This paper applies Lauren Bialystok's conception of authenticity to place-based education, specifically to analyze the idea of an authentic sense of place. The author summarizes Bialystok's authenticity and then provides an overview of place and authentic sense of place as proposed by Edward Relph. Then, combining these, place-based education through this lens of authenticity with the aim of showing how aspiring for an authentic sense of place falls short of the aims of place-based education and leads to paradoxical results is examined. The author then considers concrete examples of place-based education with respect to this analysis and makes recommendations for future theorizing.