Fare of the Free Child

In this episode, author and homeschooling consultant, Zakkiyya Chase, talks about the inspiration and frustrations behind her debut book, No Dream Deferred: Why Black and Latino Families are Choosing Homeschool. We talk about the ways that Self-Directed Education differs from homeschooling, but how the latter can often lead to the former. You won't want to miss the level of detail in which Za...

It's the first episode of Season Two, and Akilah's offering up an overview of the deschooling, unschooling, personal leadership mojo that will anchor this season's episodes. The podcast is expanding to include non-parents and you'll hear why. It's parenting, Self-Directed Education, and Radical Self-Expression all wrapped into one multi-layered format; you'll love it!...

On the season finale, I bring my husband Kris into the mix to discuss the many ways unschooling helps us live out the liberation we've always wanted to experience. We talk about our relationship with each other, our parenting ideas, our mindset when it comes to raising free people, and much more. Show notes available at www.akilahsrichards.com/kris. Support the show Dig this show? Join our ma...

Danielle A. Levine'’s work has been and still is heavily directed by a complex set of realities that damage the lives of many children and families, and most often affect black and brown families more than white families. Danielle and her business partner, William Schmidt set up space (they call it Dida Academy) in Brooklyn, New York to address these complex realities with self-directed educa...

Leslie Bray spent 10 years teaching in the public school system. She now homeschools her three children and co-leads a homeschooling collective with Tywane Owens in Atlanta. Her group includes homeschoolers, unschoolers, and a range of other families who are prioritizing learning on their own terms. Listen as Leslie speaks about our collective responsibility to care for ourselves while standing in...

Navigating the space of being a Doctoral student and a deschooler. ChicanX m/other and social justice advocate, Lane Santa Cruz speaks about defining herself on her own terms and making space for her three children to do the same. Support the show Dig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. Thank you! The Raising Free People...

This is in response to folks' request for suggestions on how to talk to their children about Donald Trump being America's elected president. Support the show Dig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. Thank you! The Raising Free People Practice Card Deck https://schoolishness.com/market/rfp-a-practice-deck/ Peek a...

Kenya Scott is an entrepreneur living between DC and GA with her husband and 10-year-old son, Malcolm. I see her as a mother who saved her black son from being caught up in the medicated student money-making system that pays Big Pharma and justifies treating black boys like non-humans who need medication and harsh punishments.   In Episode 15, Kenya and I talk about the trauma black children face...

Spiritual writing coach Trelani Michelle is an author, mother, and storyteller. In Episode 14, she talks with us about her bestselling book, Women Who Ain't Afraid to Curse When Communicating with God. Women Who Ain’t Afraid to Curse When Communicating with God is for free spirits and old souls who believe in the magic of: me-time ancestral guidance visualization mirror work masturbation chak...

I'm sitting with a dope sister named Tracy this week. She is a nurturer and an outspoken advocate of liberation and love for people of the African diaspora. Listen as she and I discuss mothering black people in a time when the available educational system targets, oppresses, and harms Black children disproportionately. We also talk about being stuck in a "plantation" mindset, and wh...

Anthony Galloway wasn’t willing to be another cog in the system. He’s a smart, twenty-something year old African-American man who chose to go into the field of education. He came up through the system, and learned how to excel in it. He also knew that he wanted to be part of the change in public education that allowed children of color access to the same resources and opportunities as children in...

Darcel White of themahagonyway.com joins us on this episode. She writes about her motherhood journey, and their unschooling lifestyle, including insights on Autism, Asthma, Food Allergies, and her knitting projects. We distill some concrete life lessons that Darcel is learning from raising children, one with autism and some other complications, one who recently decided to attend public school, ano...

Kali Ferguson is a storyteller, culture keeper, and movement-inspired educator based in Charlotte, North Carolina. She believes in movement and storytelling and tools for decolonizing learning and creating space for personalized understanding. Through her in-person and upcoming web-based work, Kali taps into dance and storytelling as a means of self and cultural inquiry as well as a catalyst for s...

Support the show Dig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. Thank you! The Raising Free People Practice Card Deck https://schoolishness.com/market/rfp-a-practice-deck/ Peek at the details of Personal Manifesto Path (will be available exclusively through our make-it-happen family on Patreon) https://www.rfpunschool.com/p/man...

On this episode, business-owner and 16-year unschooling mama, Itiel Mcvay, shares her many insights. Our conversation is really about the clear parallel between how learning happens for entrepreneurs and for children. We also talk about the dangers of traditional schooling and learning how to listen and watch while our children show us exactly who they are and what they need. Support the show Dig...

On episode 7 of Fare of the Free Child, I break bread with Curron Gajadhar- an artist and movement trainer who was based in Atlanta, but now goes wherever his process takes him. We address the fear of what might happen if we don’t control children through religion and rules and physical consequence. And we discuss the fare we pay, both as children and adults, when we use fear instead of self-disco...

Monique Allison is a life coach and single parent. Her son, Pharaoh is a fun-loving, dancing machine and bona fide foodie navigating life while managing sickle cell and a few other chronic illnesses. Monique and Pharaoh have recently embraced school-free living and are both still exploring what life will look like without a focus on school. Monique is excited about this liberated form of living, a...

Marketing specialist and Outdoor Afro leader, Yanira Castro, talks with Akilah about the benefits of a solid marriage, the importance of cultural appreciation as a LatinX mother, a career she loves, and being part of a self-directed learning community through the Agile Learning Center in her Charlotte, North Carolina community. Support the show Dig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patr...

Trelani Michelle is a writer, wife, and mama of two. Her son, CJ, is 10, and her daughter, Kobe, is 6. She is a versed writer who has shed light and offered refreshing perspectives on everything from juvenile detention system to cursing when communicating with God. I’m also sharing space with Trelani Michelle this episode because Trelani is part of a group that is definitely underrepresented in pa...

"Our school is really to empower students to have more ownership over their education. High school is usually this mad dash of checking off boxes to create a great portfolio. Because of that they lack of sense of who they are and how they can add value to the world.  To identify needs in the community, and know how to problem-solve, to organize, and to bring about sustainable change inside th...

"That shift from beloved, all-black schools to white schools where black students were always seen as interlopers, as not really belonging, taught me the difference between education as the practice of freedom and education that merely strives to reinforce domination." -bell hooks   In this episode, we’re breaking the stereotype that unschooling is a white, male, middle-class thing. I’m...

Welcome to Episode One of Fare of the Free Child! If you enjoy what you hear, please help more people find this podcast by rating it on iTunes . Thanks! This week, my co-facilitator is Atlanta based activist, community organizer, and unschooling Mama, Tamika Middleton, who you heard at the beginning of this episode. Tamika addressed the FEAR of children leading themselves, which is precisely what...

This fall, I’m launching a podcast for Black and Brown parents who practice alternative parenting options to the traditional education model that is school. Options like unschooling, worldschooling, roadschooling, slowschooling, eclectic homeschooling, and the myriad other ways that we and our children embrace curiosity-driven, lifelong learning.   The podcast is called Fare of the Free Child, and...