Podcasts about raising free people

What if deschooling wasn't just about learning? What if it was also about grief, ritual, and honoring the life that unfolds when we stop trying to control it?In this powerful conversation, we sit down with Akilah S. Richards - author of Raising Free People and longtime voice of liberation in learning and living. Akilah shares how her journey has moved beyond deschooling, into the work of tending grief, slowing down, and trusting what life is calling us toward.We explore: - Why grief and liberation are inseparable- How to compost the past instead of dragging it- Ritual as resistance to urgency- What it means to stop designing life and start following itThis episode is an invitation - to presence, to possibility, and to the courage of not knowing.Tune in now, and check out Akilah's new podcast What I Let Die @ www.radicalselfie.org.You can also find and support Akilah's work at:www.raisingfreepeople.com

Akilah S. Richards guides us through her transformative journey, highlighting the significance of unschooling seen from a Black perspective.We navigate the challenges faced in the unschooling journey, especially within the context of Black families. Akilah underscores the importance of nurturing creativity, autonomy, and play in education and how these elements are critical in fostering a liberated and holistic learning environment.In 2016, Akilah published the first episode of Fare of the Free Child, a podcast for anyone considering parenting and leadership from a liberation lens. The podcast focuses on Black people, Native|Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC) families who practice unschooling and other forms of self-directed, decolonization-minded living and learning. Akilah also gave a TEDx talk on Raising Free People, sharing the now widely-celebrated philosophy, “We can't keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free people.”  In 2020, she released her book 'Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work.'Join us as we delve into this enlightening discussion with Akilah S. Richards, exploring the impactful and healing world of unschooling from a Black perspective.

I really enjoyed exploring unschooling, deschooling, freedom, and liberation with Akilah Richards, host of the Fare the Free Child podcast and author of the book Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work.I reached out to Akilah after seeing her TED talk, which led me to her book, and then her podcast, and I knew I wanted to invite her to join me in conversation. A recurring theme in this podcast, and in Tilt, is doing our own inner work as parents, and I love how Akilah talks about relating our own reparenting to freedom, decolonization, and liberation.Akilah shares her personal story of going from traditional schooling to unschooling to deschooling, and how she and her husband came to consider the idea of raising free people, what that means, and how they've navigated the realities of making unconventional choices that can sometimes make other people uncomfortable. She also shares how they think about the success and what a fulfilled life looks like for her family, as well as how her work aimed at decolonizing parenting has resonated with people worldwide.About my guest:Akilah S. Richards is passionate about mindful partnerships and decolonizing parenting. She uses audio and written mediums to amplify the ways that unschooling in particular, is serving as healing grounds and liberation work for Black, non-Black Indigenous, and People of Color communities earthwide. Her celebrated unschooling podcast, Fare of the Free Child, and the numerous workshops and gatherings she has been part of, have garnered the attention of Forbes Magazine, The New York Times, Good Morning America, and most importantly, BIPOC families interested or living in more healthy, consent-based, intergenerational relationships. Her recent experiences within the intersection of privilege, parenting,and power are detailed in her latest book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work.You'll learn:What it means to be raising a “free child” and why it can be a threatening or uncomfortable concept for many peopleWhat “mad question asking” is and how parents can use it to get unstuckHow unschooling is tied to decolonizationWhat “deschooling” is versus “homeschooling” and “unschooling”What “confident autonomy” is and why Akilah considers that a hallmark of “success” in her childrenHow Akilah and her partner dealt with the barriers (social, cultural, and more) when they chose the unschooling path for their familyWhat a “savor complex” is and how it can transform the family experienceResources mentioned:Akilah Richard's websiteRaising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work by Akilah RichardsFare of the Free People PodcastAkilah's website SchoolishnessAkilah's coaching offeringsSavor ComplexAkilah Richard TEDx Asbury Park TalkShawna Murray BrowneSupport the showConnect with Tilt Parenting Visit Tilt Parenting Take the free 7-Day Challenge Read a chapter of Differently Wired Follow Tilt on Twitter & Instagram

There hasn't been a time when learning wasn't important to Black people, whether for enrichment or survival. Unfortunately, white supremacy has corrupted information and spread it through an anti-Black school system. Solutions exist, though, and one solution on the rise is unschooling young black people. Today's guest is a leading voice in the unschooling movement. Akilah S. Richards is a mother, author, educator, and founder of Raising Free People, a network committed to community organizing at the intersection of privilege, parenting, and power. For more information on her consciousness-building work and on raising liberated people, visit RaisingFreePeople.com. BHY is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company - hit us up at BlackHistoryYear.com and share this with your people! PushBlack exists because we saw we had to take this into our own hands. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com​. Most people do 5 or 10 bucks a month, but everything makes a difference. Thanks for supporting the work. The Black History Year production team includes Tareq Alani, Brooke Brown, Tasha Taylor, and Lilly Workneh. Our producers are Cydney Smith, Len Webb for PushBlack, and Ronald Younger, who also edits the show. Black History Year's executive producers are Mikel Elcessor for Limina House and Julian Walker for PushBlack. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I loved my conversation with Akilah S. Richards and walked away with a much deeper understanding of the value of unschooling in America. Conventional schooling is deeply rooted in colonization, industrial progress, and control over our personal autonomy. Akilah is passionate about mindful partnerships and parenting. Since 2016 she has hosted Fare of the Free Child, a lifestyle and parenting podcast about the connection between liberation, learning, and parenting, particularly among Black, Non-Black Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Parents, educators, unschoolers, and entrepreneurs tune in weekly to connect about unschooling, deschooling, conscious parenting, and self-directedness. Discussions center around emotional wellness, learning and children, parenting, self-care, and self-love. The voice and work of this Jamaican-born, digital nomad have been featured on NPR, Forbes, NBC TV, Good Morning America's blog, and in several literary and in-person spaces throughout the U.S., Jamaica, and South Africa. The TEDx Speaker, digital content writer, and facilitator's highly-anticipated book Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work (PM Press), will be released in the Fall of 2020. “We can't keep using tools of oppression and raise free people.” -Akilah Richards Unschooling is a life design choice but it's also deeply linked to liberation and the idea of raising free people. Akilah's children, Marley and Sage, had a consistent level of pushback when attending conventional school and at one point, Akilah and her partner Chris started to listen to what their children were saying. While the girls were accelerating academically, they were shrinking emotionally. They had stopped asking questions, which is a very “schoolish” thing. Akilah and Chris wanted their children to have agency and autonomy and the journey has revealed a tremendous tie into the work of liberation. Unschooling started as an experiment based on what Akilah and Chris knew was not working. This began a process of “mad question asking.” The way of the world is schooling - is our job as parents to acclimate our children to that? The idea of unschooling is to help your child create a trustful relationship to learning. The American Dream seems deeply entrenched in this idea of conventional education as the only way. Unschooling started as an experiment based on what Akilah and Chris knew was not working. When they left conventional education they discovered that there were many rewards - many freedoms with travel and finances that they had not previously recognized or been able to take advantage of. A lot of what we see as educational issues are really issues of human relationships. Unschooling creates an environment to question and unlearn. Questions are the path. Mad question asking brings us inward into the feminine - how do you want to feel? In our school system, children are rewarded when they comply. Parents worry about socialization, but socialization happens everywhere but school. All people are indoctrinated into the “system,” but when you walk around in a Black body there is another level of suppression of your personhood which is why creating safe environments for BIPOC children to learn and develop confident autonomy is so important. Unschooling isn't just for rich people. The pandemic is offering us opportunities and parents are noticing a positive shift in their children. Covid is an opportunity to create a new normal in many ways including our relationship to education. Liberation comes with responsibility and accountability. It is time to decolonize our ideas of learning “The resistance is the roadmap, not a route to something else.”

in this conversation with Akilah Richards, we just feel our way through 5 different phrases. episodes of this podcast are never scripted, but this one is particularly vulnerable and off the cuff. i am so grateful for the time and space shared, and hope this conversation will help folks get a sense of what Akilah means when she talks about Raising Free People via unschooling and what our responsibilities are to the people around us. Connect with me- Theunschoolfiles.com @theunschoolfiles on Instagram drop a me a coffee or buy someone a zine on Venmo @iamsilenth -Subscribe to the UNSCHOOL FILES ZINE! https://www.patreon.com/theunschoolfiles Akilah's podcast Fare of the free Child Podcast ​​https://soundcloud.com/radicalselfie/sets/fare-of-the-free-child Akilah's Website https://raisingfreepeople.com Please become a patron of Akilah's! https://www.patreon.com/akilah Akilah's writing for Everyday Feminism https://everydayfeminism.com/author/akilahr/

Shawn is joined by Pearson from Coffee With Comrades to have a discussion inspired by two books: Escape from Childhood by John C Holt, and Raising Free People by Akilah S. Richards....

Shawn of Srsly Wrong joins me for a discussion inspired by two books: Escape from Childhood by John C. Holt, and Raising Free People by Akilah S. Richards.  In our expansive dialogue, we talk about climate anxiety, raising kids, studenthood, the abolition of family, and the process of teaching yourself how to treat children with respect. Support Srsly Wrong on Patreon, follow them on Twitter and Instagram, and visit their website. Support Coffee with Comrades on Patreon, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and Mastadon, and visit our website. Pick up a Coffee with Comrades shirt or coffee mug at our official merch store. Coffee with Comrades is a proud member of the Channel Zero Network. Coffee with Comrades is an affiliate of the Firestorm Books & Café. Check out our reading recommendations! Our logo was designed by Nathanael Whale.

Peace, #fofcpod fam! This week we're still focused on the letter U for understanding as part of our P.A.U.S.E.werk. Domari (of Positive and Purposeful Parenting) and Akilah hosted the listening party, and Jonie, Reese, Ana Maria, and Erica joined live to share and hear feedback and touchpoints. Together, they reflected and inquired about our relationship with understanding, how autonomy and trust are intertwined, the many layers around discomfort, compassion, trust, and then some.Let's agree to disagreeOur two hosts reflect on what they've been noticing around their relationships and pause work, on the importance of taking the space to go through certain feelings, crying, for example, as a liberation practice. As our hosts speak and share their stories, pausing and understanding emerge as key components in the trust work that builds up community and healthy partnership.Check some of the offerings the listeners gave us during this Listening Party Live Chat“In my family, disagreement equals disrespect.” - Erica“For me, I've been working on shedding the belief that needing to be understood equals being loved. I think I've tried so hard to get the members of my family to understand me when I think what I was really looking for was compassion, and not actually needing to be understood.” - Ana Maria“I'm feeling into understanding so much more as a verb, it's not a set destination, it's movement, it shifts, morphs and transforms.” - JonieCareese shares some thoughts about Ieishah's reflection on gentle parenting as a privilege. If you missed the previous episode you can replay it here Episode. 249: U for Understanding and get more details.Then Akilah pulls a card from the Raising Free People practice deck:AUTONOMY:Take up space, let them take up space too, practice allowing yourself and them to take up space, work it until it invites boundaries that work.Remember that the Raising Free People Card Deck is available now, click here to order it.Next week we will be talking about the S in P.A.U.S.E. for sorting or shedding, we will reflect on what's good for your family and what might need releasing or re-imagining?LIBERATION WALKWe love feedback, so don't be shy and share some thoughts by pressing that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side or email Akilah and speak up about today's revelations she@raisingfreepeople.comSubscribe to Akilah's Youtube ChannelGive us some feedback about this episode, reflect inside FOFC Village, or directly in our Make It Happen Family on PatreonSupport the show

Welcome #fofcpod fam! This episode is the continuation of our Listening Party Replay around the letter A (for Absences) in PAUSE. We'll be inquiring more about what's missing, understanding, compassion, and boundaries as we navigate through the ups and downs that may arise from this PAUSEwerk. Domari of Positive and Purposeful Parenting is in da house along with Ana Maria, Lou, Antoinette, and Joni who joined us in the Live Chat. Let's get into it!Domari named some of the things she has been noticing around her relationship with her children. The words that resonated the most for her were compassion and trust. She reflects on what compassion looks like for her and also questions the misconception around what productivity means, and how sometimes she had struggled by feeling bad and unproductive for resting, being “lazy”.Boundaries do not require understandingOur hosts chat about boundaries and the layers around them. Akilah mentions the struggles we might face with different parts of ourselves: the compassionate self (intuitive) vs the schoolish self, and mentioned the patois that needs to be created to hold our intentions, the other person's intentions, and the thing we're looking to create.Akilah also shares the importance of trustwork, seeing relationships not as transactional/productive but as connections, as in what we notice together and what our healing work looks like.This week's pull from the Raising Free People practice deck revealed the Layer card (same card from the last pull):Layer: If I can access grace in this moment, I may choose to offer it in honor of all the many layers that comprise this person I love. And if I do, might that be enough for me, for now?Next week we'll be having a deep conversation about U for understanding, but for now, Madd Question Askin' time:How can I check in with children about what they feel they need from me?What's being communicated in this moment?Which layer am I focusing on right now?Which layer feels present?LIBERATION WALKGive us some feedback about this episode, reflect inside FOFC Village, or directly in our Make It Happen Family on PatreonShare some thoughts and press that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side or email Akilah and think about what feels missing? at she@raisingfreepeople.comSubscribe to Akilah's Youtube ChannelSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This week on #fofcpod we're serving insightful thoughts, feedback, and resources based on our current PAUSEwerk flow.The letter of the week is P, for Pain Points: What's the matter? What took you here? What things feel like pain, discomfort, uncertainty? What is coming up for you and for the people that you're closest to right now?This episode is our first Listening Party, the space where we focus on your feedback about an aspect of pausing, as well as our own insights and struggles.Akilah and Domari continue unraveling the layers of perfection vs pleasure: they speak about Black Excellence and the pressure of feeling that all that you do is never enough.Can pause be a privilege?“The more success I feel, the harder it is for me to accept that I can pause.” - Akilah“I don't like that. I'm not like that”. - DomariIn this episode, you'll notice that we're just getting the hang of the tech for this new format—but you'll still get a feel for what these listening parties are about!Every other Monday, we'll be at it again, so join Domari and Akilah as live audience members (no video necessary)!The next Listening Party is Monday, April 18th at 1 PM Eastern.We LOVE feedbackWe listened to Zeba Savage from Savage Learning Environment who brought up the importance of pausing, and the pressure of being perfect. Then, our homie, Vanessa Molano, shared their thoughts from one of the cards that Domari pulled from the Raising Free People practice decks (the Layers card), and pointed out their experiences with boundaries and grace. Raising Free People Card Deck is available now, click here to order it.These comments are gems in the work we do, so thank you for contributing to this ecology that moves us away from tools of oppression and towards our personal healing journeys.More ResourcesDr. Sundiata teamed up with Maryella Marie and Tomis Parker, two other SDE-minded facilitators, to create an amazing offering: The live virtual training, “Co-creating a Thriving Family Culture.” This will take place on the weekend of April 23 to the 24. They're offering tools that will help you on being intentional about learning new skills and processes to make decisions and resolve conflicts in peaceful and collaborative ways.Liberation WALKHere are a couple of gems to take your time and think about:“If I pause, who is going to fill the space left by all of the people who told us how to be in the world?”“Can I afford to pause?”Give us some feedback about this episode, reflect inside FOFC Village, or directly in our Make It Happen Family on Patreon.Speak up and press that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side or email Akilah to share some thoughts about what pausework is bringing up for you and your family.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

It's storytime #fofcpod fam and we‘re so excited to continue with this 70-day PAUSE journey along with the amazing Domari Dickinson of Positive and Purposeful Parenting.Ep 245 is live! We're listening and taking a look at the skills that are happening in between the defined things. In this episode in particular, we are observing the ways we react to our pain points, so breathe in, breathe out, pull out your pause pad, take some notes, and let's play together! Remember that we're in the process of noticing what sometimes can't be easily named nor understood, so try to feel into the experiences that you have with these questions, without expectations, without judgment, only your attention.**Use this link to join our live audience (no video, just chat, unless you ask to join us on air in the chat) on Monday, April 4th at 2PM Eastern.** These every-other-weekly listening parties are where Domari and Akilah invite you to play and struggle through specific aspects of pausewerk with them, real time. Listen to Episode 244:There is Real Power in the Pause tho! to hear details on the flow of this season's 70-day pausewerk focus.Today is P day and we'll work through all the pain points: What's the matter? What took you here? What things feel like pain, discomfort, uncertainty? What is coming up for you and for the people that you're closest to right now?”Domari pulled a card from the Raising Free People practice deck.Layers: If I could access grace in this moment, I may choose to offer it in honor of all the many layers that comprise this person I love. And if I do, might that be enough for me, for now?The Raising Free People Card Deck is available now, click here to order it.“What would change in my life if I chose to pursue pleasure instead of perfection? - DomariDomari shares her experience with her children on how they respond when a conflict appears. Akilah talks about the struggles and worries that may show up for parents around how and whether learning is happening, and how pausing can offer the space we often need to learn how to recognize and trust learning.“I've now started to look at my children's resistance as one of their gifts. One of the things that society—which I am part of—didn't pry out of their hands.” - AkilahAkilah speaks about Marley and Sage's approaches to resolving conflicts, and how much she is learning from their approaches. Both hosts also speak about the nuances of the term “readiness,” and the role of resistance as a powerful gift in our efforts to raise free people.Throughout Akilah and Domari's convo there are 10 points of Madd Question Askin' energy for you to get into:What brings you pleasure?What does pleasure look and feel like to you?How would you define pleasure for you right now? Is it fluid? Does it need to be static?What is pleasure connected to in terms of how I feel I am viewed or perceived?How does that impact my idea of pleasure?What is pleasure connected to in terms of how I feel I am viewed or perceived or who's looking at me or who I perform for?What's hurting me? What's hurting them?”How do I accept now that they are ready?What does it mean for me to take the space to think about what readiness feels like? And how do I begin now to prepare myself?Check out our full show notes at https://www.raisingfreepeople.com/245/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Season 8 is here and we are kickin' it with the homie, Domari Dickinson of Positive and Purposeful Parenting. She is our co-producer for the season, and we're in alignment about the need to spend all season on the importance of slowing down, and pausing.We've got invitations, resources, and some songs too! We are so grateful to you all #fofcpod fam and Make it Happen family for your love and connection throughout this journey. Our team got some rest, and we're back with this focus, so we hope y'all ready to get and do this PAUSEcast werk!If you want to get familiar (or re-familiar) with Domari's dopeness, listen to Episode 185: Parenting Paradigm Shifts in Black Families.Here's what to expect this season...We are working on being more mindful about the ways we show up for ourselves. So this season, we invite your consent to show up as you are, slow down, and feel into the ups and downs of this 70-day pause journey.Starting next week, each letter in PAUSE will get our full attention with two episodes each: - the first episode will bring you into the work with a story, a song, or a skit; the second episode will be live, and we'll invite you to play and struggle through that aspect of pause.Acronym:P is for Pain Points: What's the matter? What took you here? What's hurting them? What's coming up for you and your relationship with yourself or your family?A is for absences: What's missing? What feels lost or otherwise missing from your relevant relationships?U is for understanding: dialogue as a practice; conscious parenting; how have you been operating as a parent or educator? Under what premises?S for sorting or shedding: What's good for your family and what might need releasing or re-imagining?E for exploration: what are some resources you can tap into, based on where you are right now?Then we'll keep that going until we feel all the way through P-A-U-S-E. Through this game, Akilah and Domari will engage you beyond the moment to feel the PAUSE as an experience. So make some tea, pull out your dedicated pause pad, and join us for a 70-day journey of affirmations and reflections in the ecology of Raising Free People. Do you want to play with us?Season's 8 flow - Raising Free People Card DeckAkilah pulled a card from the Raising Free People practice decks:AUTONOMY: Take up space, let them take up space too, practice allowing yourself and them to take up space. Work it until it invites boundaries that work.The set of Raising Free People Card Deck is available now, click here to order it.Season Witnesses: We are working together to offer bridgework for folks in the philanthropic world.What is a witness? Our witnesses want to be part of the Unschooling Liberation movement by investing dollars and time with Akilah. Some witnesses give general-use funds, while others want to take care of something specific for us. For them, dollars are not an issue. They want to support the work and be part of the movement and its impact. Akilah speaks about the 100-day project for witnesses that will begin in summer. Shout out to Hill Larson who is our witness this season. We'll be speaking more about that in our Make it Happen family in the coming weeks.Check out the full Show Notes page at http://www.raisingfreepeople.com/244/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Annie and Candis take a closer look through the lens of Akilah Richards' definition of deschooling: "shedding the programming and habits that resulted from other people's agency over our time, body, thoughts, and actions." They discuss what it really means to stop behaving in the ways society wants you to behave in when you throw away the framework of school. Find more from Akilah through her podcast, Fare of the Free Child, and her book titled Raising Free People. 

Ending season 7 with gratitude, reminders, and major writing mojoClosing out season seven with major gratitude for you, #fofcpod fam! Your feedback and encouragement have been part of an active listening practice that opens up our mindset to different possibilities as we grow this village of/for people raising and being free people. This episode brings us some resources, reminders, and clues of what's to come in season eight. See you in a few months!Here are the Season 7 series in case you missed any episodes:Fare of the Free (Man) Child series: Co-produced with Tony Galloway's series on manhood and masculinity.Episode 224: Deschooling Adulthood with Tony GallowayEpisode 232: Learning (and Unlearning) MasculinityEpisode 233: Deschooling Manhood and MasculinityEpisode 234: Kris joins Tony for the recap of #fofmanchild (Feel Trip)Māori Mother Wisdom series: Co-produced with Ieishah Clelland-Lang liberation-centered parenting and living.Episode 237: On Māori Mother Wisdom (The Language Episode)Episode 238: On Māori Mother Wisdom (The ‘Old Knowings' Episode)Episode 239: Vibin' off Māori Mother Wisdom (The ‘Feedback' Episode)Episode 240: Series Closing: Māori Mother WisdomSome announcements and remindersThanks to our Make It Happen Family. There are already 252 of you and we deeply appreciate it!Raising Free People book was translated into Spanish version, shout out to Ruben, Citlali, Isabel, Abby, Kris, and Miguel!Shout out #fofcpod core team: Juan Pablo, Daniela, Kris, Fatima, Vanessa, Romain, Marley, David and Vicki; Co-producers: Tony Galloway and Ieishah Clelland-LangShawna Murray-Browne, a liberation-centered integrative psychotherapist will be part of SDE weekend. Akilah will be there with many other folks sharing great experiences and content around Self-Directed Education. Be sure to check in from 7th – 9th of January 2022Audio by Raising Free People NetworkIn addition to Fare of the Free Child Podcast, Audio by Raising Free People Network produces other podcasts from which we hear some updates throughout this final episode of the season.Check out the full show notes at raisingfreepeople.com/243/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

We're continuing our language vibe this week on #fofcpod episode! First, you'll hear from Juan Pablo Pérez, audio manager of Fare of the Free Child, as he shares his thoughts on Episode 241: Freeing Your Approach to Language Studies (with Marley Richards). He talks about his experience as a Spanish native speaker who, like Marley, taps into language as a way of developing an identity that includes more than the culture he was born into. Juan's interests in music, for example, sit outside his cultural background, and those experiences help Juan Pablo to feel a strong sense of self that isn't limited by location or familiarity.For the rest of the episode, Akilah gives us some gems about the importance of language and the many ways we can engage it as parts of our unschooling and deschooling practices. And of course, #maddquestionaskin is all up and through the episode.Is there a difference between a definition of a word and an understanding of a word?How have words evolved from having a definition to having a meaning?Akilah refers to language as something that goes beyond the accent and vocabulary, and something we can see as being part of a whole culture and context, and not some isolated thing that we pluck from a culture.Who is this language tied to?What are some of the non-verbal cues of this culture? How can I learn more about body language, symbols, and other elements of communication and culture?Akilah shared some of the conversation she had with Zakiyya Ismail (at the Summerhill Festival of Childhood) about the evolution of these particular words in their unschooling journeys:LearningPowerTrustCommunityResistanceAkilah pulled a card from the Raising Free People practice decks and invited us this activity:Think about these words (that comprise this deck),Choose two or three of them and sit with the evolution of your understanding of that word.Akilah explains through her experience with Spanish the insights and learning process of making associations. She also talks about words that are very specific to her practices and the understanding of them. She then reflects on the her experiences that came with recognizing herself as both oppressed to oppressor, and how that shows up in her motherwork.LIBERATION WALKListen and jam along with Miss Lou - Long time Gal on Bajanbloom Bloom's Youtube channelAkilah would love to receive some feedback about this episode. Think about the Card Deck words. Go on and press that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side or email her at she@raisingfreepeople.comJoin our Podcast Village so you don't miss any of our Feel Trip invitationsSubscribe to Akilah's Youtube ChannelSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

#MaddquestionaskinWhat does it mean to own your sense of sovereignty?Welcome to another #fofcpod episode. As you know we're in the thick of the wonderful Māori Mother Wisdom series, and are vibrating with gratitude for your engagement with us, in all of this goodness. We kick off this episode with feedback from author, speaker, activist and educator Sonya Renee Taylor who has been listening to this series and loving it! We also share some feedback we've gotten from Jonie, Yolande, Got2BOshun, and Kateri (thank y'all!). Then Akilah and Ieishah Clelland-Lang revisit some gems from these previous conversations, and speak about migration, reparenting, echolocation (yes, chile!), unschooling, and then some.Don't miss our Feel Trip to close out the Māori Mother Wisdom series, where Akilah and Ieishah will kick it with the Village family, and a few of our series guests are slated to join the chat. It's happening Friday, December 3rd. Join our Podcast Village so you don't miss any of our Feel Trip invitations.Akilah pulled a card from one of the Raising Free People practice decks:Reparenting: “No way around it, so gather some resources around your pain and change and growth and self-trust so that you can move out of situation and into self.”PAIN, SELF-TRUST, MOVE OUT…Akilah reflects on what moving away means, centering migration as a keyword in this conversation. They speak about looking back and respecting the past versions of themselves, appreciating the wisdom each has brought to them. What does it mean to move away from the elements of parenting that we were raised with? What positives and difficulties are implicit in quitting the parts that don't resonate with us? What is the cost we pay to seek our authentic selves? What are we currently moving away from?“Reparenting ourselves is not about what happened back then, but about what we have the right and the wisdom to do now.”Location system - Migrating into our authentic selfIeishah and Akilah talk about how the ability to "locate" ourselves in certain situations can be a form of good resistance, to how the knowledge of why we must observe, listen and question different mindsets and ideas, it's a never-ending process that evolves and changes all the time.“Trust, resistance, education, that's how I can put my understanding into practice”. Akilah S. RichardsReclaiming culture: Take and give backIeishah and Akilah speak to the relevance of culture and nature as key points in unschooling, and Ieishah brings more insights from her related experience at the unschooling camp in Aotearoa. They chat about the "intelligence energies" that come through the collective, as well as the importance of knowing when to be a witness, and how to "trust first."Check our Liberation Walk and a picture with the card that Akilah pulled at raisingfreepeople.com/239Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Basically this:We talk about reclaiming language, sovereignty, relationship with motherhood, community, culture, intergenerational relationships, childhood, ancestors, and unschooling among other key topics. In this episode you will hear about intentional living and parenting why's and what's in Te Reo Māori (Māori language) and also in English.The whole story...#fofcpod has teamed up with brilliant writer, nomad, and unschooling mama, Ieishah Clelland-Lang to co-produce this 4-part series centering fours Māori unschooling mothers' wisdom and invitation. They are all based in Aeotearoa (Māori name for what we know as New Zealand), in the South Pacific. You'll hear about these women's relationships with reclaiming (when necessary) and sustaining strong connections to their community and culture. Through these narratives we can all expand our perceptions of mothering and honor the different layers of motherwork.This week, in Part 1, you'll hear from Moana Reihana and Mea Rapata, in addition to hearing from Ieishah and Akilah. Over the next two episodes, you'll also hear from Angella Smith and Tina Talaić, as well as the energies that all 6 of us bring into the space through meaningful inquiry and real commitment to keep much of our culture alive and thriving beyond us.Three generations to regain a language - Unschooling and traditionMoana shares her experience and the reason why she learned her native language by herself as an adult. None of her family members were able to speak the language at that time, so they also started to regain this ancestral knowledge years later. This helped Moana to reclaim traditional knowledge that she wanted to share with her children and future generations. They also speak about the importance of language as a liberation tool and as a choice that offers connection and more ways to listen. How do we deal with newer generations and balance our ideas with tradition?Learning how to be a guestIeishah and Akilah talk about the importance of “witnessing” as a way of making space through observation, and being willing to stop and listen to others so that we can be the least intrusive when we are guests in someone else's space. Moana and Mea allow us to listen to their stories from vulnerable and authentic spaces by sharing their connection with nature, their ancestors, and themselves. They speak to a sense of belonging and invite us to think about what we are being instead of focusing on what we are doing. Ieishah and Akilah also speak to how unschooling can help us with our observation skills so that we can develop trust in our partnership with our children.More about Ieishah...Ieishah is a writer, nomad and unschooling mama of two brown girls. She is a New Yorker of Caribbean descent. If you want to hear more from Ieishah you can listen to previous conversations on Episode 63: Deep Work + Dora Life (2018), and Episode 190: Nomad(ing) in Place with Ieishah ‘Nem (2019).Another place to catch Ieishah on IG: Mater MeaCheck out our Liberation Walk at raisingfreepeople.com/237Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Chemay Morales James is a recovering school teacher turned social liberation eduvist/unschooling mama. Like many parents who educate their children at home, her journey into unschooling opened organically through the needs of her children.  In this conversation, we address how unschooling and self-directed education (SDE) has opened up her healing path by recognizing how traditional schooling and authoritarian parenting shut down her intuition, curiosity, and creativity. In 2016 she founded My Reflection Matters (MRM), an organization whose mission is to provide the tools necessary to support and nurture the development of healthy racial and ethnic identities of Black and Brown children and older youth.  We also share our experiences of SDE and parenting in ways that look so different than our own experience, specifically, following desire/eros, trusting the process, and leaning hard into the messiness.  Follow Chemay to her website or on Instagram http://www.myreflectionmatters.org https://www.instagram.com/myreflectionmatters   Join the My Reflection Matters Village https://my-reflection-matters.mn.co   Follow Isha to her website or on Instagram: https://www.revolutionaryrompereglas.com https://www.instagram.com/revolutionary.rompereglas   Join the revolutionary Rompereglas online community! https://community.revolutionaryrompereglas.com   Link to Own Your No: Embodying Sovereignty Through Boundary Energetics for $247 (on sale from $333 through November 7th)  https://revolutionaryrompereglas.com/own-your-no-self-guided-discovery/   Book a free, 30-minute curiosity call with me: https://revolutionaryrompereglas.as.me/curiosity

Guest  Vincent Pugliesi   Vincent is the founder of the Total Life Freedom Community. Living a life of freedom is of huge importance to Vincent and his wife Elizabeth. They homeschool their three boys, and believe that having control of your time, your money, and the work you do, leads to the ultimate life freedom. While teaching others to do the same, the movement of Total Life Freedom was born.   https://totallifefreedom.com Instagram @totallifefreedom1 Intro   Hey Everyone, welcome back to the Rogue Learner podcast. I have had a little break from publishing and I'm really grateful for you all having patience while I figure out my new rhythm here in the States. I don't know if I've said it before on the show, but my husband is still in Europe and will be joining us later in the year so the time I once had to allocate to the show is reduced to very little, especially now that things are opening back up and my kids have access to so many places and clubs that were once closed due to Covid-19. I'd like to start by thanking you all for being so supportive and kind as I transition into our new normal. I am confident I can continue publishing great episodes, in fact I've spent the last week interviewing more amazing guests, but I do think the frequency of my publishing will slow at least until my husband joins us. For now, I'll commit to one great interview a month, with the hope that I can do even more than that.    Some listeners have reached out to me to ask how they can support the show and I appreciate you wanting to help out. The show does cost money to produce, but I'd like to keep the information free to anyone who needs it. Still, if you like the show, get value from it, and have the means to support it monetarily, you can now do so by clicking the “Support Rogue Learner” link either in the show notes or from my profile on Instagram. I am eternally grateful for anyone who makes a contribution. The money will go directly back into paying for the domain, hosting, podcast distribution service and Adobe Audition subscription.    Another way to support the way if you provide a service to other homeschooling families is by advertising on the Rogue Learner website or adding a paid listing to the directory. You'll find the link in the show notes or in my Instagram profiles. Thank you!    Also, as a thank you from me t o you I always have a book giveaway going on. If you leave a written review on Apple (which you can do through iTunes btw even if you don't have an iPhone) and then send me a quick email with your screen name, you could win a copy of a book related to SDE. For every 5 reviews, I'll be giving away two new books, “Raising Free People; Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work” by Akilah Richards and “Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School?” by Blake Boles. Head on over to Apple Podcasts to leave an honest written review and get a chance to win one of these books!   I'm really excited to introduce today's guest. Vincent Pugliese is an entrepreneur who began his career in a very self-directed manner. Feeling as though he had no options in his 20's and no clear direction, he took up his father's advice to take on a photography class. In his story, you'll hear how he went from completely apathetic toward learning to deeply passionate about sports photography. What I find most incredible about him is that he is now using that knowledge he acquired regarding how people learn with his own three boys. I'm so thrilled that he took the time to chat with me and I think you'll feel the same way I did by the end of our conversation: motivated and inspired! And now, here is my interview with Vincent Pugliese from Total Life Freedom.  Show Notes   Jenna begins by welcoming Vincent to the show and thanking him for talking about his homeschooling experiences on the ChooseFI podcast, because it really inspired her to think more critically about the option to do the same for her kids.    Vincent says they are currently moving from Pennsylvania to Florida and they're able to do that based on the flexibility of their jobs and homeschooling. He says the kids started out going to traditional schools, but he and his wife didn't like that they didn't get to spend much time with their kids. They believe in following kids interests and focusing on learning, problem solving and entrepreneurship vs. a curriculum.    Jenna asks what sort of business ventures his kids are into right now. Vincent says his oldest son has always loved bugs. One day when they were playing baseball, his son said he didn't want to play anymore. While he was waiting on the sidelines, he caught a snake and everyone grew really interested in the snake and his son started teaching them about the snake. Vincent remembers at this moment that his son really stood out - he was unique. Everyone else was playing baseball and wearing the same uniform. It made him interesting because he was following his passion and interests.    His son ended up turning his love for bugs into a little business where he teaches people about his tarantula and lets them hold it  and collects tips. His middle son makes balloon animals for kids. They just got hired for a kids birthday party.    Vincent says his kids are learning how to be adults and doing adult things now. He doesn't really understand why we make kids wait until they're 22  years old before we let them start acting like “adults.”   Jenna jokingly says she's in the wrong profession! Vincent follows up saying his kids are being paid $200 for doing a 2-hour birthday party. Someone told his son that he'll be able to pay for college with all those earnings or not have to go to college at all!    Jenna adds that there's so much being gained by the kids working on their business ventures, but the communication skills are definitely being sharpened. She remembers having difficulty in her youth talking with adults, mostly because of a lack of confidence. She thinks she missed out on really valuable learning opportunities by not engaging with adults.    Vincent says the boys are motivated on their own to earn more money and get more customers. Vincent stresses to his boys that it's not about them, that it's about bringing value to others. Each client should walk away feeling happy and fulfilled in some way, whether that be a child with a balloon animal or an adult overcoming their fear of tarantulas and holding one. Building a good business is all about adding value to other people's lives.    Jenna asks Vincent to tell about his journey into each of his careers. Vincent's journey was very self directed and did not follow a traditional path. Additionally, he did not feel successful in public school. Vincent is a business coach today, and he tells his mastermind classes that they have to be okay having no road map. Of course, at the beginning, there may be some critical steps that everyone will need to take but at some point you'll need to become a problem solver,  innovator, and trailblazer.  Entrepreneurs are okay with failure. They learn from it. Vincent says he was always good at this in his youth.    His father suggested, one very late night, for him to try sports photography as a career. Vincent thought, “I've got nothing to lose” so he went ahead and began taking steps toward that career. Part of his training led him back to the classroom (college) and he was the best in his class. He was the best in his class - he wondered, how can I go from worst in class to best in class? He thinks it's because he had a real passion for it - he could see himself doing that job and thriving in it.    Jenna says that it's important to note that parents generally have some concern over whether or not  their child will ever choose a career path, but it does happen for everyone at some point. There will be something that comes into an unschoolers life at some point that motivates the young person to set goals and accomplish them. Don't worry. They will figure it out.    Vincent says he has listeners of his podcast Total Life Freedom, that reach out to him at age 33 and did exactly what they were supposed to do, followed a traditional path, and are miserable in their job. They may have a beautiful house, car, kids, etc but they hate what they do and don't know how to get out of it.    Vincent says unless his kids absolutely always love what they're doing, he hopes they will evolve and change their careers. Through new endeavors, you learn new life skills, communication skills, and business skills. He and his wife's “graduation criteria” revolves around financial goals because ultimately that's what will give them the foundation to lean into a career that they're passionate about. He doesn't want them to be so far in debt with student loans and such that they find themselves stuck, as he so often sees with his clients. Financial wisdom and emotional intelligence will allow you to do anything in life.    Jenna adds that many kids in elementary and secondary school lack the time and possibly resources to dive deep into various interests and passions which robs them of self-discovery. By the time they're of age to start thinking of their careers, they simply lack the experience and self awareness needed to decide on a path. Additionally, Jenna argues that living life provides you with real learning experiences that help you to better understand what it is you like doing and exposes children to so many types of ideas, subjects, passions, etc. Schools can't offer that in the same way - it's not flexible enough to accommodate each student in that way.    Vincent adds that compartmentalizing learning is not how the real world functions. His son, as an example, is really into tanks and building small versions of them and sells them. Through that one interest, he's learned about WWII, engineering, and commerce.    Jenna asks Vincent to tell us what happened after he got started in his photography career. Vincent went on to cover the Super Bowl, World Series, NHL championships and was awarded International Sports Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the Year International in 2003. His work has been published in nearly every newspaper around the globe. He eventually moved to Indiana where he met his wife, Elizabeth and they both began working for a small newspaper there. Although he really loved his job and won many awards for his work, he didn't enjoy having his schedule dictated by an employer. He wasn't earning much money when his wife became pregnant with their first child so Vincent decided they needed to have their own business. His dad gave him some great advice once again. He told him that he had a skill that he wasn't using. He was really good at photography and could be controlling his schedule and income but instead, he told Vincent he thought he was settling out for $15/hr and benefits.    He called his wife and told her they were going to start a wedding photography business. He says the first year was awful. Within three and a half years though, they had paid off all their debt, paid off their house and quit their jobs. That's when their life of freedom started. What am I growing, what am I building next, and what am I a beginner in are three important criteria for Vinent in his life.    Jenna says there's a ton of value gained from changing careers and passions throughout our lives and the skills learned from one path will ultimately be used in some way in the future goals and projects of the future. She herself has incorporated her photography business skills and writing skills into her podcasting venture and she continues to use her education background as a foundation for each of her endeavors as well. Jenna's son loves gaming and through gaming he's tried streaming on Twitch, creating a YouTube channel, and now coding. Learning isn't linear, it's more of a meandering stop and go joy ride.    Vincent says it's not talked about enough, this concept of skill stacking. Even if things don't work out, you can pull certain skill sets from one passion to another. Failure is experience. Too many people quit instead of using what they've learned.    Jenna asks Vincent what he thinks his kids would have missed if they had been in school. He says his kids would likely be missing out on being bullied at school. He gets asked, as we all do, about socialization and what he's noticed is that kids who homeschool have no qualms hanging out with kids much older or younger than them. In public schools however, 13 year olds can seem like an idol to a 12 year old, whereas an 11 year old would look like an idiot. He remembers this being the mentality in his own school-aged years.  He doesn't see that in homeschooling. He goes on to add that kids who have similar interests can interact in homeschooling, whereas in school and within a grade level, there may not be the opportunity for that.    School has also given Vincent's family the freedom to travel. They have spent the last 10 years traveling south in the winter and exploring the Southern United States. People have often asked him “Where are the desks?” and “Where do your kids do school?” To that, he says school is everywhere. Life is school. “School” happens whenever you want to learn. When people are willig to see that, the whole world opens up.    Jenna asks Vincent what he would do if one of his boys wanted to go to school. He says they would absolutely support that, in fact they've presented it as an option to try out. Whatever they want to do, they support.    Jenna says she asks because her daughter recently asked to go back to school. Her daughter enjoys the structure and finds the curriculum motivating. She thinks there are definitely people for which school suits.    Vincent says he has ADHD and believes two of his three boys may have it too. He says he never thrived in school. He never liked structure created for him by someone else. Some kids do love direction and structure and thrive in public school though. There should be a choice for kids who don't thrive there though. Some kids end up in detention and are told they're bad kids so having the option to choose a different environment for kids to learn in is vital to them accomplishing their learning goals.    Jenna asks Vincent what the best thing about homeschooling has been for his family. He says for sure it's the relationships; spending time together. Vincent and his family invented the “Beautiful Day Rule” which means that when the skies are blue in Pittsburg, they get their essential work done and then go do whatever they want that day. Recently, he and his son took the day off and stayed in a hotel for the night. They spent the day on paddle boats, at the arcade, swimming, and talking. His son said it was “the best day ever” over and over again. That is the greatest benefit of homeschooling; the relationships.   Helpful Resources Mentioned in Today's Show   Total Life Freedom   Total Life Freedom podcast   Choose FI   Why Are You Still Sending Your Kids to School by Blake Boles   Raising Free People by Akilah Richards   Anything You Want by Derek Sivers   Your Music and People by Derek Sivers   Discord   Support Rogue Learner   Advertise on Rogue Learner   Leave a Review

Akilah S. Richards joins me again to talk about her most recent book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work. We talk about her definitions of unschooling and deschooling and dive deep into the far-reaching impacts of choosing an unschooling lifestyle. We also dive into some of the profound realizations she's had about […]

We close out the first season with a very special interview with Akilah S. Richards. Akilah is founder of Raising Free People Network and host of Fare of the Free Child podcast. Her work utilizes audio and written mediums to amplify the ways that unschooling in particular, is serving as healing grounds and liberation work for Black, Indigenous/Native, and People of Color communities. She is also the author of the book Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work which examines the ways that her relationships to blackness, decolonization, and healing work all combine to form relationships and enable community-healing strategies rooted in an unschooling practice. In this episode, Akilah shares how her experience as a mother has helped her reframe her own experiences and how she creates more healthy, consent-based, intergenerational relationships. Danellia and Akilah also talk about how they rethink discipline and learning.  Connect with Akilah online at raisingfreepeople.com or on Instagram @fareofthefreechild To purchase her latest book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work, click here. 

I am so happy to share this powerful imperfectly perfect conversation with Alex Khost. He talks about Flying Squads, the project he is currently working on. Alex is a father and Youth Rights advocate. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Tipping Points, the book and magazine publisher for the Alliance for Self-Directed Education, and founder of Voice of the Children, promoting and facilitating art and activism for young people. He works at the homeschooling coop, Brooklyn Apple Academy. A must listen-to if you are interested in Youth Rights! In the podcast, Alex also mentions the work done by Akilah Richards called Raising Free People

Just dropping by with an in-between seasons episode filled with invitations and big announcements! #fofcpod Sign up to the email list for Raising Free People Workshop 2021, this year we'll be focusing on Discomfort and Discovery, so join us for a virtual workshop divided in two segments, one on Family: Adult-child dynamics, parenting, the other (the Grown folks segment) will discuss Adult relationship dynamics, particularly in marriage/romantic involvement.Be sure to visit Black Worldschoolers Bookstore, a wonderful project from our fellow liberation-minded mama, Natalie Pipkin. Listen to some of the previous conversations with Natalie on #fofcpod: Episode 171: Black Child You Are Seen and Episode 196: But Yo, the TRUST Comes After the ChoiceA powerful duo will join us in our upcoming Summer Feel Trip, Domari Dickinson and Anthony “Tony” Galloway, Jr. Yay, Don't miss it!Here you can find some of the convos that we have had with them before: Episode 185: Parenting Paradigm Shifts in Black Families, Episode 204: (REPLAY) Solutions to Whitewashed SDE, Episode 215: Fare of the Free Man Child (A Tony Galloway Ting) and Episode 224: Deschooling Adulthood with Tony Galloway.Chemay Morales invites us to My Reflection Matters August Open House, all membership events from the My Reflection Matters Village Network will be free. Listen to Episode 35: My Reflection Matters and Episode 125: 4 Conditions in Support of Raising Free People where we got the chance to share with Chemay in previous episodesLIBERATION WALKJoin our Podcast Village and don't miss any of our Feel Trip invitations Press that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side and share some thoughts with usSubscribe to Akilah's Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

We're so excited to share our Feel Trip recap and final episode of Season Six. We will be playing some snippets from a live conversation that Akilah and Kris had with some of our listeners and Make It Happen Family members. They reflect on trust, language, destination peddling (nope, that ain't a typo), and how all of those things affect our most important relationships. They also chat about the opportunities for facing and resolving our struggles with attachments. Watch the video of the entire convo on our Youtube Channel. Raising Free People Está Disponible en Español!Shout out to the 25 people who helped us reach our goal, because now Raising Free People will be available in Spanish too! As soon as we get more info we'll let you know, for sure, but in the meantime, some members of the translation team put together a superdope Spotify playlist you can vibe to! Check it: Raising Free People en Español.Thank you so much for joining us on this amazing journey so far! For Season 7, we will stay on our three-part flow, and include solo episodes like Fare of the Free Man Child and Plant It Up Podcast episodes. In the meantime, here's what to expect in the coming months:Stay tuned for inbetweenisodes (episodes in-between seasons)Remember that in addition to Fare of the Free Child, more podcasts are produced in our Raising Free People Network mix:  She Said We Shed with Aja; How She Got Free Podcast with Katrina, which will launch right when we are taking a little rest; Grief, Growth and Goals with Lou Hollis; Plant It Up with Val; and P.O.U.R. (Purposely Opening Up to Relationships) podcast with Leslie Bray. Subscribe to get all this goodness!LIBERATION WALKDon't miss Raising Free People Workshop 2021!In August Chemay Morales from My Reflection Matters will be offering open house eventsJoin our Podcast Village and don't miss any of our Feel Trip invitationsSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

It's the second-to-last episode of  Season Six, and today we're going back in time to our Season One intro while we reminisce for a bit. Later this week, on July 10th we'll play a clip from Episode 0 to celebrate our 5th anniversary! Today though, you'll hear what some of our listeners had to say about last week's episode Episode 225: Deschooling Our Marriage (Pt 1) and about Episode 224: Deschooling Adulthood with Tony Galloway. And one listener, Dani McClain has a great book you should check out titled We Live for the We.4 things happening in-between seasons Tweenisodes (episodes in-between seasons)Card deck playdates Newsletter “The Monthly Sevens”Raising Free People Workshop 2021!! Tune in this Saturday for our finale episode, 227, to hear clips from our feel trip with Kris and Akilah. and members of our Make it Happen Family. Make sure you don't miss any of our Feel Trip invitations by joining our podcast village.LIBERATION WALKWe are so excited to share with you that we reached our goal! Thanks to all of the people that contributed to translate Raising Free People book to Spanish, we did it! / ¡Estamos súper emocionados y queremos compartir con ustedes que logramos nuestra meta!. Gracias a quienes nos ayudaron en la traducción del libro Raising Free People al idioma Español, ¡lo logramos!Press that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side and speak upSubscribe to Akilah's Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This week on #fofcpod: We are now all up in Part 1 of this 3-part season finale flow! Listen to this insightful conversation between Akilah, her partner Kris, and their oldest daughter, Marley. They process their feelings out loud about how trust, language, and "destinations" help us move from performance and fake-assness over to practicing authenticity and partnership in our relationships. Stay tuned for our Feel Trip with Kris and Akilah on July 6, 8:30 pm EST. Make sure you don't miss any of our Feel Trip invitations by joining our podcast village. Here are some of the gem-drops you'll hear:Trust happens over time.Akilah and Kris share their experiences with relationship-building and how many of the normalized processes and practices in marriage leave us with dynamics that have prefabricated structures around marriage role models that don't fit actual people in real life. They also point out the ways that we replicate these roles and expectations without taking into account the quality of the relationship. Deschooling helps us question these structures and the way we live and face reality and relationships over time.We can deschool our language.You'll hear the trio's take on the importance of naming and speaking up about feelings and insecurities when we want to be held accountable and also be supportive. Communication and language are key components for a partnership, so consider the benefits of madd question askin' like:How is language useful? How do we nurture our feelings while trusting the process?LIBERATION WALKThanks to all of the people that have contributed to translate Raising Free People book to Spanish, we're just $230 away from our goal. Please donate! / Gracias a quienes han colaborado para traducir el libro Raising Free People al idioma Español, ¡estamos a 230 dólares de llegar a nuestra meta. ¡Por favor dona!Press that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side and let us know what you think!See clips from this episode on Akilah's Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

First, a special Thank You to all of the people that have contributed to translate Raising Free People book to Spanish, we're almost there! / Gracias a quienes han colaborado para traducir el libro Raising Free People al idioma Español, ¡ya casi llegamos a la meta!--Welcome to Anthony “Tony” Galloway, Jr's second Fare of the Free Man Child episode. Missed the first episode? We gotchu... Episode 215: Fare of the Free Man Child (A Tony Galloway Ting). Tony is co-founder, director, and facilitator of The Heartwood School, a local (Atlanta) Agile Learning Center, and one of our Presence Counselors at Raising Free People Network.On this episode, Tony covers the topic of childhood and adulthood from the perspectives of how childhood and adulthood coexisthow adults tend to relate to childrenhow parent-child relationships change over timethe importance of nurturing emotional intelligencehonoring and cherishing childhoodHe goes on to offer insights and reflections on how childhood and adult-child dynamics play out in a Self-Directed Education framework, and he speaks to some of the aspects of adulthood that sit within the confines and expectations of certain structures of power that center production and achievement over all else. LIBERATION WALKPress that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side of the site and tell us what you think about Fare of the Free Man ChildLearn more about The Heartwood SchoolFollow Tony on InstagramGet podcast clips and replays of video events on our Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Guest   Lucy AitkenRead   YouTube IG @lulasticblog Lulastic.co.uk https://discolearning.com   Show Notes   Topics Discussed in Today's Show:   Lucy is a mom of two, a 10 year old daughter and an 8 year old son. She is originally from London, but now lives in New Zealand. They moved there to bring out a little more of their wild. Her kids have never been to school. The moment her daughter was born, they began thinking about life without school. Her and her family took a year-long trip around Europe and one of the things they firmly decided on during that trip was that their kids were not going to attend school. Through her reading and experience in a German forest kindergarten, she was able to draw a map of how their lives could look and now they're living it.    Jenna mentions that many families seem to know right from the beginning that they want to unschool, however her progression to this lifestyle was a very gradual one. Jenna asks which book Lucy read during her travels that she picked up at a second-hand shop. Lucy said she read John Holt's book How Children Learn and Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff, which were both very influential. The Continuum Concept had a huge impact on Lucy's mindset about childhood.    Jenna reflected on her own paradigm shift and how moving away from her hometown may have  been a catalyst for her to be able to let go of influences and really dig into her own values, and essentially reinvent herself.    Lucy adds that in one traditional culture, teenagers leave their town and change their name. Sometimes you need to physically move away from your heritage, reputation, beliefs and values in order to step into the new invitation in your life. It's a grand gesture. It is important and significant and symbolically represents a whole new leaf that you're turning.    Jenna says that she thinks she wouldn't have had the courage to leap into this lifestyle had she stayed in her hometown. She remembers seeing a documentary about a ritual in Africa, in which the community members who are approaching adulthood are taken away from the village for some time and while they're away, the village builds them a house. When they return, they're presented with the house and are now seen as adult members of society. It's a really important moment in their lives.   Lucy adds, it feels so important to have these communal rituals. She says it's no wonder our industrialized, capitalist society has so many problems when our culture is devoid of these rituals. It's so obvious.    Shifting gears, Jenna asks Lucy to describe Childism. Lucy says that childism is a form of prejudice, a manifestation of ageism. It's a marginalisation of children. Jenna asks, how would it impact our society if children were respected and treated as humans? Lucy says it would be one of the most transformational things to happen to our society, because if you're raised with a sense of your own rights and dignity you will then treat others with that same respect, worth, and value. It's also really influential on home education because you can maybe be doing all of the right things in terms of learning and education, but if you don't believe that children are worthy of rights and dignity, then that will leak out and affect how children learn and the classroom culture. Jenna adds that children's rights are so fundamental to self-directed learning, and you can't really have one without the other. Lucy says you'd just be undermining the child's sense of direction and self-determination because you don't actually believe that they have everything they need within them.    There are simple things we do every day to undermine a child, Jenna asks if there are any examples Lucy can think of. Lucy says one that is really obvious is adults doing things to children; putting on clothes, picking them up, etc. Lucy says one way of respecting even an infant's autonom is by letting them know when you're going to pick them up and giving them a chance to respond, either physically or verbally. When they're toddlers, make sure they can see your face and hear your voice when engaging with them about getting their clothes on, picking them up or taking them somewhere. A good way to think about your actions is to ask yourself, “Would I like this done to me?”   Jenna mentions how comical it actually sounds when you think of another adult pulling you by the arm. It's akin to a man telling a woman to smile when they're walking down the street. Lucy says it's another one of the hierarchies we have in our society, which is that men get to tell random female strangers in the street to cheer up or to smile. Sexism sits right alongside childism.    Lucy's advocacy for children really started to unfold when she was working for the NGO sector and noticed the total blindness to the very many ways that our society is infringing on children's rights. Colleagues of hers would say these blanket statements like, “Oh, I just hate children.” Lucy realized that children really are one of the last groups of people in society where you can just come out and say, “I hate ….” “And until we recognize that and change it, all the charities in the world trying to work on human rights stuff are just peeing into the wind because this stuff has to begin on day one with our children. This has to be a generational shift that recognizes and honors children as valuable, worthy members of society. Otherwise we're not going to see those shifts towards empathy and respect that will change everything.”    Jenna states that Lucy makes such a great point. She's never considered how people view children before. Jenna points out that teenagers are marginalized most. Lucy asks, “What if we lived in a paradigm based on connection, based on the idea that our wellness is wrapped up in the wellness of other people, that really we are one throbbing being; all of humankind. We can strip away the labels.” Teenagers play an important role in challenging society. They have a fire that can ignite the change we need to see.    Jenna was thinking about how much is missed out on by keeping teens busy with things adults have decided for them. It's such a shame, and it's a missed opportunity for creativity, innovation, and contributions from this age group to our society. Lucy adds that it's no wonder that so much self-combustion happens during the teenage years if that's the only way we can honor their being. Jenna points out that by having teens in institutions all day, it strips away any opportunity for them to contribute to society in a meaningful way until they're in their 20's.    Lucy was truant a lot in her teenage years, and for a long time she thought she was just naughty. Now, she realizes how her teenage self was right in removing herself from a toxic place. Jenna shares how her son, at age 13, has such a great awareness of what he can and can't handle. He recognizes the need for rest, and is respectful of his own needs. She was very proud of him for that because it's a skill that many people never really learn. Lucy says it's so beautiful and how sad it is that he experienced physical pain from the stress of an institution. Lucy says she has shared a lot about the trauma of school. She gets a lot of comments on social media about how schools aren't that way anymore and their school is a really positive experience for their children, but Lucy points out that on the whole, it's still a system that's problematic and it really hasn't changed that much. She shares how a teacher friend of hers is expected to dole out detentions for his students who don't wear their sports socks to P.E. The missing piece is still that children are worthy of rights and dignity.    Jenna asks about the third wave of unschooling… is there one? How is unschooling changing? Lucy hopes that the audience will contribute to this conversation. Unschooling has been packaged up and named, yet it's existed since the beginning of time. Children have always learned skills that were important to their culture, raising children without punishment and without a forced curriculum. This was the first wave of unschooling. Community wellbeing was at the forefront until industrialization. The second wave of unschooling happened in the 70's and 80's and originated from John Holt's ideas about learning. Consent and autonomy were pulled out from that wave. There was a shift politically toward free markets and privatization. Neoliberalism pushed for individualism, as opposed to societal wellbeing. Lucy wonders if this influenced the unschooling movement in a way that led toward individual freedom at the cost of community wellbeing. The conversation now is centered around how freedom and equality are at work in our unschooling currently. She feels like we are possibly entering a new era that is trying to bring together the idea of autonomy and sovereignty being important, but also honoring the community and trying to create a self-determination that happens amidst community. She recommends the book, Raising Free People by Akilah Richards. Akilah Richards describes this concept in her book as compassionate autonomy. The book really sums up where we're at now and what the invitations are for unschoolers. Lucy feels like it could be a third wave of unschooling. Lucy believes that so often conflict within the unschooling community stems from families not agreeing on what to expect from children and what they can manage.   Jenna shares that for her, she has a real conflict about autonomy vs. parental responsibility and she mentions how labels (like unschooling) can sometimes make people feel excluded if they aren't abiding by all the principles of the group, and then create self-doubt on the side of the person not checking all the boxes within that label. For Jenna, it was difficult to find the balance between keeping her children safe and healthy, while still offering them autonomy. Lucy says it's probably a really common experience. Lucy asks that when Jenna peered into unschooling, was there too much child-centeredness and too much forgetting of parent's needs? Jenna says it's not just the lack of emphasis on parent's needs, but also the lack of a parental role in keeping them healthy and safe. An example is that if your child ate candy all day, it would mean that the parent is not protecting their child's health. Jenna feels like she has a responsibility to her children to keep them healthy, as she would do for herself. In the second wave of unschooling, Lucy thinks that there is a really strong sense that there is only one way of unschooling, and it requires absolute autonomy even at great cost for some families. Lucy has experienced the power of abundant thinking in her home, where you're not creating a scarcity mindset. So, for example, if you have chocolate in all of the drawers in your home, the kids don't want to eat chocolate all day because there are much yummier things that their bodies desire, but in some homes that would be a catastrophe. But that doesn't mean that those families aren't unschooling and doesn't mean that they shouldn't get to experience the support and inspiration that can come when you are within an unschooling movement. Lucy says it pains her to know that there are people out there who weren't able to feel the cultural identity, love and respect that can be found within unschooling communities because they didn't feel worthy of the label because they weren't unschooling in the way that those online groups, forums and blogs seem to think is the only way to unschool.   Jenna describes an example from an interview she did with a grown unschooler where the mother made the decision to take away a specific video game from her brother because it was causing stress in the home and she didn't like the aggression it brought about in her son. Lucy says, who are we to judge if it brought about more peace and deepened the connection and the honesty within the home, that is incredible. Jenna says that she wants to keep relationships at the forefront of her mind during the course of her unschooling journey. That may mean eliminating something from our home or altering it, but that's sort of irrelevant. Lucy adds that if the foundation of your home is based on children's rights, you won't have a situation in which the adult is making authoritarian decisions because you'll be leaning into each conflict, analyze your reaction and feelings, you'll have honest and transparent dialog back and forth with your kids, and together you'll muddle through it. Lucy would like to see in the third wave of unschooling that unschooling families embrace children's rights that each family can be absolutely trusted to embody the principles of unschooling as best they can with the most shared power and respect of their children - a lot more trust and a lot less judgement.   An example Jenna shares is how her son articulated a goal of him not swearing while playing video games. After weeks of discussion back and forth about how to address this problem in their home, her son is making an effort to stop swearing because it affects everyone in the home. This is a good example of how community wellbeing is an essential part of unschooling life. She adds that conflict and friction are part of their home. She adds that everyone may handle the same situation differently and that's okay if it feels like it's working for them. One thing Jenna feels she has learned in the last seven years of traveling and living in different cultures from her own is that the human experience is unique. Every person has their own way of experiencing the world and a lot can be learned from each other because of it. Shaming people does not bring about change or evolution of any kind.    Lucy shares how conflict and friction are not problems. It does not mean that it is all going wrong. Lucy focused on joy above everything at the beginning of her unschooling journey. And although she is still committed to joy, she embraces conflict and sees conflict and tension as an invitation to get more intimate with each other. Jenna feels like sometimes joy comes as a result of conflict. Lucy shares a quote from Walt Whitman, “We contain multitudes,” meaning we're conflictual beings and we contain peace, joy, grief, frustration and peace all at the same time, as do our homes and children. There is a surrender that comes from knowing it's all part of us, existing simultaneously.    Jenna asks, “what piece of advice can you leave listeners with who are unschooling or beginning their journey but are dealing with fear in some capacity?”   Lucy says that fear is completely and utterly NORMAL. We are a school-fixated culture. School is the provider of almost all social relationships. So to do something outside of it, is an incredibly radical decision which takes a huge amount of courage. “Unschooling wobbles” as Lucy refers to them as, are completely normal.  A few techniques to deal with our fear is through affirmations, breathing, and self-kindness practices. Befriending fear is important too. Get curious about it. Give fear the respect it's asking from you. Tap into support systems and watch inspiring content on YouTube. Fear is like conflict, if we get curious about it, it's an incredible opportunity for self-learning and healing. There are so many layers to peel back and wounds that can be healed from getting to know it.    Resources Mentioned in Today's Show Leave a Voicemail How Children Learn by John Holt Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff Raising Free People by Akilah Richards Lucy's YouTube Channel - Life Without School Lucy's Unschooling Course - Disco Learning    Ways to Connect Email me: contact.roguelearner@gmail.com Facebook  Instagram Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rogue-learner/id1543224038 Google Play: https://podcasts.google.com/search/rogue%20learner Spotify: https://roguelearner.libsyn.com/spotify YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdCocbWsxxAMSbUObiCQXPg Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/rogue-learner

The educational system is continually evolving with an assortment of options. Special guests, Will Burns and Mercer Carlin, share their own personal experiences in the educational system as well as the educational choices they both made with their own children. Will chose a traditional education with his children while Mercer chose a self-directed education for her child. What is possible when a child chooses what they want to learn? Do children learn best when they make their own decisions about what they want to learn? Do children learn more from their culture and environment than from the material that is imposed upon them? We dive deep into the advantages and some possible disadvantages of both educational systems. Neither is better or worse. We discuss the differences and allow you to weigh out the options.   Mercer Carlin Leadership Consultant President of The Agile Learning Center Network The Agile Learning Center https://nycagile.org/   Will Burns CEO of Ideasicle X Forbes Contributor Learn more about Will Burns and Ideasicle X:  https://www.ideasiclex.com/ Follow Will Burns on Twitter: @willoburns ​ Book mention: "Raising Free People" by Akilah Richards Podcast mention: "Fare Of The Free Child" by Akilah Richards https://raisingfreepeople.com/ ​ Ted Talk mention Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY ​ Ted Talk mention Sir Ken Robinson: How To Escape Education's Death Valley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc

This week's #fofcpod episode is a solo jawn, mainly because Akilah wanted to share the local community spotlight segment that will be part of Season 7. So, expect for the 3-part episode flow to be accented by single episodes like this one and Fare of the Free Man Child with another ATL local, Anthony “Tony” Galloway, Jr. who you'll hear next week. Today's guest is brilliant entre/edupreneur, Karema Akilah Greene from The Genius School. So much goodness in here!Karema shares how she got interested in Self-Directed Education, and how, as a detail oriented person, she struggled with some habits from her schoolish mindset, and eventually arrived at some of the tools that helped her to support learning with her children and other ways of connection.She also speaks with us on how her deschooling process evolved into the offering of a supportive community that focuses on education as something that we build up together, allowing for space where children can be themselves, and get to know their strengths and weaknesses in order to nurture their independence and confidence, giving the tools for them to excel with a trust-based foundation.LIBERATION WALKDon't miss any of the Genius School events and check on The LOL Portfolio App details hereJoin our co-learning for liberation village inside the My Reflection Matters CommunityThanks to all of the people that had contributed to translate Raising Free People book to Spanish, we're halfway there! / Gracias a quienes han colaborado para traducir el libro Raising Free People al idioma Español, ¡ya recolectamos la mitad!Share and question by pressing that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side of the site!Subscribe to Akilah's Youtube ChannelSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Episode 7 of the Holding Unfolding podcast is an interview with Jean Finlay of the Philly ALC. Transcript at: abbyoulton.wordpress.com/2021/06/14/holding-unfolding-episode-7-with-jean-finlay/ --- Cover illustration by www.instagram.com/pharaohartwork/ Music by www.bandlab.com/notdummroll Learn more about the Philly ALC at https://www.phillyalc.org/ "Raising Free People" gets a shout out, and is hopefully going to get published in Spanish soon! Help make that happen at https://donorbox.org/let-s-translate-raising-free-people-vamos-a-traducir-raising-free-people

Welcome again Fare of the Free Child community! In episode 222 you'll hear excerpts from our feel trip with Iris Chen, author of Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent along with our fellow unschooler, Tiersa McQueen. Iris and Akilah talk about multigenerational learning and unlearning, the differences between respect and relationship with the elders, collective change, cultural distance, relationship skills and how we can feel honored and honor other people too, learning to coexist and grow together. Tiersa joined the discussion, and poured her usual awesomesauce all in the mix. If the excerpts just ain't enough, you can watch the entire conversation here.In case you haven't listened to the previous elements of this three-part flow, here's Episode 220: Iris Chen on Culture, Childhood, and Consent, and Episode 221: Untigering with Iris Chen (Pt. 2) where our listeners shared their feedback. Join our podcast village to make sure you don't miss any feel trip invitations.We are just a few episodes away from the end of this season, including two more episodes and a feel trip with Kris and Akilah to close out the season and celebrate the five year anniversary of Episode 0. So exciting!Need to knows:In an effort to bring all of you more deschooling resources and liberation tools Raising Free People Support Suite which includes the Card Decks has a Workbook material coming up in collaboration with Leslie Bray from P.O.U.R Podcast (Purposely Openly Up to Relationships) Thanks to all of the people that had contributed to translate Raising Free People book to Spanish, we're halfway there! / Gracias a quienes han colaborado para traducir el libro Raising Free People al idioma Español, ¡ya recolectamos la mitad!LIBERATION WALKShout out to Val Sinclair from Plant it up podcast, who'll join us once more at the end of the season!Feel free to share and question by pressing that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side of the site!While you're there, subscribe to Akilah's Youtube ChannelSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

During this episode of Tipsy Unicorns, Abby is joined by Akilah S. Richards, host of the Fare of the Free Child podcast, author of Raising Free People, and founding member of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education. Listen in as Abby and Akilah talk about toxic and oppressive behavior, trust-based practices, unschooling and self-directed education, and the importance of adopting a love-centered approach to raising children that focuses on consent, respect, and autonomy. She encourages us all to examine our identities at the intersection of Privilege, Power, and Parenting with "madd questions askin'". You can find Akilah online at https://raisingfreepeople.com/ and support her work by becoming a Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/akilah --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/beautiful-humans/support

Episode 3 of Holding Unfolding is an interview with Anthony Galloway Jr. of Heartwood ALC in Atlanta, Georgia! Transcript at https://abbyoulton.wordpress.com/2021/04/24/holding-unfolding-episode-3-with-anthony-galloway-jr-transcript/ --- Cover illustration by @pharaohartwork Learn more about Heartwood at HeartwoodALC.org. Check out Anthony's art at TonyKryptonian.com and on IG at @tonykryptonian. Learn more about Flying Squads at flyingsquads.org. Check out Akilah Richard's Raising Free People podcast and network, where Anthony is just starting a mini series (!!!) at raisingfreepeople.com/215/

Akilah Richards shares several great resources that we’ve listed below...here are links for content and references mentioned in the show:Michelle talks with Akilah Richards of Raising Free People and the Fare of the Free Child podcast, based in Lawrenceville, Georgia...part of the self-directed education movement!Akilah is the author of ten books including her most recent,Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work ...and she hosts the Fare of the Free Child If you become a fan and want to support her work, check out this fresh link and her Patreon.References then Definitions: Unschooling: “... a child-trusting, anti-oppression, liberatory, love-centered approach to parenting and care giving. It also is about creating and expanding communities of confident, capable people who understand how they learn best and how to work collaboratively to learn and solve things. Because it really is, before you talk about learning, it's about trust, it's about looking at what liberation means intergenerationally, which includes learning, but not only that. And it's about love. What does it mean if love is not just about my intention, but about something that's actually surrounded by this ecology of accountability where I'm actually listening to the people who I'm loving on and what they're saying and what they need, and then my love in action is shaped by that. All of those things are really what I understand unschooling to be.” Deschooling: ”.....shedding the programming and habits that resulted from other people's agency over your time, body, thoughts or actions. It's also ... Yes. It's also about designing and practicing beliefs that align with your desire to thrive, be happy and succeed. And those are the opposite of what has happened and continues to happen, because it's happening still, colonization.” Student hood vs Personhood: “Much of what we do is to think about what would it mean if I wasn't thinking about my child just from the perspective of student?.....So, when you start to do that work on your own self, in part by not focusing so much on your child's studenthood, then you start to make the connection between the actual human, the child human, and some of the things that they're advocating for or the things they're pushing back against. You just start to really humanize your relationship intergenerationally in a way that makes it so that you can partner with a young person around their learning journey, which may or may not include school. It still might include it, but it brings in other things that are usually not a part of school, like consent and agency, confident autonomy, the nuances of what it means to collaborate in an environment that tells you that if you help somebody, you're going to get in trouble and they're going to get in trouble. Which is the most anti-humane thing ever.”“And what we're talking about now is moving away from young people needing to perform studenthood and their right to be violated as humans, and instead looking at a way that integrates the same stuff we talk about as adults when we're in our 30s and 40s and 50s trying to get to who am I? What are my boundaries? How do I show up in the world in a way that is both affirming for me and welcoming for the sort of energies that I want to be part of? What happens when I'm super uncomfortable with someone or I don't understand or don't like, yet we have a common goal that we need to work through? These are real life situations that we do not get practice with in school.” Schoolishness: “The ways that we together are so colonized. We want a leader, we want somebody needs to be right, one person's talking, the other people are listening. We do a lot of inhumane things that have become so normalized. And they didn't just appear in adulthood, they didn't just happen when you got that job with that one person. These are things that happen throughout our schooled lives. I call these things schoolishness. Not because they are rooted in school, but oftentimes school is where they are perpetuated.” Ecology of accountability:  “...we find that in the self-directed spaces that's often one of the things that's missing. It's like your intentions are there and then you have some resources and you see a need the way that you define it, so you go do something. Okay, but you need to be involved. So, we talked about this a little bit at the top of our conversation. Whoever it is that you feel like you want to impact, how can you get into community with them? Right now. How can you get in community with them?”  Here is Akilah Richards’ Ted TalkLane Santa Cruz https://www.tucward1.com/aboutDeveloping the Disrupters Ears https://www.rfpunschool.com/p/learningtolistenCrystal Bird farmer https://crystalbyrdfarmer.com/   Free joy experience https://www.thefreejoyexperience.com/Mighty Networks https://my-reflection-matters.mn.co/  Chemay Morales James https://www.linkedin.com/in/chemay-morales-james-5707764a/Thea Monyee https://www.theamonyee.com/Shawna Murray-Brown https://www.shawnamurraybrowne.com/Gratitude to Trick Candles for our theme song, called “I’m Gold"The thing about this podcast is that it is self-funded! So if you love it, consider joining us on Patreon, and passing along to your friends and colleagues. Of course, it is super helpful to us too, when you subscribe on your fav pod player, and rate us! Write us any time at hello@theethicalrainmaker.com or visit us at theethicalrainmaker.com

When parents first hear about interest-led learning (also known as self-directed education), they may wonder: why on earth would we do that? And how would my child learn without anyone teaching them? Many parents start down this path with only an inkling of where it may end up taking them and I think this is true of our guest, Akilah Richards. Akilah grew up in a typical Jamaican family where children were not allowed to have an opinion about anything - even their own bodies and feelings. In her book Raising Free People, she writes that: "Respect, the way [Jamaican parents] define it, is non-negotiable, and the spectrum of things a child can do to disrespect an adult, especially a parent, is miles wide and deep. Reverence for adults, not just respect, is expected, normalized, and deeply ingrained. Somebody else's mama could slap you for not showing reverence to any adult.  Physical punishment for the wrong displays of emotion, even silent ones like frowns or subtle ones like deep sighs, were commonplace, expected, celebrated as one of the reasons children "turned out right." Not only did you, as a child, dismiss any attitudes or anything adults might perceive as rudeness, your general countenance should reflect a constant respect - no space at all for showing actual emotion, if that emotion was contrary to what was reverent and pleasant for the adults in your life - again, especially your parents." While we may not have grown up with parents who were as overtly strict as this, chances are our parents and teachers used more subtle ways of keeping us in line with behavior management charts, grades (and praise for grades) and the withdrawal of approval if we were to express 'negative' emotions like frustration or anger. And of course this is linked to learning because compulsory schooling does not allow space for our children to be respected as individuals. There may be dedicated, talented teachers within that system that respect our children and who are doing the very best they can to provide support, but they too are working within a system that does not respect them. So how could we use interest-led learning/self-directed education to support our child's intrinsic love of learning - as well as our relationship with them? This is the central idea that we discuss in this episode. It's a deep, enriching conversation that cuts to the heart of the relationship we want to have with our children, and I hope you enjoy it.   Resources discussed during the conversation: https://www.eclecticlearningnetwork.com/ (Maleka Diggs' Eclectic Learning Network) https://www.rfpunschool.com/p/learningtolisten (Developing a Disruptor's Ear, by Akilah Richards and Maleka Diggs) https://network-3043137.mn.co/ (Toward Radical Social Change (TRUE) community) https://raisingfreepeople.com/ (Akilah's website, Raising Free People) https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1145 (Akilah's book, Raising Free People)

Reframing Trust and ProofProof and trust have become very schoolish. The way I see it, trust is often a thing to choose, not a thing to be earned. In deschooling, the proof of trustworthiness often comes after the decision to trust a process. There’s no need for proof, the proof is part of a bond of trust we build up in our daily lives, it's about the people, the processes, and the way we forge our relationships--trust emerges from that.- Akilah #raisingfreepeopleWe've got a birthday episode on deck! FOFC family member, Natalie Pipkin, turned 35 today (Nov 26, Baby!), and we get to celebrate with her AND with her city as Natalie and family launched their mobile book store on this special day!You'll hear all about it today, and you'll also hear how Natalie offers us detailed, really specific examples of how unschooling shows up in her life. She goes on to share how she's understanding it as liberation work, and how she facilitates it in community by embodying the skills of it and bringing it to spaces where we can practice it, and see the benefits of it and then want to do it more and more. This opens us up to a lot of the deschooling that comes with the desire to get more of the type of experiences you have when you start facilitating learning, instead of trying to simulate it, or force it.Natalie and Akilah talk about a lot of the highs that came from that, along with the concerns that caused Natalie and her husband to pull their boys from school right before CO-VID 19 hit. They had fears and concerns like anyone else, but since that decision, they've deepened and grown in ways that bring her family so much comfort about their choice to empower their sons in their educational journey by removing the lies, confines, and willful omissions that constantly show up in classrooms.You'll hear about that, in this episode, and it is so important for these experiences to be shared, for you to get that all through your ears, your mind, and all through your body. I know that so many among us are trying to figure out what it means now to nurture learning, outside of both the confines of conventional education. And also dealing with feelings of loss from the sense of framework and other adult support that made conventional education really useful for some families in many ways, even with its deeply problematic elements.LIBERATION WALKCheck out Natalie’s previous episode: Ep 171: Black Child, You Are Seen Here she is again on Parenting for Liberation podcastHere’s that book Natalie mentioned on Spiritual Self-careIf you are hosting or are part of a Raising Free People Book Club, message Fatima@raisingfreepeople.com to invite Akilah to pop in on one of your sessionsRaising Free People Network’s Presence Counselors Leslie Bray and Anthony Galloway, Jr. are here to support unschooling and deschooling processes for families and organizationsRemember to check on TRUE: Towards Radical Social Change Unschooling and Parental Education, an earthwide gathering towards radical social change. It will be on December 2 - 6 - 2020. Register hereSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Today we’ll be joined by two unschooling dads, Jamal Hester and Kris Richards. They will be pointing out some insights on Black fatherhood, re-parenting and unschooling! Jamal is the co-owner of Life Strength & Health holistic center. They also have a podcast where we can find great resources on healing work. Kris Richards is a graphic designer, artist, and creative brander. He’s also Akilah’s partner and Marley and Sage’s dad.What We Discussed:Colonial NarrativeJamal and Kris talk about how their labels of “who they are” as parents, sons, partners, are under certain expectations and are mostly validated by someone else's perspectives. They also chat about the importance of re-configuring parenting styles to have a different approach to the way we are raising our children, and the kind of relationships that we want to nurture. Intergenerational relationshipsThey also discuss seeing some patterns from their behavior reflected in the ways that their own parents and other elders beliefs and parenting styles were directly influenced by the colonial narrative. They give examples of that, and speak to their struggle to change that, so their children can see things from a different perspective, and can understand that it's okay to make mistakes, to speak up, and to question things, in order to grow and to thrive.“Domesticated” parents raising “wild” childrenKris shares how his relationships with his daughters shifted when he realized that he was imposing ideas about what he believed was best for them. He had to step back from his thoughts on things like screen time, but at the same time consider the importance of giving them context so they could navigate through and question what they were watching on that screen. The skill he began to learn was how to start showing up from a space of listening, and of trust in order to get in sync.Jamal speaks about his relationship with his daughter, SaHura, and how he and his wife, Kim, use essential oils as part of a supportive environment for their daughter to manage and understand her emotions.Quote from Jamal about his daughter: When SaHura understands, there is no resistance. When she’s just told, and she gets no context, it never goes well.Deschooling is like an onionJamal uses the metaphor of the onion, peeling back the layers of an onion is like letting go of the things that we believed, and in doing so, there are certain conditions we have to change and others we decide to keep. It’s a process of learning what works and what doesn’t, and it is affected by everything, including the food we eat, our fitness and the overall ways we take care of ourselves.LIBERATION WALKDon’t miss TRUE: Towards Radical Social Change Unschooling and Parental Education, an earthwide virtual gathering towards radical social change. December 2 - 6 - 2020. Register hereRaising Free People Network’s Presence Counselors Leslie Bray and Anthony Galloway, Jr. are here to support unschooling and deschooling processes for families and organizationsIf you are hosting or are part of a Raising Free People Book Club please be sure to message Fatima@raisingfreepeople.com with the details about that book clubSubscribe to Akilah’s Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Want to learn some unschooling vocabulary? If so, listen good because this episode brings a big opportunity to decide upon, and to question your own definitions and understandings, and pivot wherever the need arises. Add your own vocab to this. What words need to be on the next-next episode?See the full definitions at raisingfreepeople.com/194UnschoolingSelf-Directed EducationRe-parentingShadow Work: If you missed it, listen to Genesis Ripley on episode 182: Genesis Ripley on Partnering with Our Pain, she shares the importance of Shadow Work and why we can’t continue to contemplate the world in a binary spectrum, ignoring the shadows, the nuances that are also part of it. We visit the unconscious, that is where Shadow Work happens.Change-up: A process of creating and iterating agreements based on underlying needs, values or desires. The agreements are worked on through various levels of practice, until they become fully integrated as a norm or new way of being. To learn more listen to Monique Allison and Thomas Parker in Episode 78: Surviving Survival Mode – Emerging Out.Schoolishness: As it is defined at schoolishness.com/: “Conventional practices that are rooted in binaries, and generally accepted by adults, but rejected by children and teenagers, either overtly or covertly. A living out of someone else’s goals or narratives of how and what we should be. Schoolishness models an authoritarian approach to adult-child interaction as well as respectability ideas rooted in the notion of adults’ innate superiority in knowledge.”Confident AutonomyDeschoolingPervasive WhitenessSubject SprintPoints of Access (PoFAS): Awareness, disruption, deschooling, unschoolingLIBERATION WALKDon’t forget that Kelly Limes Taylor’s second course Stories of Our Pasts is now open for enrollmentDownload 100 Ways To Be Cosmic! Howard Cosmonaut Palmer's guide for becoming cosmic and learning the path to a Higher SelfGrief, Growth and Goals podcast, hosted by Lou Hollis, is a healing space where we will chat with child talent, parents of talent, bookers, agents, agency owners, industry folk from the business aspect, to life, management and how one stays focused and grounded.Raising Free People Network’s Presence Counselors Leslie Bray and Anthony Galloway, Jr. are here to support unschooling and deschooling processes for families and organizationsIf you are hosting or are part of a Raising Free People Book Club please be sure to message Fatima@raisingfreepeople.com with the details about that book clubSubscribe to Akilah’s Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

What messages does our kids' education send? What are the lived results—does it keep their spark of curiosity alive? Like many of us, especially this year, you may be totally frustrated with your kid’s education system. In this episode, I talk to Akilah Richards about her story of disenchantment and the perhaps-not-so-radical step of moving to self-directed learning. If you enjoyed this episode, and it inspired you in some way, I’d love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, post it to your Instagram stories, and tag me @mindfulmamamentor. Have you left a review yet? All you have to do is go to  Apple Podcasts or  Stitcher (or wherever you listen), and thanks for your support of the show! Takeaways: Examining the beliefs we take for granted liberates us from harmful patterns. Conventional education can be about being told what to do and enforcing that. There is no arrival point. Unlearning is the process. Akilah S. Richards hosts Fare of the Free Child, a lifestyle and parenting podcast about the connection between liberation, learning, and parenting, particularly among BIPOC communities. Her voice and work have been featured on NPR, NBC TV, Good Morning America’s blog, and in Essence and Real Simple. She is a TEDx Speaker, and author of Raising Free People. Get Hunter's book, Raising Good Humans now! Click here to order and get book bonuses! ABOUT HUNTER CLARKE-FIELDS: Hunter Clarke-Fields is a mindful mama mentor. She coaches smart, thoughtful parents on how to create calm and cooperation in their daily lives. Hunter has over 20 years of experience in mindfulness practices. She has taught thousands worldwide. Be a part of the tribe—we’re over 25 thousand strong! Download the audio training, Mindfulness For Moms (The Superpower You Need) for free! It's at mindfulmomguide.com. Find more podcasts, blog posts, free resources, and how to work with Hunter at MindfulMamaMentor.com.   Be sure to check out these deals from this week’s sponsors: Get 50% off your first month plus FREE shipping on ANY crate line with code HUNTER at kiwico.com. Get 25% off your entire order for a limited time with promo code HUNTER at braddockusa.com/. 25% off your entire order when you go to sakara.com and enter code HUNTEREARLYACCESS at checkout.

On this week’s episode you will be privy to an intergenerational conversation between mother and daughter, as our special guest is Marley @mrlamai, unschooler and SDE advocate.Marley and Akilah talk about some of the ways that the skills that come with self-directedness are translatable in our current context of being at home, as we figure out how to pivot away from scholishness. Marley talks about some of the experiences and differences that she had with friends that have been raised with a conventional schooling mindset in comparison to her unschooling peers.WHAT WE DISCUSSEmotional skills managementMarley shares what she perceived as a lack of emotional skills management that schoolish people tend to have, the difficulties in communicating emotions, expressing their needs and taking action on those needs. If people come from a place where they have the tools to communicate their emotions, identify boundaries and develop emotional skills management, they’ll be able to nurture healthy and trustworthy relationships with others and themselves.The skills that are honed in a self-directed practice show up quite usefully in moments of conflict. It’s key to be able to think beyond the reaction and be able to ask questions, and move away from the schoolish mindset of punishing the reaction instead of exploring the cause.Efficiency vs Long-term relationshipsAkilah talks about cooperative leadership, the importance of focusing more on the people that are involved in the processes rather than just thinking about the efficiency factor. They chat about how in SDE you can find ways to have efficiency from a human approach in a long term process. Unschooling needs to be seen not only from an educational framework, but also in how we want things to be developed in our own lives.Marley also talks about her experience on how to be financially responsible and how she still struggles with the fear of not being capable of managing her money: Scholishness shows up when you are not equipped with the skills that you need to act upon it, by being really hard on yourself.Think, Ask and ListenThey conclude that self-directedness is developed over time, and is a mindset that is applicable to everyone, though it can look vastly different for each person. A consistent deschooling practice will give you the tools to develop a connection with your emotions, needs, and boundaries, and those of others.LIBERATION WALKConnect with Marley on InstagramWant great content on plants and self care? Come get details from Val and Our Plants of Plant It Up Podcast!Shout out to Natasha Bazile, of our make-it-happen family! Check her podcast if you want to know more about education & guidance through your real estate transactionsIf you are hosting or are part of a Raising Free People Book Club please be sure to message Fatima@raisingfreepeople.com with the details about that book clubRaising Free People Network’s Presence Counselors Leslie Bray and Anthony Galloway, Jr. are here to support unschooling and deschooling processes for families and organizationsSubscribe to Akilah’s Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Episode 191 is all about the deeper work after we accept self-directedness, and get into the layers of transitions, consent, emergent structure, children and trust.We'll be chatting with Tiersa McQueen, and SDE advocate, wife and working mom of 4 children (including twins), who is serious on how to develop new tools for liberation-centered relationships. We’ll be making mad question’ askin on power, boundaries and decolonization. “I tweet for the Black married moms who homeschool. We outchea. Unschooler. Gentle parenting.” - Tiersa McQueenWHAT WE DISCUSSDigital community and liberation tools: Tiersa talks about how Twitter has given her the opportunity to discuss unschooling as a liberation tool towards she and her husband’s commitment to raising free people. Intergenerational trauma / intergenerational healing and unschooling: We move forward to Tiersa’s experiences with her four children. She describes her unlearning process as something that happened in a very organic way, by observing her children, checking the way they spent more time in things they were interested in, as opposed to the things she told them to do. It became an ongoing evolution of emerging structure. She also points out the importance of listening, returning to what learning already is, and to relationships with trustworthiness in ourselves and towards children.Let it be. Intuition, trust and relationships: Akilah and Tiersa talk about the importance of letting things just be, and how something apparently passive can open up so many possibilities. When we don't force any of the learning processes of our children, we can learn from what’s already happening, and develop partnership practices from that space.Relationships based on power vs trustworthy relationships: They also chat about how conditioned we are under certain structures that are supposed to work out as ideal to educate our children, Tiersa shares how good it’s been for her to unschool her children.Community and Self-Directed Education - Boundaries and responsibility: Akilah and Tiersa conclude by discussing how freedom includes responsibility, along with intention, therefore we need practice in our home environment to ready our children to be responsible in communal spaces. They talk about unschooling as a series of transitions to get to a deeper relationship, and a means of learning some ways to be supportive while also honoring our and other people’s boundaries.LIBERATION WALKCheck out Tiersa’s Twitter for great content and more insights on unschooling and self-directed education. Here’s also Tiersa McQueen’s Youtube Channel as another resource!Unschooling was in the New York Times! In case you missed it, it’s called ‘When You Get Into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion’ by Molly WorthenAkilah’s book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work is available! Get it at rfp.com/bookRaising Free People Network’s Presence Counselors Leslie Bray and Anthony Galloway, Jr. are here to support unschooling and deschooling processes for families and organizationsSubscribe to Akilah’s Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This week on Fare Of The Free Child Podcast we’ll have a mix of resources and liberation talk!Ieishah Clelland-Lange, writer, nomad and mother of Freeda (7 years old) and Toni (4 years old), will be talking with us about how to redefine power in our parent-child relationships. Thea @theamonyee of Shaping the Shift Podcast talks to us about The Blacker the Brain, the Free Joy Experience, and more opportunities to decolonize, reimagine, and heal. And we close out with a reminder to come see and share with us at RaisingFreePeople.com/book.WHAT WE DISCUSSAkilah and Ieishah chat about movement, location independence and community. Ieishah shares her traveling experience and how she sees it as a vehicle to learn how to be more engaged with earth and places in a different way. She also talks about how this dynamic changed in our current context and became an opportunity for her to settle into more fluid and meditative ways.Then they shift the conversation into partnership skills, observation and learning. Ieishah shares her experience before unschooling with Freeda and Toni. They talk about the burdens that we put on children, the expectations on how they’re supposed to manage boundaries and express themselves, and that when this happens, we are using tools of oppression (scholishness and colonization), trying to control their processes. By being aware of our limited knowledge of their process we can open our gaze towards a more observative attitude to look for alternatives. Ieishah experienced this with her daughters and started paying more attention to how they learn and the elements that facilitate the development of that knowledge, the space they needed. By doing so, Toni and Freeda started a process of self-awareness on how to manage their boundaries and understanding that they are allowed to make their own choices. Then they go deep and talk about redefining power in our relationships, what do you do with that power.They conclude by putting earth and childhood at the center of the discussion recognizing the importance of those two key things, parenting and protecting our children and the earth. What change can we be part of?LIBERATION WALKCheck on Ieishah Clelland-Lange travel blog, TRAVELKIN. She also wrote an insightful piece: Dying to be seen: The only time white mom groups care about Black lives. Why does it take a Black person’s death to acknowledge Black lives?Ieishah also wrote a piece for Tipping Points, the online magazine from the Alliance for Self-Directed Education (ASDE)Akilah’s book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work is available! Go to rfp.com/book to get it, and tell Akilah what you were feelin’ or what you discovered or what got you hyped... all of it. She’d love to know!Join patreon.com/akilah and support the show!Raising Free People Network’s Presence Counselors Leslie Bray and Anthony Galloway, Jr. are here to support unschooling and deschooling processes for families and organizationsSubscribe to Akilah’s Youtube Channel!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Another Mad Question Askin’ episode! Episode 189 addresses this question from our Make-it-Happen family:“Hi Akilah and community! Episode 182 with Genesis Ripley (Partnering with Our Pain) was so amazing! I need to listen again so I can absorb all the thought provoking things you both brought up. Akilah, you and Genesis mentioned Colonized Unschooling. I had this idea that if you do Unschooling with your family, especially Radical Unschooling you are automatically on the path to Decolonization. I definitely don’t want to do Colonized Unschooling! What does that mean? I think you and Genesis said something about how Colonized Unschooling is letting your kids do whatever they want and then supporting them. And this is related to the Colonial idea that white people think they own the world and can rape and pillage and dominate without caring how they are harming and impacting the community. So is Colonized Unschooling basically narcissism? What does Decolonized Unschooling look like? We give our kids a lot of freedom and support them in doing pretty much anything they want as long as they aren’t harming themselves, other people or the environment.”Moji Yai and Kris Richards share their responses as unschooling parents and social justice oriented people. Moji, who we've heard on Episode 168: Resistance + Returning, Episode 62: Deschooling Through Deciding is an unschooling mother and entrepreneur from Benin, West Africa. She recently moved back to Benin after spending much of her youth and adulthood in the U.S. South, and offers women and families space to study, an environment to explore, and a community to gather with, learn, play, and expand knowledge. See Moji’s invitations online at Wise African Woman (WAW). Kris has chatted with us on episodes 186 and 187 on the topic of community and capitalism, if you haven't heard don’t miss them! We’ve also heard Kris talk this season about Deschooling Corporate and Community Relationships and about the Ways Capitalism Invites Indoctrination.WHAT WE DISCUSS:Moji and Kris chat about their perspectives on decolonization and privilege as they relate to unschooling. Moji talks about privilege as ignorance, pointing out the importance of paying attention to pervasive whiteness and how disruptive it is to acknowledge, unlearn and shift away from it, by recognizing it and questioning how the things that gave you that sense of privilege are the things you need to let go of, so that your “privilege” becomes a useful tool for change.Kris sees privilege as something that the system sets and that we need to be aware of, but also take action upon, starting with introspection. Decolonization is not automatic, it’s intentional mindful work, therefore unschooling could not be “automatic anything-liberation-centered; it must be actionized and acknowledged, and practiced.They also talk about the connection between scholishness and narcissism. Moji sees schooling as a haven for turning parenting into narcissists, and gives us examples about how this shows up. Decolonized unschooling is not only about the children, it is about the parents too.Check the full show notes page here.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Here is Part 2 of an insightful, intergenerational conversation between Kris @iandidea and Romain (Rom) @pharo___ on the topic of capitalism and community. Both are college graduates with Marketing degrees, so their perspectives on capitalism in particular are nuanced as they work both as people affected by and carrying out some of the notions of capitalism. And they are not alone, as it is virtually impossible to untether from capitalism altogether. Still, we can critique it and we can imagine and build and practice beyond it, and this part of the conversation wants to usher in that type of energy.This week, they touch on some of the ways capitalism conflicts with our commitment to being in community with each other, and how we can shift and deschool by being more aware of the differences and implications between transactional vs human-centered relationships.Core question for you: How is capitalism showing up and influencing your relationships with young folks in your life?WHAT WE DISCUSS:Kris and Rom talk about the importance of recognizing a business entity for what it actually is, which means we must see them as entities, not human beings. By knowing this we can build more human-centered skills, make genuine human connections, begin to deschool our mindsets, and turn community-building into a familiar, effective practice.They also chat about the differences between communal spaces and businesses. Celebrities and companies have capitalistic based relationships, it’s transactional in that we can’t have two-way conversations, they’re only giving us information, a type of product propaganda, unlike community-based relationships where there is reciprocity and actual listening.They go on mad question-askin’ on capitalism and how it shows up as indoctrination in that we are led to believe that as long as we stay with the system, we can achieve certain life goals. This directly influences our expectations about what a person should be doing at a certain age: graduating from college, buying a house, owning a car, being busy. How then can we learn how to be in community/partnership and not in a constant transactional dynamic? How does capitalism affect childhood environments and our overall relationships?LIBERATION WALKAkilah’s book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work is available! Go to rfp.com/book to get it, and tell Akilah what you were feelin’ or what you discovered or what got you hyped... all of it. She’d love to know!Get ready for some storytime on patreon.com/akilah, if you ain’t over there yet, come drop your coin in the river and join our make-it-happen-family!Shout out to Maude and Javaughn and the whole Green Love kitchen crew, one of our fave, local community businesses!Raising Free People Network’s Presence Counselors Leslie Bray and Anthony Galloway, Jr. are here to support unschooling and deschooling processes for families and organizationsT-shirts of Raising Free People are here, courtesy of Blue Niles Studios, brother Tovijah, partner of Iitel of @smellgoodspaSubscribe to Akilah’s Youtube ChannelSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Facebook is improving ways you can advertise on their platform with ‘Dynamic ads.’ They have also just released Facebook Campus for college students to connect. Instagram now has an Equity Team and hired a new director for Diversity and Inclusion. Twitter is adding more context to Tweets that are trending to help censor those who are posting potentially harmful content. Youtube has added new features to improve your music playlist. This week’s Allyship Segment of the Week I share a podcast episode from Raising Free People called Choosing Learning Over Schooling. This is an insightful podcast for all parents, and especially those who are working from home with their kids attending online school. Catch all the links to these topics on our website: www.chilldigitalmarketing.com/weekinreview.

Today's episode features Shawna Murray-Browne, a community healer and the founder of Kindred Community Healing, licensed clinical social worker. Akilah and Shawna go deep and talk about the skill sets that allow a professional to see the whole person and how the quality of care is not taking into account the whole spectrum, the collective experience, because true healing happens in community. They also talk about collective trauma and what liberation looks like when we decolonize practices that have been rooted from a settler-colonial framework.Shawna points out the importance of relationship skills and collective healing by remembering our roots, how do we heal collective trauma? It's about thriving, taking therapy out of these containers, these concepts that have been naturalized as an only truth. She started a virtual space for mental health professionals who are looking to liberate themselves and their practices. You can find it on her webinar replay, 6 Crucial Steps to Decolonize Your Therapy Practice. Support and receive more quality content from Shawna, full of black healing, resistance and African psychology on patreon.com/shawnamurraybrowne. You can also find her on Instagram.We are also sending so much love to the people that have been affected by the multiple troubled and heightened realities happening right now. We are handling so many emotions at once, and it can be exhausting. Deschooling and self-awareness work can keep ourselves at the center of a collective liberation, and being in community can help us thrive in spite of the circumstances that we may be living in our daily context.ANNOUNCEMENTS:We are so excited because Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work book is almost here, click here to Pre-order.Don't forget that Kelly Limes-Taylor is offering an opportunity to get closer to self-directed practices through a process (in the form of a course) called Intuition Work.Another fantastic course, offered by Bayo Akomolafe, is called We Will Dance With Mountains, Let Us Make Sanctuary. Bayo has authored two books, We Will Tell Our Own Story! and These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home. He Also happens to be the Foreword author of Raising Free People's book, and Akilah will be joining Bayo for a session of his course.Shout out to our Make it Happen Family members! Thanks for all your support and love. If you want to become a member and get more quality content click here.Akilah was invited by Dr. Shefali Tsabary from Superpowered Summit to a summit event in September, Raising Resilient Kids in the Pandemic and Beyond, where 15 World-renowned Experts teach Resilience skills and mindfulness insights. You can register here!LIBERATION WALKAnother great resource from Shawna: Decolonizing Therapy for Black FolkSubscribe to Akilah’s Youtube ChannelSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Episode 182 is a mix of communal spaces, tools, resources and of course liberation talk. Genesis Ripley will be joining us to chat about shadow work and the importance of being more aware of our unconscious as we are moving into a more self-directed way of being. Genesis is an LA-based mother, natural learning advocate, decolonizer by design and unschooler momma. We’ll also be sharing some great resources and invitations to continue through this healing and self awareness process, and you’ll hear from Kelly Limes-Taylor and Chemay Morales-James about ways to do that work.WHAT WE DISCUSSKelly Limes-Taylor, is a former college professor and unschooler mother of five. Kelly speaks about the relevance in naming our failed structures and how these structures, built on a settler-colonial framework, are reinforced through conventional schooling. Kelly points out the importance of trusting our intuition and brings us a valuable resource: she is offering a course series called The Ours First Series in order to help adults to settle into the practice of listening to their intuition and themselves for their own answers. Another communal space shared by Chemay Morales-James from My Reflection Matters community, is a virtual co-learning community for primarily BIPOC families that can be looking for support in raising and educating free people. My Reflection Matters Village seeks to create a virtual space that supports caregivers that may be wanting or are already on the path of self-directed education with their children, offering access to resources that can help them in their deschooling processes. Akilah and Genesis have a conversation full of layers on the topic of liberation and healing work as it relates to the unconscious. Self-directed skills to embody the level of confident autonomy in partnership with children.Genesis shares the importance of Shadow Work and why we can't continue to contemplate the world in a binary spectrum, ignoring the nuances, ignoring the shadows that are also part of it. She also points out the importance of diversity as sacred, intellectualizing the plights and issues without the people involved is to dehumanize and undermine the voices that need to be heard. LIBERATION WALKGenesis wrote an insightful piece emphasizing anti-Blackness called Essay: Shadow Work as Embodied Anti-Racism WorkCheck out Genesis’ previous episode: Episode 39: Mask-Free RelationshipsPre-order Akilah’s Raising Free People book hereSubscribe to Akilah’s Youtube ChannelOrganizations like Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund are organizing collective help for Atlanta’s BIPOC families affected by COVID-19 – Please donateSupport the show at patreon.com/akilah Join our Facebook groupSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Akilah Richards is an unschooling mother of two, Tedx speaker and host of the widely celebrated podcast, Fare of the Free Child which explores the intersections of parenting, personal leadership, and tools for liberation-centered community. She is the author of the forthcoming book, ‘Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work’ due to be published later this year. This conversation was recorded before Corona and the onset of global homeschooling was even a thing! It is so poignant how much more ready for this conversation so many of us are now. If you have or one day will have a school-aged child, are thinking about choices in terms of education, and especially if your child is black or brown, you need to listen to this conversation now! Follow me on instagram @soulmamacoach Visit www.soulmamajourney.com/podcast for full show notes.

I loved my conversation with Akilah S. Richards and walked away with a much deeper understanding of the value of unschooling in America. Conventional schooling is deeply rooted in colonization, industrial progress, and control over our personal autonomy. Akilah is passionate about mindful partnerships and parenting. Since 2016 she has hosted Fare of the Free Child, a lifestyle and parenting podcast about the connection between liberation, learning, and parenting, particularly among Black, Non-Black Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Parents, educators, unschoolers, and entrepreneurs tune in weekly to connect about unschooling, deschooling, conscious parenting, and self-directedness. Discussions center around emotional wellness, learning and children, parenting, self-care, and self-love. The voice and work of this Jamaican-born, digital nomad have been featured on NPR, Forbes, NBC TV, Good Morning America's blog, and in several literary and in-person spaces throughout the U.S., Jamaica, and South Africa. The TEDx Speaker, digital content writer, and facilitator's highly-anticipated book Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work (PM Press), will be released in the Fall of 2020. “We can't keep using tools of oppression and raise free people.” -Akilah Richards Unschooling is a life design choice but it's also deeply linked to liberation and the idea of raising free people. Akilah's children, Marley and Sage, had a consistent level of pushback when attending conventional school and at one point, Akilah and her partner Chris started to listen to what their children were saying. While the girls were accelerating academically, they were shrinking emotionally. They had stopped asking questions, which is a very “schoolish” thing. Akilah and Chris wanted their children to have agency and autonomy and the journey has revealed a tremendous tie into the work of liberation. Unschooling started as an experiment based on what Akilah and Chris knew was not working. This began a process of “mad question asking.” The way of the world is schooling - is our job as parents to acclimate our children to that? The idea of unschooling is to help your child create a trustful relationship to learning. The American Dream seems deeply entrenched in this idea of conventional education as the only way. Unschooling started as an experiment based on what Akilah and Chris knew was not working. When they left conventional education they discovered that there were many rewards - many freedoms with travel and finances that they had not previously recognized or been able to take advantage of. A lot of what we see as educational issues are really issues of human relationships. Unschooling creates an environment to question and unlearn. Questions are the path. Mad question asking brings us inward into the feminine - how do you want to feel? In our school system, children are rewarded when they comply. Parents worry about socialization, but socialization happens everywhere but school. All people are indoctrinated into the “system,” but when you walk around in a Black body there is another level of suppression of your personhood which is why creating safe environments for BIPOC children to learn and develop confident autonomy is so important. Unschooling isn't just for rich people. The pandemic is offering us opportunities and parents are noticing a positive shift in their children. Covid is an opportunity to create a new normal in many ways including our relationship to education. Liberation comes with responsibility and accountability. It is time to decolonize our ideas of learning “The resistance is the roadmap, not a route to something else.”

We are so ready for some indoor plant tips from Plant It Up Podcast. As a close-out for the fourth season we decided to do one more episode with @valandourplants - you’re welcome :) And remember, Akilah will be back on August 12th with Season 5! In the meantime, listen as Val (Akilah’s resident plant lady who also happens to be her Mama!) talks about the importance of having plants at home and shares some of her favorites, along with the many benefits of each one. There’s a special appearance by Marley Richards too, ‘cause we ‘bout that intergenerational life! Enjoy!LIST OF PLANTS MENTIONED:Peace Lily, Rubber Tree Plant, Bamboo Plant: purify the air in the home and remove toxins from paintLavender: improves sleep qualityMint (Spearmint and peppermint): great for teas and drinksRosemary: great scent and helps with memorySpider Plant, English Ivy, Philodendrons: remove formaldehyde from the air at homeAloe Vera, Pothos Plant: maintain the quality of the air in the homeSnake Plant: absorbs carbon dioxide inside the homePalm plant: provides more oxygen and reduces dust levels at homeOrchids: beautifies the look and feel of the home LIBERATION WALKSubscribe to Val’s Youtube Channel and Pinterest pageListen to the first episode of Plant it Up Podcast: 'Cause Ginger Roots Brings Her JoyOrganizations like Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund are organizing collective help for Atlanta’s BIPOC families affected by COVID-19 – Please donateSupport the show at patreon.com/akilah Join our Facebook groupSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

We are so hyped about today's episode because the day of publishing, July 10th, marks our zeroversary, the 4-year anniversary of Episode 0! It's been quite a journey since Akilah started Fare of the Free Child podcast back in the summer of 2016. Even though it started from a painful place, we feel so very thankful to the community that has come from this podcast—our listeners and members of our Make it Happen Family—for the support and love through all these years. Here you can listen to Episode 0, Welcome and Why This Show, where it all began. Today, in the middle of some painful realities, we hold on to ways to move outside these injustices. We stay resilient through happiness, not afraid to speak up, from a space of awareness and love. We invite you to celebrate that with us today, doing whatever feels good for you.WHAT WE DISCUSSAkilah recently launched From Schoolish to Self-directed, an audio course in support of the transition that many are experiencing as this pandemic ushers in a swift shift from conventional learning ideas over to innovative ones that center people and learning in various ways, using technology and creativity more than memorization and predefined curriculum.To celebrate four years of Fare Of The Free Child, Akilah announces Raising Free People Network's first Presence Counselor, Leslie Bray, who you already have heard from and will be joining us on today’s episode. Leslie is a community organizer and will be doing one-on-one support for the people transitioning from schoolish to self-directed ways of living and learning. Here you can listen to previous episodes with Leslie giving us some insights: Self-Care + Sacred Space and Leslie Talks Conscious Community Collectives.Akilah and Leslie chat about boundaries and self-care as we are constantly deschooling, not necessarily transitioning.Part of the conditioning that we carry based on a schoolish mindset is the comparison. We’ve all been indoctrinated at different levels, and much of this conditioning comes from a colonized space. Comparing yourself and your children with others and their processes will duplicate a schoolish setting at home. Leslie invites us to put self-care (ours and our children’s) above all of these insecurities.Observe, ask, and listen, that is how you get to support, facilitate and advocate for your children. It is not true that being self-directed means that children have to figure out everything by themselves. The key is to figure out when is enough for you as a parent to help and advocate for them, by establishing boundaries in order to nurture self-care skills. Leslie also points out that we need different things at different times, as we are dynamic also our behaviors and practices at home will depend on each person and circumstances. Everyone is different but we all need communal support. You have to want to be free, you have to want to learn, and be willing to question everything you thought as part of your liberation work.LIBERATION WALKBook a free consult for Presence Counseling with Leslie Bray.Shoutout to Shawna Murray-Browne, community healer and founder of Kindred Community Healing. Here you can find Decolonizing Therapy for Black Folk.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Jamaican American Akilah Richards hosts Fare of the Free Child, a lifestyle and parenting podcast about the connection between liberation, learning, and parenting, particularly among BIPOC (Black Indigenous, People of Color) communities.In this episode, Akilah shares her journey from the traditional Caribbean perspective on school to Unschooling & Self-Directed Education. We also discuss school wounds and my openness to explore self-directed education as an option for my son. Connect with Akilah - Website | Instagram | TwitterResources mentioned in the episode:Fare of the Free Child: School Wounds episode The Alliance for Self-Directed Education: https://www.self-directed.org/College Admissions for Alternative Schooled (Article from unschooler in Austin, TX) Akilah's TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgbD1qrJ0c4From Schoolish to Self-directed (audio course): https://radicalselfie.teachable.com/p/schooltoselfPre-orders for Raising Free People book: https://www.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1145Shop Carry On FriendsOn Social @carryonfriends - Twitter | Instagram | FacebookEnjoyed the show? Please remember to leave a rating and review in Apple Podcasts. A Breadfruit Media Production: Twitter |InstagramSupport the show (http://glow.fm/carryonfriends)

We’re interrupting our Deschooling Release Party flow to focus on the energy of Mother’s Day. In this episode, Akilah and Aja will talk about the four mothers whose new are coming to join Fare of the Free Child on Raising Free People Network: Val Sinclair, Katrina Monique, Lou Hollis, and Aja herself.Aja chats with us about her relationship with motherhood and how it can impact our leadership and relationships. Her podcast, She Said, We Shed is a journey of discovery throughout the dynamics of what mothering can mean, and how types of mothering vary drastically, including the reality of Black Mama Trauma. We also introduce Plant It Up, a podcast where Val, Akilah’s mom, shares how the practices and dynamics of taking care of plants can be related to our own ways of interacting and connecting with the people around us. These stories are related to self-care and liberation work, a set of topics that lead us toward better understandings of human relationships. One of the other mamas is Katrina, whose podcast, How She Got Free, is inspired by a book that she and Akilah wrote together. Her podcast is designed to show us the benefits of sometimes speaking out from wounded spaces, it can be part of how we generate healing for ourselves and invite others to acknowledge and name their own healing needs too.How to be empowered when you don’t feel like yourself, to make a pause in your life and manage it after an altering shift? With “Grief, Growth, and Goals” the fifth podcast on the Raising Free People Network, Lou shares her experience after making massive changes in her life, the process of healing through self talk and embracing her vulnerability. Liberation and deschooling are inextricably linked, as the result of a joint work, based on experiences that had shaped ourselves and others in order to contribute on a healing and self awareness process and to continue on this journey we invite you to subscribe to all five podcasts on Raising Free People Network.LIBERATION WALKListen to Aja’s Podcast She Said, We Shed and subscribe to her email list at shesaidweshed.Join Katrina’s community, How She Got Free.Here you can preorder my new book Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work.Some insights from Aja on previous episodes, Healing Black Mama Trauma, The Practice of Reparenting Ourselves, Deschooling Intergenerational Trauma as Daughter & as Mother.Organizations like Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund are organizing collective help for Atlanta’s BIPOC families affected by COVID-19 – Please donate.Support the show at patreon.com/akilahJoin our Facebook group Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

At the top of this episode, I share the pre-order status for my book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work! If you enjoy this podcast, this is your kinda reading party right here. Pre-order your copy today.In this second deschooling release party session, we will be sharing thoughts with college professor and unschooler mother of five, Kelly Limes Taylor about the effects of our current times on all institutions, schooling and leadership issues being among the plights that we are urgently being called, as a society to face.Kelly invites us to consider the ways that our own patterns in life are often conduits for deeply valuable lessons. She shares her experience as a single mom, moving from a metropolitan area to a small town, moving on from divorce, and holding space, as an educator, for students who are feeling overwhelmed by the sudden shift in how education, outside of conventional school context, is being handled today. Kelly also speaks to the relevance of naming our failed structures, and how these structures, built on a settler-colonial framework, were not sustainable to begin with, and yet are reinforced through conventional schooling. Indeed, what learning actually is, and how it happens is not seen as a human approach, does not work in a reciprocal way, and we can’t limit that to academics, we are talking about connection of the whole self, not just the information-gathering self. Here’s an opportunity to relearn and reinventate; to observe all the ways the structures we’ve held on to are crumbling; here’s an invitation to notice a space to pivot and to heal. Image Credit:Photos of Kelly by I. and C. Tiller (her daughters)LIBERATION WALKListen to Kelly on Episode 105 (Love, Trust & Identity). Call Kelly by phone 706.314.9225; here’s her blog.Check on Kelly’s 2020 Voyage ATL Interview.Latinx Parenting supports parents in raising children with compassion & connection, while honoring ancestral roots, values, and strengths. Leslie Priscilla (Leslie Arreola Hillenbrand), wrote this epic piece with mad resources and zero sugar coating. Give Leslie her flowers.Organizations like Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund are organizing collective help for Atlanta’s BIPOC families affected by COVID-19 – Please donate.Support the show at patreon.com/akilahJoin our Facebook group Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This is the first episode of the Deschooling Release Party, Volume II for 2020. Today we will focus on the pivot, what is deschooling causing to pivot away from, especially during these particularly disruptive times. We’ll hear from Moji Yai, my sisterfriend from Benin, West Africa, who was raised in north Florida, and is now raising herself and her 10 year old daughter, Sena, in between the US and her home land, Benin.Moji opens our dialogue with a bit of her story on how she was led to turpentine, tapped from sap trees, and used to be part of the labor of enslaved Africans. Turpentine gum or gum spirits of turpentine, has been among the healing arsenal of brilliant black folks who have nurtured their relationships with plants and soil. They knew what plants to use and combine for many of the effects of their constant overexposure to the elements. The relationship that carries upon going back, returning to the origins to understand what might be forgotten or buried makes us pivot away from established systems, rooting through an intuitive-self that works in a collective way. Deschooling is about creating, creating new relationships and rethinking everything. Moji’s experience of returning to Africa with her daughter gave her another perspective, by interacting with the people, creating communication channels, observing, asking and having conversations without assumptions about the behavior or character that africans are said to have, a look without judgment, from a more human approach.As Moji describes, learning to live with your child is a beautiful thing, the way you talk to them and behave with them, among other things is going to be carried into adulthood, so, the way that you’re gonna gain the tools for communicating without control, violence, manipulation and so on are the key to sustain a healthy partnership.Be sure to check out Moji’s Upcoming Webinar (May 13) about the history and use of Pure Gum Turpentine. LIBERATION WALKHere’s Moji’s Wellness Spiral Podcast Series produced by RFP Network back in the summer of 2018, June to August, beginning with a brilliant episode entitled Disrupting our Disturbing Eating HabitsMoji is working on reclaiming Indigenous healing practices that benefit communities in Benin and the diaspora; here her blog, and her Instagram.If you wanna remember our first Deschooling Party, here is Moji giving us some insights Organizations like Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund are organizing collective help for Atlanta’s BIPOC families affected by COVID-19 – Please donateSupport the show at patreon.com/akilahJoin our Facebook group Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This episode was supposed to be the first of the Deschooling Release Party, Volume II. However, today’s episode features Marley and Sage, in response to an article from Good Morning America, and how their unschooling coverage got it all wrong.Earlier this month, the ABC Television produced a show and published a blog post about unschooling titled “I tried unschooling and here’s what happened.” I am cited in that article, and talked with the person that wrote this; I just didn’t know that it was for her to try out unschooling. In short, the article was problematic, so I wanted to address it in some kind of way, especially during this time at home with so many options for parents to put unschooling among their activities and as an opportunity for connection and growth.The problem with that article wasn’t about showing her first experience or describe what she learned, it was about framing it, and put it in as the concept of what unschooling is, ignoring the nuances and processes that lead someone to unschool and the level of compromise and dedication that Self Directed Education has. It wasn't taking into account several variables, the fact that it’s a self directed way of educational process guided upon the children’s natural interest, trust and some levels of access that are in their environment, the relationship that is forged with the people and life itself.Unschooling can be described as a partnership that will offer ideas that the child can accept or refuse, it’s about a dialectical process. The questions that might pop up are placed from an empowered space where the unschooler will offer ways in support of that, as we cannot frame people neither their learning process, it’s a constant resignification.Expertise is developed over time, observe, listen and ask.The second part of the episode is the audio from a video response I did to the GMA article, you can watch it here.Join our Facebook group for people committed to raising free people. LIBERATION WALKShare the response video about unschooling on your social media pages.Organizations like Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund are organizing collective help for Atlanta’s BIPOC families affected by COVID-19 - Please donate. Support the show at patreon.com/akilahSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This week, we continue with the series, Parenting Decentering Whiteness. We are talking about what it means to raise free people with Akilah Richards. And, returning as my co-host is Leslie Arreola Hillenbrand of Latinx Parenting.    Akilah Richards is a writer, unschooling organizer, and host of the Raising Free People podcast. In this episode, she shares why she decided to embark on the unschooling journey, what it means to trust our children, and how our children deserve to always be themselves. We have so much to learn from Akilah and her community. I'm honored to have her as our guest!   Show Highlights: How to strike a balance when children are all of a sudden put into a situation where they are no longer going to school.  Thoughts on how to become a better listener to our children What it means to trust our children truly and what it looks like in the context of parenting We don't need to be the resource. Instead, be good at listening and asking the questions. Our parents didn't mean respect. They meant obedience. It's easy to see how some of us are continuing those cycles of oppression. Akilah's shares her experience as a person and family of color in the unschooling space. We have a brief discussion on whitewashing and how it is in all kinds of forms because whether it's in your home or not when you step out into a classroom, you are also subjected to that in a different format, even when it's with amazing teachers. The importance of being very deliberate, intentional, and consistent about questioning the narrative and whiteness status quo Links (affiliates included): Akilah Richards’s website: https://www.raisingfreepeople.com Parenting Forward Conference - https://www.parentingforwardconference.com Join us at the Parenting Forward Patreon Team -https://www.patreon.com/cindywangbrandt Parenting Forward, the Book - https://amzn.to/2GB6eDB   *** EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com  

Akilah Richards: hosts this widely celebrated podcast, Fare of the Free Child, that features more than 150 episodes on Self-Directed Education among Black, Non-Black Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. She is the author of the forthcoming book Raising Free People, and she and her partner are raising two self-directed daughters.What Was Discussed:Last week’s episode is also inclusive of Black history when we discussed how Maleka and her daughter, Maddy, recognised how they were being treated and how they were able to connect to the unfortunate familiarity of all the “isms” (racism, ageism…) associated with that treatment, and take a stance towards their human right to exist without bias-driven, false accusations about their actions. This week’s episode will bring attention to how we tend to think of history in terms of things we survived, aka the big hurdles. While we have indeed survived many things,also have a history of knowing, and of leaning into what we “know good,” am I right? And on this podcast, we aren’t afraid to examine, to critique with love, to decide that some shit needs to change; that’s part of our healing workright? But we not going to overdevelop one wing and atrophy the other, so while the next several episodes will be about things we are working to change, let’s use this one to talk a little bit about our history of enoughness, of abundance, of applying old knowings to our lives in ways that work beautifully for us some Black folks. We are not only what we survive, we are that and so much more. We are comprised of the things we’ve always known that we can’t always explain to people in words but can feel it live it in our actions. This is a medley of episodes where past guests spoke from their own history of knowing something about themselves, knowing what was right for them, knowing that they needed to speak up even with the risk of what comes with doing so.I hope it helps you to tap into your own history of knowing what you know about yourself, this world, and your soul.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This week, we’re talking about the things that get in the way of our raising free people practice. There are many, but today, I’m highlighting three primary ones, poor baggage handling, systemic racism, and partner problem. I’m explaining each of these as I understand them, and I’m encouraging you to comment on this show notes page, or on social media using the #raisingfreepeople tag to talk about how you navigate, intercept, or completely shed the effects of any of these three effective barriers. Whether you’re homeschooling, unschooling, or simply shifting your relationship to one that embodies more conscious parenting and living, let’s work through these together!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

What can a home environment look like when the adults practice raising free people? This is the question of longtime member of the FOFC community, Chemay Morales-James. She founded the organization My Reflection Matters, a movement to provide personal and educational resources for young Black and Brown people to think critically about themselves and feel empowered to combat racial injustices wherever they are. She asked Akilah to speak to the home environmental conditions that are likely to nurture and support the development of free people, so Akilah does just that, talking about healthy ways to set boundaries, hold accountability, and otherwise practice emotional security and maturity. #BIPOCinSDE Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

"We need to have a conversation about developing a set of tools and a solidarity around raising free people who are also aware people. This is vital especially since we’re not using tools of oppression in attempts force our children into an awareness of our deeply unjust society. We need to normalize the conversation and safe space-making in takes to explore this, and this is one effort in that direction. We’re not raising children in a bubble, so the conversation and tools are an inevitably necessary part of the journey to raising free and aware people.  Raising free aware people is how we work toward dismantling oppressive systems – systems that they will inevitably face and be oppressed by, or systems they will face and benefit from while oppressing others.  It’s a cycle that we need to break, and it will not happen if we are not deliberate and clear about our intentions. Raising free, aware people isn’t a mere conversation topic, it is a responsibility we have in endeavoring to help transform our world."  - Zakiyya Ismail, growingminds.co.zaSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

Is mindful parenting sustainable? Can Caribbean people, for example, with all our deep familiarity in the art of loving yet intimidation-based parenting, actually learn how to consistently be in respect-based, partnership-centered relationships with our children? Can our children call us on our b.s. and still feel not only safe, but heard and respected for expressing their truths? Hell yes, and in this episode, we’re talking candidly about the beauty and the mess of how that goes down. We’re starting Season 4 with the perfect blend of discussions around personal and communal soulwork. We’re talking about the togethering of ourselves in terms of emotional stability and clarity inside the work of Raising Free People, and we’re talking about community gatherings in support of this work. Akilah talks with Maleka Diggs of Eclectic Learning Network about some of the stickier parts of conscious parenting, what she does to manage those moments, and what she plans on doing throughout the year to support her city and her fellow unschooling-minded parents as we deschool from broken ideas about parenting, education, and power. Maleka will be one of three featured panelists at this year’s Liberation and Education Summit in Clarkston, Georgia on February 2. If you can attend, you should. If you cannot attend, please consider making a donation in support of equitable Self-Directed Education spaces in metro Atlanta.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This summer, I had the privilege of meeting a visionary.  Ebony Janice is self-described Womanist, Scholar, Activist, Teacher, Author, Student, Artist, Preacher, Transformational Speaker, Content Creator, Healer.  More than self-described, I can attest that those labels don't begin to capture the energy, conviction, and what I would describe as a fierce joyradiating from this woman. Also mentioned in this interview is another visionary Akilah S. Richards of Fare of the Free Child podcast and Raising Free People.  At ~ 29:00 EbonyJanice and I go right to the heart of the matter — though the whole conversation was amazing and full of so much learning.

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 type of conscious parenting, respectful parenting, liberation-mindedness that is inclusive of the ones who tend to bear the weight of our unhealed wounds, our not-yet-adults. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

This week I'm sharing my plans to expand the Fare of the Free Child unschooling podcast community! I'll be producing a set of short-run series (podcasts that have a small, set number of episodes), and co-facilitating some Self-Directed Education training, and you should be part of that mix. I'll tell you how to get involved in those projects, and you'll meet Anjel Berry, a mother of five daughters, and a co-organizer for Imagimatics, a maker-space project for outside the city limits of Atlanta. So much goodness in this episode; the show notes page is lit!!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)

My pal Amanda is back with me for this episode. We have a much needed rant about dealing with toddlers. We also do some pretty deep work about our efforts to parent differently than we were parented. Sometimes that means looking at some of the traumatic experiences we had as children and then undoing that mindset so that we don't impose it on our children. Like it said, it gets deep. Show Notes: Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America by Stacey Patton   Friend in my head (and on Twitter) and fellow black mom podcaster, Akilah Richards is teaching an online workshop about raising liberated children of color called Raising Free People.   Some books that have helped me get some perspective on life with a toddler: No Bad Kids by Janet Lansbury Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D.   This TED Talk by badass Black lady pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris will open your eyes about the reality of how we raise our kids: How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime   Don't forget to binge watch Amanda's Youtube videos!   Website me:  www.htgawp.com   Email me:  htgawppodcast@gmail.com  Tweet me: @htgawp Rate and review me: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-get-away-with-parenting/id1084576130

In this episode, I'm pushing you a bit. Maybe more than a bit. The invitation here is one of accountability and self-inquiry, something I think is vital for us to move from talking to changing. For sure, dialogue is a powerful and perhaps a necessary catalyst for change and movement. But we can't stop there. So as you listen and you feel moved and motivated by what you hear from the folks who make time to share with us on this podcast: ask yourself this question: How am I participating in my own oppression and in the oppression of children, and what can I do toward a different experience.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/akilah)