perspectives on youth | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2020016529 (print) | LCCN 2020016530 (ebook) |
.de ISBN 9781479891689 (cloth ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9781479834075 (paperback ; alk. paper) |
vres ISBN 9781479815128 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479810550 (ebook)
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ir llA Classifcation: LCC LC6681 .M65 2021 (print) | LCC LC6681 (ebook) | DDC 370.116—dc23
.sse LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020016529
rP LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020016530
ytisre New York University Press books are printed on acid- free paper, and their binding materials
vinU are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli-
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York
To my mom and dad, who frst showed me the world
and taught me how to pack light
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction: Welcome to Worldschooling 1
Poolside 31
1. Spark and Fidget: Alternative Education for the Mobile Class 35
Hackschooling 65
2. Hack and Disrupt: Making Mobile Lifestyles 67
Arcade 93
3. Fear and Joy: Adventures in Extreme Parenting 97
Homesick- ish 129
4. Rebel and Tribe: Life Politics in a Mobile Community 133
Global American Dream 163
5. Home and World: Feeling Global in Uncertain Times 168
6. Privilege and Precarity: Raising Future- Proof Kids 199
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.sse Appendix A. Methodology: Mobile Virtual Ethnography 231
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York
Preface
I had been studying long-t erm backpackers for many years before I
first ran across a family with school-a ged children backpacking around
the world together. It was 2009 and I was doing research for a book on
travel and technology when I encountered Craig, a middle-c lass father
from the Washington, DC area who was blogging about his year- long
round- the- world journey with his wife, their eleven- year-o ld son, and
their thirteen- year- old daughter. Up to that point, most of the travelers
I had followed and interviewed in my research were in their twenties or
thirties, young singles or couples who were taking time to see the world
before settling down with a job, kids, and a mortgage.
Te very phrase “settling down” captures a deeply held, but not neces-
sarily accurate, assumption that family life takes place in place. Despite
the vast amount of evidence to the contrary, we generally imagine mod-
ern families to be geographically anchored in homes, neighborhoods,
and communities. Tere are exceptions, of course. Military families, dip-
lomats and missionaries, corporate expat families and new age hippies,
families whose survival requires seasonal or forced migration. But we
tend to consider these movements as a sacrifce, an exception, or a tem-
porary disruption to the otherwise stable nature of family life. Craig’s
.de family, and the many worldschooling families I met while conducting
vre
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r sth journeys are not a last hurrah before settling into a geographically con-
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.sse from everyday life. Tese families are living every part of their lives on
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vin When I met Craig, I knew immediately that I wanted to study fami-
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Molz, Jennie Germann. The World Is Our Classroom : Extreme Parenting and the Rise of Worldschooling, New York