Ep 156: Resources for Liberation Work

Akilah Richards: hosts this widely celebrated podcast, Fare of the Free Child, that features more than 150 episodes on Self-Directed Education among 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 We Discussed:

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 happening and beginning that process of shedding the programming and habits which can be done anywhere, anytime — even in a classroom.

Some homeschoolers are really low-key unschoolers who just need the set of transitioning tools. They knew that schooling wasn’t the right thing, took their children out of that system, are now doing some school at home and are beginning to recognize how that too is not enough because there are so many opportunities when your child isn’t in a classroom space to start to learn them and learn how learning works.