Ep 266: Starting a Journey of Trust and Discovery with Unschooling

A 6-minute offering for the beginner’s path.

Start a journey of discovery, trusting that learning comes from various sources - many of which can't be measured on a conventional scale. May this bonus 6-minute offering on Fare of the Free Child serve you well! Be sure to listen to Episode 265 for more on the starter/beginner path too!

We're throwing some critical questions in the mix with some MQA, inviting you to question the rules and agreements we've held ourselves and our children to.
 As we navigate the path of unschooling, we'll explore the profound impact of trusting the autonomy of children, and of avoiding performance and external validation in favor of self-inquiry and self-knowledge. This is your ticket to embark on a journey of trust and discovery. 
 
Join us again in the next episode for more tools to walk the talk in this work of raising free people.

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The Raising Free People Practice Card Deck
https://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/manifesto

Our Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@fareofthefreechild

The Village:
https://my-reflection-matters.mn.co/

Episode Transcript

Akilah (00:05):
Six minutes, six minutes , six minutes.
Kila, Kila, you're on, on, on,on on what y'all know about it.
I could not add another minuteto last weeks' episode, But

(00:41):
there was some more.
There was some more.
One of the main focal points ofthis last season of Fare of the

(01:06):
Free Child is to offer someguidance for different paths in
the unschooling walk, and lastweek episode 265, I focused on
the beginner's path and thislittle six minute offering is
aligned with that beginner'spath.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
We often think about these safer ways for our
children to be in relationshipwith their evolving selves, with
their discovery, with theirlearning, with their peers, with
their inner worlds, and reallyunschooling is not a solution or

(02:00):
a prescription.
What I'm noticing as I havemoved beyond the perception of
unschooling as a destination isthat really the point?
The focus is not on some endresult in terms of whether it

(02:21):
worked or how it compared toconventional school.
The journey, the decision tomove away from convention,
whether that is in the form ofnot going to school, not ever
beginning or not continuing, oran adult supporting a child who

(02:43):
is in conventional school Tobegin unschooling is to begin to
allow for the discovery to beat least as much of a priority
as the curriculum.
To begin unschooling is to bemore inclusive about where

(03:04):
learning comes from and moretrusting of learning that cannot
be measured.
To begin unschooling is totrust that what you can see and
measure in learning is surfacelevel shit.
To begin unschooling is toslowly detach from the comforts

(03:32):
of clarity.
To begin unschooling is tobegin to notice all of the ways
that you, as an adult inparticular, have not questioned,
shit that needs questioning,rules and agreements that you

(03:54):
have held your children to, or achild in your life to, or your
inner child to, rules andagreements that you have held
them or yourself to, that nowget to be questioned.
Unschooling is less about whatto do and more about what can I

(04:20):
stop doing and when I stop thesethings, what am I noticing?
What am I witnessing?
What am I beginning to be in adifferent relationship with?
What am I witnessing Every timeyou set out to do something in

(04:42):
unschooling?
A question you can ask righthere at the beginner's path is
in this decision, what am Itrusting?
Am I trusting a long held,unquestioned pass down fear?
Am I trusting the possibilitiesof what can happen when my love

(05:03):
and support is met with achild's autonomy?
Am I trusting that if I don'tforce or manipulate that, things
still happen, that I am not thecontroller and the light and
the way of all the things in ayoung person's life?
Am I trusting the currency ofbeing able to say to another

(05:29):
adult or parent that my child isdoing this, this and this.
They're in line, they'rethriving, they're smart, they're
beautiful, they're worthy?
Am I trusting that I need toperform that or am I trusting

(05:49):
that building a relationshipwith this child in my life, or
this inner child, is less aboutperforming and external
validation and more aboutself-inquiry, knowledge of self,
trusting one's capacity to doand be without being told what

(06:12):
to do, how to be.
What am I trusting in thismoment?
And if you wanted to say thatin the affirmative, because
questions can be mantras what amI trusting in this moment?
Questions can be mantras, andif you wanted to turn that into

(06:36):
something in the affirmative, toplay with the energies and see
what really sits with you, youcan say I am trusting and then
say what you want to trust afterthat.
I am trusting that building arelationship with my child can
no longer mean forcing them todo what I think they should do.

(06:57):
I am trusting that, even thoughthis child still wants to go to
school, even though I'm so surethat they don't need to be
there, that there are things Ican do in support of that human
as they make the choice thatfeels right for them.
I am trusting that I will notbe sending my six-year-old to

(07:20):
school because something in mygut says it's not going to be
okay.
I am trusting that feeling,even if it's just for now.
What am I trusting on thisbeginner's path?

Akilah (07:38):
So you know.
The full transcript and shownotes for this is available
anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Find Fair of the Free Child onYouTube, on Instagram F-A-R-E.
Fair of the Free Child.
Thank you for listening andchat to you next week.