Beginning in 2011, Rachel Papo spent two years photographing a small number of families living in the Catskills who practice homeschooling. She decided to explore this controversial topic in depth in order to challenge her own prejudgments on the issue. Rather than document the parents and their unique methods, she chose to focus on the children in an attempt to capture their spirit and the meaning of growing up outside the conventional four classroom walls. Papo writes:
With this body of work I hope to encapsulate a cultural movement in a distinct time in history on the cusp of it becoming mainstream. As I continued to photograph these children I was constantly forced to re-examine my initial opinion of this phenomenon and, for a few hours each time, I allowed myself to follow them into their mysterious, magical world.