Radical Learning Talks

Many adults spend so much time preparing kids for adulthood in ways that society has predetermined as the necessary or “right way”. Yet, we don’t realize that this comes at the expense of their childhood. And, many of us have even lost touch with what childhood is all about. In this episode we talk about the clash we often see between what many adults seem to want for their kids, and the societal pressure and fear of the future that disconnects us and our kids from the essence of childhood.

We like to think about deschooling as meeting and expanding beyond our edges into new versions of ourselves that better align with our desired way to live and show up in the world. But what happens when our change rubs people we care about the wrong way? What happens when we or they don’t quite feel like we belong anymore? In this episode which is coming out juuuust in time for the holidays, we talk about what can happen when our transformation causes friction with others and how to stay true to ourselves while honoring where everyone is at.

Raising kids with respect, consent, autonomy and freedom in our society is definitely going against the norm. It can then be very confusing to see our free-ranged kids question their independence and freedom, push back against limits and behave in ways that society would easily label as “spoiled or bratty”. On one hand, it’s easy to blame our parenting and on the other, let’s face it… it’s triggering as fuck and hard to deal with. In this episode we explore all of it, including some big triggering moments and how we are learning to be more gentle with ourselves as we and our kids balance between freedom and responsibility.

Language and how we use it are important and can be one of the many ways we either move towards or away from individual and collective liberation. So many of us are questioning systems of oppression in our deschooling work, yet if we aren’t vigilant we can easily slip into old ways of thinking, speaking and behaving - especially when we are faced with language and ideas that rub up against our current beliefs. In this episode we talk with our friend Meghan from The Unschool Files about language policing and advancing the liberation movement through solidarity. 

Kids are usually brought up to tell the truth, but the truth is adults lie all the time. So, why do we lie? What does it do to us and to our relationships? How does it make us feel? And when kids lie to us - what is that really about? And what can we do about it? In this episode of Radical Learning Talks we explore the phenomenon of lying!

"What's the magic word?"; "Say thank you/hello, "; "Sit up straight".... We have either heard these things, been told these things, or said them to others (most often our kids) and the question is who made up these invisible manner rules and why are they so important?! In this episode we look at manners and begin to deschool and unpack the layers of belief, fear, criticism and judgment around them and examine how, as a society, we have been told how to act and behave at the cost of authenticity and - worst of all - the relationships with our kids.

For us, the main role of unschooling parents is to support our kids to be who they are and explore their independence, autonomy and critical thinking. The question then is how do we as parents support our kids to navigate their own evolution while being faced with the pressures of societal norms? And, in our case, what can that look like for a neurodivergent teenager and their parents? In this episode we dive into it all as Becka shares her perspectives and experience with her soon to be 18 year old son as he transitions into adulthood.

This is a deep episode where we share personal stories around how we’re deschooling shame and guilt as it relates to pregnancy, birth, miscarriage & abortion. For us, it means looking at how we have responded to and internalized societal expectations on experiences that are both profound and personal. We also talk about what that’s done to our confidence and self-worth, and how we are working to heal from so much of the harm that we’ve been exposed to.

What happens when our partner or co-parent doesn't seem on board with unschooling? Or, they say they're on board, but they don't seem to undertand and/or engage in the deschooling process. And what does being “on board” even mean?  In this episode we share our experience and perspective about the traps we can find ourselves in when we feel we aren’t in flow with our partners in our unschooling journey and how we can repeat the very systems of power that we are trying to step away from.

"Is my kid really gonna just sit there and do nothing?" This is a question we hear a lot and have even thought about ourselves during our own deschooling process. It comes from moments of fear and lack of understanding of what is really going on for our kids. In this episode, we dive into what can actually happen for kids that are deschooling, what happens for adults and how we can support our kids in their deschooling process without slipping into control or fear.