Fare of the Free Child

Akilah S. Richards

Fare of the Free Child podcast focuses on Black people, Native Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC) families who practice unschooling and other forms of Self-directed, decolonized living and learning. Each weekly episode examines a particular way that we’ve accepted coercive, emotionally and physically damaging habits as a normal part of adult-child relationships. With a focus on deschooling one’s self, decolonizing education, and exploring radical self-expression, this podcast challenges and informs us to walk toward a model for living with children that believes in trusting and respecting children and ourselves. #fofcpod #raisingfreepeople

#61 in the Top 100 education for kids All time chart

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Top 10 Fare of the Free Child Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Fare of the Free Child episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Fare of the Free Child for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Fare of the Free Child episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Ep 264: From Schoolish to Sovereign to Savorist

Fare of the Free Child

06/29/23 • 36 min

In this episode, we'll explore the concept of savorism, a term Akilah coined to savor the spaciousness, slowness, and richness that comes from integrated unschooling.
Sit with us for storytime about how Akilah's family made the shift from conventional school to homeschooling to unschooling. It was an experience that caused her and her partner to pause, reflect, and listen more to their children's needs. Hear how they fought against the 'stuckness' of conventional schooling and forged their own paths.
This episode also gets into the important difference between pace and rhythm as we set out to design our days with our natural flow in mind.
Also, we send our heartfelt thanks to Megan, our fellow liberationist over at The Unschool Files, for her energizing words and strong commitment to the raising free people movement!
Links:

Shoutout to Meghan! You can learn more about her podcast, zine and Roam here:
https://www.flowcode.com/page/theunschoolfiles
Our dope beats are from these beatmakers:
https://www.instagram.com/akeemmuzikbeatz/

https://linktr.ee/Richeflex

https://www.instagram.com/sehratonin/
Other links:

https://youtu.be/PoMTrwRkZmk

http://mybrownbaby.com/2012/03/harmony-the-sustainable-alternative-to-worklife-balance/

https://savorcomplex.substack.com/

https://schoolishness.com/coaching/

https://schoolishness.com/savorade-coaching/

Support the show

Dig 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 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/

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Ep 155: What Are School Wounds?

Fare of the Free Child

01/23/20 • 16 min

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 as children competing not with other children, but with adults’ fears. School wounds don’t just happen in school, they happen because of the influence of school culture, and can happen at home, too. In this episode, Akilah engages mad question-askin’ out loud , about school wounds, and invites you to do the same.

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Ep 165: Social Distancing, Community Style

Fare of the Free Child

04/02/20 • 20 min

We’ve got three important invitations for you:

Deschooling Release Party :: This year's theme is The Pivot

Two 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: [email protected]

message me in our Facebook group or on Instagram (@fareofthefreechild)

3. Y’all Alright? A Complimentary Check-In hosted by Maleka Diggs of ELN for ASDE

One of the communities I appreciate, and continually learn and grow with is The Alliance for Self-Directed Education (ASDE). We recently decided to hold space for folks to share some of their feelings and experiences right now with this unexpected, and in some cases, undesired “being at home together all the time” situation. We’re checking in on how this is affecting young people and adults right now, and trying to get more clear about ways to be helpful. FOFC Family member, Maleka Diggs of ELN, will facilitate that discussion coming up this month, April, and I will be there listening and deepening, and would LOVE to have you sitting in that Zoom room right beside me! Be sure to follow Maleka online and keep listening to FOFC for the exact date and time, once that’s confirmed.

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Ep 217: Black folks in Montessori (Pt 2)

Fare of the Free Child

05/07/21 • 21 min

Hey y'all! Thanks for staying tuned and welcome to another Fare of the Free Child podcast episode. In this conversation we are sharing some feedback from Episode 216: Exploring Black Lived Montessori Experiences with Montessori and Anti-bias | Anti-racism educator, Amelia Allen Sherwood. Join us to hear from our listener-fam, Regina, who has a couple of questions about the history of Montessori and whether Montessori programs serve teenagers. We also have some special invitations and liberation tools that will enrich and help us strengthen our raising free people muscles.

Need-to-knows:

Don't miss our next Feel Trip with Amelia Allen Sherwood. We will be questioning and sharing great content related to Montessori experiences. Sign up here to join us live on May 11 at 8pm eastern.
SDE Weekend (Self-Directed Education Weekend) is coming! From 21st till 23rd of May 2021 “The SDE weekend is an “all you can (L)earn,” 3-day, international, online event in which you choose the sessions that match your intentions and participate as much as you want.”
In an effort to bring all of you more deschooling resources and liberation tools Raising Free People Support Suite has a Workbook material coming up in collaboration with Leslie Bray from P.O.U.R Podcast (Purposely Openly Up to Relationships)
In addition to those resources we have two Card Decks: One is focused on parenting practice and the other one is an overall Raising Free People practice

LIBERATION WALK

Shout out to Britt Hawthorne, Montessori educator who currently works in a collective liberation work
Check out the Kulima Montessori program
Press that “Leave a Voice Message” button on the right side of the site and let us know what do you think
Subscribe to Akilah’s Youtube Channel!

Join patreon.com/akilah and support the show!

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Ep 246: Listening Party for “P. is for Pain Points”

Fare of the Free Child

04/07/22 • 23 min

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”. - Domari

In 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 feedback

We 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 Resources

Dr. 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 WALK

Here 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

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Ep. 249: U for Understanding

Fare of the Free Child

04/28/22 • 29 min

This week we’re focused on the letter U for understanding in our P.A.U.S.E.werk. Listen as we talk about the language of conscious parenting, the difference between dialogue and discussion, and then some.

Domari and Akilah take us through some of their noticings about how understanding and control impact their relationships, and not just as mothers. Also, be ready for an insightful convo about an Instagram post where Ieishah Clelland (our Season 7 Co-Producer) questioned gentle parenting as a privilege. Akilah cites Dr. Sundiata’s distinction between dialogue and discussion as we question our relationship with understanding, and with discomfort. So much goodness in here! Pull out your pause pad and join us.

Madd Question Askin' Understanding Essay for people committed to Raising Free People

There is a link between Understanding and control, and in our efforts to become more partner-centered parents and caregivers,

we've got to look into that link.

Control is not inherently a negative thing,

but when control is our goal and we don't even realize it,

we can demand things from children

in the name of understanding,

when really what we're after is a sense of control.

Control is comforting.

Control feels like certainty,

yet comfort and certainty aren't always what's needed in a relationship.

Is it a child's job to be controllable?

Is it a child's job to give us a sense of certainty?

How do we impact children when we don't understand something they do?

And how much of our need to understand is tied to our desire to feel

like we're in control and we're sure about what's going on?

When are my efforts to control a child appropriate?

and when are they more about my lack of understanding?

Here’s a resource for working through the questions and feelings you will face as you let yourself ask better questions:

Restorative Justice and Conscious Parenting workshop. Happening Sunday, May 1st. Be ready for interactive exercises and group discussions, where we’ll learn the roots of restorative justice work, the basics of the restorative process, and how this supports your conscious parenting process, harm caused by supremacy culture, and other oppressive systems.

Discomfort is a significant part of understanding

Shout out to Ieishah who put this on the table and made us inquire about our relationship to discomfort. Ieishah reflects on conscious parenting and gentle parenting. Is our capacity for gentle parenting or to treat h

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Ep 206: Aja of She Said We Shed

Fare of the Free Child

02/10/21 • 36 min

Ep 182: Genesis Ripley on Partnering with Our Pain. Modern Shadow Work in Conscious Parenting

Fare of the Free Child

08/19/20 • 51 min

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 DISCUSS

Kelly 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 WALK

Genesis wrote an insightful piece emphasizing anti-Blackness called Essay: Shadow Work as Embodied Anti-Racism Work
Check out Genesis’ previous episode: Episode 39: Mask-Free Relationships
Pre-order Akilah’s Raising Free People book

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Ep 128: Happy 3rd Anniversary to Fare of the Free Child Podcast

Fare of the Free Child

07/10/19 • 51 min

On July 10 of 2016, following the brutal murders of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, I decided to publish a podcast about the ways that BIPOC families were handling the dichotomous life of constant fear amid a will to thrive, particularly as we endeavor to raise children who embody their liberation. It’s been three years as of today, and I am so grateful for the loving, vocal community that has formed as a result of me risking expression. So many brave, brilliant, and beautiful people have blessed our ears with their experiences, frustrations, wins, anger, and more. We’ve cried, laughed, envisioned, created, shared, loved, lost, and grown together, and I have no plans of stopping now; you probably don’t either, right? Then let’s keep this thang poppin’ with episode 128 where you’ll meet FOFC’s co-producer, Fatima Mookadam. She is a major part of how you’ve been able to listen and engage with the podcast over the past six months. Fatima is a South Africa based unschooling mama who has been using travel and deep self-exploration to fuel her deschooling journey. Listen as she and I celebrate together, talking about the ways this work is shifting and growing us, and why we’re so grateful for each other and the community that you help us to maintain through your listenership. Happy 3 Year Anniversary!!

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Ep 208: Lou of Grief, Growth, & Goals Podcast

Fare of the Free Child

02/18/21 • 23 min

Our featured host and guest during this week’s version of our month-long love fest is Lou Hollis of Grief, Growth and Goals podcast (#3GPod), a space for sharing insights about healing work while parenting after grief and depression.

Lou is a model and actress with more than 25 years of experience in the talent industry, both as talent, and as talent management and mentorship. Grief, Growth and Goals podcast (#3GPod) is a healing space where Lou chats with child talent, parents of talent, bookers, agents, agency owners, about business, but more so about managing life and staying grounded through it all.

On this week’s episode, Akilah and Lou speak about power dynamics in relationships and the importance of changing the narrative to advocate for their children from a partner-centered lens. Lou talks about how empowering it is for her to hear other people's stories, particularly how they’ve learned to raise their voices, and how that has inspired her to make sure she is showing up and sharing her spiritual transformation.

To meet all the hosts on our network, be sure to check out our main page: https://raisingfreepeople.com/network/

LIBERATION WALK

You can also watch the video version from this episode
You can listen to Lou on previous #fofcpod episodes: Episode 73: How Grief Unschooled Her and Episode 194: Language for Unschooling
Subscribe to Akilah’s Youtube Channel!
Join patreon.com/akilah and support the show!

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FAQ

How many episodes does Fare of the Free Child have?

Fare of the Free Child currently has 274 episodes available.

What topics does Fare of the Free Child cover?

The podcast is about Education For Kids, Parenting, Kids & Family and Podcasts.

What is the most popular episode on Fare of the Free Child?

The episode title 'Ep 155: What Are School Wounds?' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Fare of the Free Child?

The average episode length on Fare of the Free Child is 36 minutes.

How often are episodes of Fare of the Free Child released?

Episodes of Fare of the Free Child are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Fare of the Free Child?

The first episode of Fare of the Free Child was released on Jul 10, 2016.

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Fare of the Free Child

Akilah S. Richards

Top 10 Fare of the Free Child Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Fare of the Free Child have?

What topics does Fare of the Free Child cover?

What is the most popular episode on Fare of the Free Child?

What is the average episode length on Fare of the Free Child?

How often are episodes of Fare of the Free Child released?

When was the first episode of Fare of the Free Child?

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