Fare of the Free Child

We're talking about healing work this week! Sonia Fernandez LeBlanc was already on Episode 42 talking about getting free and taking her daughters, and the families in her Nashville community, along for their own versions of freedom. Now, Nashville Sudbury School is open, and the work has evolved. In this episode, Sonia and I talk about the ways that liberation work (through unschooling) can b...

As an American African, part of Moji's deschooling journey has been unlearning and pointing out white supremacy in all it's hidden forms.   In this episode Moji uses bits of the book "The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses" to emphasize the need to disrupt supremacy and colonization in gender activism and activism in general.  Moji asserts...

Sometimes, it's okay not to be okay. This week's letter of support for people raising free people offers that reminder, plus some tools for standing in that truth. Plus, an important story about pushing past discomfort so you can make participate in the type of change you want to see in the world. Support the show Dig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to mak...

Episode 94 is the 3rd takeover of Wellness Spiral with Moji Yai plus support letter # 4. Wellness Spiral: This is Elena's second pregnancy, her first was 22 years ago when she gave birth to beautiful twins! Elena and I discuss the differences so far between her pregnancies, why she decided not to join childbirth education classes, how intuition and knowledge of her body helped her through str...

"It’s not on you to prove that homeschooling works." I agree with Julie Bogart for sure...BUT, as much as I would love for all of us to be able to be all, 'Aye, this what I’m doing for and with my family, and if you nuh like it you can gweh!' It’s not always that cut and dry. We can’t always do that, for one main and major reason; today’s letter of support is centered on the pe...

Support letter #2 is here! Plus, a beautiful sentiment from a new mother, based in PG County with roots in DC. She (Najai Knox) started Deschooling DC as a means to resolve the issues that school causes and perpetuates, particularly for Black children. Listen to Najai's story--her why and what--and email her to encourage our support the movement toward liberated living and learning for DC&apo...

Letters of support for people raising free people, meaning unschoolers and other folks in Self-Directed Education. Also, we're share our first deschooling sighting courtesy of Moji Yai. Her keen observation of Ralph Angel from Queen Sugar is a simple reminder of the ways schooling can be toxic. Plus, we're bringing up the ways that rhythm plays a vital role in emergent structure. Support...

This episode tells you what to expect for the next 9 episodes of Fare of the Free Child podcast. Letters of support for various aspects of the raising free people journey, a celebration countdown to episode 100, space for me to finish our book (yes, our book!), and a long-awaiting break in preparation for season 4! Support the show Dig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akila...

In our efforts to change our parenting and learning practices to reflect our opinions about equity and liberation, we need more than Aha moments. We need resources, training, a sense of community to grow into/with. The Agile Learning Facilitators summer training (#ALFSummer18) is one of the spaces where these resources and training and community-emerging can happen. Hear about this from Marley, ou...

This episode includes some of the experiences of other families exploring Self-Directed Education. From a veteran teacher turned Self-Directed Education advocate, to frustrations with ageism, to fundraisers for love-centered t-shirts, we're talking about the ways people are raising free people. Support the show Dig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure w...

What do you know about black maternal mortality rates? Listen in to get insights on the issues black women face during pregnancy and the birthing process. In Episode 2 of Moji's Wellness Spiral series, her guest, Kimberly Staton, shares her pregnancy and birth experience as a black woman whose weight made her pregnancy high risk and how that experience led to see and shed some cultural ideas...

Alicia Lucas and her husband have five children. They used to say they have four daughters and one son, but they’re learning to practice a different narrative. Today, Alicia and her husband tell people they have three daughters, one son, and a child named Roxanne. Roxanne is their 8-year-old, gender-fluid child whose personal pronoun is “They.” Roxanne’s brother is 12 and identifies as bisexual. T...

In Episode 2 of Monique's self-care, motherhood, and adulting podcast, Surviving Survival Mode, she talks about the feelings that kept her stuck in the very space she wanted to emerge out of. She also shares the "not enough" mindset that showed up, what helped her create a shift and how journaling played a major role in that process toward self-acceptance and learning to tap into th...

In Tuscon, Arizona, there are several families, many of whom are of Mexican descent, are seeing the ways Self-Directed Education supports a mindset of decolonizing education and returning to community and culture. This episode is a recap of an event for BIPOC using unschooling and other forms of self-directed studies to liberate themselves from oppressive systems. The event was organized by Lane S...

In episode 1 of Wellness Spiral with Moji Yai, we’re talking about disrupting eating habits and decolonizing food activism. Thanks to the candor of Moji’s guest, Christine Pierrelys, you’ll hear about one woman’s ongoing journey with cultivating a healthy personal and spiritual relationship with food. They’ll also touch on how routine work schedules can affect our sense of self-worth and our energ...

Ever wondered how the story of a single mom traveling abroad starts out? Here's one: Put your kid in public school, you fight through the fight, and you build your life around the best school district you can afford. And you find a good job to help you fund this life. But one day your son comes home and says, “Can you please put me in a school where they get me?” A year later, you’re on an un...

Here's how a Newark-area (New Jersey) community that prioritizes Self-Directed Education, but wants to include families of color in all stages of their educational journey decided to word their invitation for unschoolers, homeschoolers, and people somewhere in between: “Homeschoolers Of Color Collective is a group of families seeking to embody the principles of Ujima (collective work and resp...

Unschooling is a way of life that is based on freedom, respect, and autonomy.   In essence, unschooling is a child-trusting, anti-oppressive, liberatory, love-centered approach to parenting and care-giving, so not just for parents, but also for educators and other people who help to raise your child.  Unschoolers like to say that learning is a byproduct of living, and not a separate thing from liv...

Daritcia Rivera talks about living on her home island of Puerto Rico while navigating education, politics, and personal beliefs. She is deschooling from her old ideas, learning about the history of her island, and embracing being Black and self-directed. In this short segment, she talks about International Worker's Day (May Day) and its connection to our need to embrace deschooling.  Support...

In Part One, Emerging Out of Survival Mode, single mother, entrepreneur, and Self-Directed Education advocate, Monique Allison, talks about pain, shame, adulting, and learning that surviving just isn't enough. She'll introduce her listeners to the change-up process, an agile learning tool used in many self-directed learning collaborative spaces. Plus, she'll talk about taking change...

Sometimes my daughters need to see me in my impatient space. Sometimes I can’t plead for their understanding — I have to inspire that shit through raw emotion and honest, unfiltered, non-violent expression. That’s my truth. The reality is that any person I love, including my daughters, can deeply hurt my feelings. Does this mean that I hold my daughters to the same level of emotional accountabilit...

In this episode, we'll talk about the importance of recognizing the connection between unschooling and spirituality. When we see how the practice of raising free people is changing our perspectives and our habits, it might be time to revisit the personal leadership practices that were aligned with the not-true you. Mad question askin' along with simple spiritual practices can make your c...

Don't let these skewed media images have you out here thinking Self-Directed Education is only for white people! It isn't; it's for any and everybody who wants it, and Chantrisse Parks, a black, self-directed young person, is one example of the varying faces of self-directed studies. Chantrisse is a brilliant example of that young, gifted, and Black energy that has been disrupting b...

Basically, when we say we’re raising free people, we’ve decided that respect and love, not fear and control, will be how we raise and regard the youngest members of our homes and our society.  Calling it “raising free people work, or rfp work” is our way of acknowledging that this IS work, and that there ARE tools and people and books and events and public groups and private groups to support this...

When Louvenia Wilkerson became a widow at 40 years old, grief and motherhood intersected in deeply difficult ways. The mother of three began a journey that caused her to question everything. Those questions led her to take her big pause from homeschooling, from entrepreneurship, and everything she identified with, including religion. Five years later, Lou and her children have happily transitioned...