Fare Of The Free Child

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, Ho

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 st

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 system

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

This episode is a combination of resources and links to invitations that will help you as we are raising free people:My dear friend Trelani Michelle, writer, storyteller, and founder author of Krak Teet, shares her experience with her 10-year-old daughter, Kobe, in response to my question about some of the wonderful, deschoolish things we might be noticing nowadays.If you pay attention, you’ll notice how Self Directed Education helps to build healthy self-governance skills for our children, like Trelani mentioned. It can also, as you’ll hear from Racquel in this episode, usher in changes in the experiences around the learning and relationship-building process among siblings, when connection is left to be more organic, less imposed, and more of a partnership.These and other stories are the reflection of the opportunities that we can take advantage of, to see what is forming and being discovered among the families. Such insights make us aware and move us towards a more reflective attitude, because sometimes we

We’ve got three important invitations for you:Deschooling Release Party :: This year's theme is The PivotTwo Locations:Right here on FOFC Podcast and inside FOFC FB Group for post-episode conversations.I'll drop the dates on social media and share them with you here when I confirm them, but we're definitely starting this month, April, 2020, so stay tuned.      2.  A Request for Your “Noticing “Stories Join me in amplifying stories of the wonderful or insightful things you may be noticing now that your child is at home more often. I am curating a collection of stories about how, during these days of unexpected, and for some, undesired, school at home situations, some parents or caregivers are noticing little WONDERFUL WAYS that learning is happening, joy is happening, fear is subsiding, in relation to their child. I want to hear your moments:- leave me a voice memo on raisingfreepeople.com- email me: she@akilahsrichards.com- message me in our Facebook group or on Instagram (@fareofthefreechild) 

Dr. Sundiata is an Independent Educator, Anti-Oppression Activist, & Social Sustainability Facilitator. He is the co-creator of GROW, a network of people and initiatives designed to promote and create social, economic, and political systems centered on Liberation, Sustainability, and Unconditional Love. He is passionate about helping people discover the power of Authentic Dialogue, a communication framework that leverages complex issues in personal relationships and organizations to help them generate solutions that foster deeper understanding, cohesiveness, freedom, and trust. Dr. Sundiata is also the host of the Theory of Indivisibility Podcast which analyzes the evolutionary origins, current complexities, and future of our social, economic, and political systems, and serves on the board of Heartwood Agile Learning Center, a K-12 independent school that facilitates Self-Directed Education in the metro Atlanta region.A few Mad Question Askin’ Moments:What is the systems theory and how did it originate?Wh

This is is an opportunity to raise up out of what we are used to doing and that the practice of unschooling can help with that. A chance to put a few self-directed practices in place because this is where we can get super schoolish and just react to things around us, tossing healthy personal leadership aside.  Times like these remind us of the importance of collectivism and community, to be able to check in with each other. That we can look at the ways we can ensure we’re not being a source of emotional weight on our children, family, selves. In the middle of the potential chaos is an opportunity for community; an opportunity to contextualize what it means to be ourselves together.For many parents their children will now be home for longer periods than expected. Start practicing your observation skills and pay attention to the feelings that are showing up for you and in your children, gauge how you respond to the anxiety children trigger, see what they do to occupy themselves when you back away. These opportu

A few weeks ago, on Episode 160 we talked with Aja about the pain of being raised with trauma through the vessel of Black mothers, and her new podcast She Said We Shed. In that episode, we talked about “why” she’s doing this podcast and “what” the problem was...in detail. Those of you who listened to that episode (if you didn’t, please go back and do so) because in this episode, we’re going to continue that conversation and touch on “how”. She Said We Shed will not only look at and discuss the impacts of toxic mothering but also how to move into and within practice mode. Aja will speak on learning how, what and why we need to begin shifting our awareness in order to heal ourselves and treat our selves and children with respect and love.Aja has been focused on this work and we believe it would be useful for us to hear about the direction--the pivot. Also In this episode, we share a clip of She Said We Shed’s first episode! In this clip, Aja takes us into her personal story and the impact her mother has had on

SOME OF THE TOPICS DISCUSSED:-  What do we mean by “raising free people”?-  What does it mean when disabilities intersect with Self-Directed Education? -  How do students with disabilities thrive in this educational philosophy? -  In what ways are needs unmet?  -  How do we define disability in a society where ability is the default? And, who gets to define this term? - How might we be unconsciously perpetuating ableism in our SDE communities? How do we best respond? - How can we be the best facilitators, parents, supporters and practitioners of Self-Directed Education for young people with all kinds of bodies and minds? 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. #BIPOCinSDES

We’re excited about Aja, whom you’ve heard on previous podcasts and one of the things she’s now doing is her own out-loud deschooling.  This is work that is near and dear to us and is healing work, like all deschooling is.  It’s moving outside of all of the different ways that we have been steeped in and informed by trauma. Much of the work we talk about here on Fare of The Free Child is to try not to perpetuate it, to try to recognize the ways that it has us so that we don’t weaponize it.  Aja’s healing work is specifically related to her relationship with her mother and that’s what’s being discussed today.  She’s going to go from just having a conversation about it to really having this massive movement around legacy shifting related to Black mama trauma.  Can adults and children deschool together?  Aja and her son are in transition mode from homeschooling to deschooling because in addition to deschooling herself, she has decided that her son is going to as well. It felt contradictory not to do so, she felt

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 t

Libraries are learning centers too, so let’s make sure our deschooling aka decolonization work, includes our interactions in our local libraries. There is energy and effort, through The Alliance for Self-Directed Education (ASDE) to help make libraries all over the US havens for self-directed families. Unschooling mother, organizer, and equity trainer, Maleka Diggs has also been giving energy and effort to expanding her local library in Philly, to be more supportive of fostering learning and empowerment through self-directed environments. In this episode, Maleka and one of her daughters, Maddy, are sharing a recent example of how ageism and racism can convolute the purpose of impact of our community spaces such as libraries. You’ll hear about the level of shade they experienced, and you can stay in touch with Maleka through her newsletter and Patreon community to find out what is being done. Support the showDig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang

Support is one of the biggest hurdles in developing the confidence needed in nurturing and raising free people.Does your socioeconomic background affect your capacity to recognize and receive support?What does support need to look like for you, specifically?How can you find YOUR people, not just SOME people, as you seek out support and community?How can you communicate your support needs to your family and friends?What are some ways to invite more specific support in your life?How do you show appreciation for support without overextending yourself?Support the showDig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. Thank you!The Raising Free People Practice Card Deckhttps://schoolishness.com/market/rfp-a-practice-deck/Peek at the details of Personal Manifesto Path (will be available exclusively through our make-it-happen family on Patreon)https://www.rfpunschool.com/p/manifestoOur Youtube channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@fareofthefreechildThe Vil

Liberation work - is reclamation and transitional work. It is the shifting away from something harmful for many years and not our norm, because the norm is NOT oppressive tactics disguised as education, parenting, inter-generational living.Deschooling is shedding the programming and habits that resulted from other people’s agency over your time, body, thoughts, or actions. Designing and practicing beliefs that align with your desire to thrive, be happy, and succeed. Deschooling is part of unschooling, and unschooling is a lifestyle and learning approach.Unschooling is a child-trusting, anti-oppression, liberatory, love-centered approach to parenting and caregiving. It is also creating and expanding communities of confident, capable people who understand how they learn best, and how to work collaboratively to learn and to solve things.And while unschooling isn't something everyone will want to do, or need to do, deschooling is for EVERYONE, even people in school because it’s about recognizing what’s happe

In episode 154, Sage, a 13-year-old unschooler, talked about her frustration with the ways that there is this allegedly measurable, observable boxed in idea of how learning happens that is prioritized over an individual person’s process for understanding how they learn, pursuing their interests, and creating their own courses of study, and their own schedules and to a large extent, without the pressure of needing to turn into a job or something quantifiable to someone outside of themselves. This is something Sage noticed from being in a lot of different SDE learning centers and homeschooling and unschooling centered communities and events. She is in a position, as someone who travels with her family to be in community with other unschooling centers and collectives, to hear the patterns of the types of questions and concerns that parents and other family tend to have when they allow children to self-direct their education. Though they want their children to feel “free” schoolish ideas prevail, often showing up

What is the best unschooling structure?How do unschoolers learn structure if adults aren’t telling how to manage their time?How will unschoolers learn how to manage time and tasks if they just do what they want, when they want?The answer is that they don’t *find* structure, they create it, and then they develop the personal leadership skills, IN PARTNERSHIP with willing adults, to refine that structure where needed, but mostly to support the structure.You and I had very little practice using our actual interests and curiosities to dive into, design and develop, and refine a way of spending our days in deliberate studies. The truth is that we’ve mostly experienced structure as a tool of oppression, not as a personal leadership tool, and certainly not a tool of liberation.Sage joins me this episode to talk about structure in unschooling. Support the showDig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. Thank you!The Raising Free People Practice

Are children inherently untrustworthy? Where does the evidence point to children being untrustworthy? Do children need time to be taught trustworthiness? Does Freedom and trustworthiness come with being a human being? Are adults afraid of their children growing up untrustworthy ur unsuccessful? What is our approach in raising trustworthy children? How do we trust young people? What is the connection between children learning and trust?What is unschooling? A form of self-directed education; phrase by author, educator in the 70s named John Holt. What is the difference between homeschooling and unschooling? Unschooling does not enforce any particular curricular nor does it have pre-determined ideas of what children should learn.  Unschooling does not mean unparenting. Often means liberation work. It’s a child-trusting, anti-oppression, love-centered approach to living learning. Rooted in consent, respect and confident autonomy,  Helping children to build self-confidence.Support the showDig this show? Join our ma

Dr. Rocio Rosales Meza is a Xicana intuitive, energy worker, healer, and coach. She has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and is a Reiki Master. She comes from a long line of healers from both her maternal and paternal lineages. Dr. Rosales Meza’s mission is to facilitate mental, emotional, and spiritual healing for Black, Indigenous, women of color from an ancestral and decolonial perspective. She does this work through using her training in psychology, her ancestral wisdom and medicine, and her psychic, empath, and intuitive abilities. Through her work, she guides women of color to break the cycle of the colonial trauma that is holding them back, that is keeping them stuck, and that is harming them in ways they don’t even know. Support the showDig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. Thank you!The Raising Free People Practice Card Deckhttps://schoolishness.com/market/rfp-a-practice-deck/Peek at the details of Personal Manifesto Path

Val Anderson is in her sixties, yet she is practicing conscious parenting. Turns out that connection, respect, listening, and regard for boundaries are not just for toddlers and their doting parents. Parents who have raised their children into adults and are now developing language and norms that see that person as an adult, and not a perpetual child. In this episode, Val, who happens to be Akilah’s mother, is sharing some of her practices for being more present, more connected, and less tied to the oppressive adult-child dynamics she saw all around her. Listen close and share wide as Val talks about her deschooling journey from conventional Jamaican parent to raising free people, including herself.Support the showDig this show? Join our make-it-happen family at patreon.com/akilah to make sure we can keep this thang going strong. Thank you!The Raising Free People Practice Card Deckhttps://schoolishness.com/market/rfp-a-practice-deck/Peek at the details of Personal Manifesto Path (will be available exclusively