Use Your Outside Voice Unschool

“A lot of the work of homeschooling, unschooling, is our work on ourselves. And the fact that we are all survivors of that system, and so have been deeply socialized to believe, ‘No. If you bring your kid home, you are totally going to fail them. There’s no way you can ever do this—this is how your kid is going to be totally marred and not get the best they could out of this life. Don’t you love your kid and want them to get the best?’ Even if you know that, intellectually, that is not true, the way that can trigger a trauma response, and trigger feelings, is still really deep. I think all of us, at this moment—particularly as the governor is like, ‘Peoples’ mental health has just gone out the window if they can’t be in the school’—all of us need to go back to what our grace is that we can offer ourselves that we made it out of that system with a different critique of it, and that we are trying to raise people that have a different understanding of that system. And be really patient with ourselves and the people around us who are freaking out because they pulled their kid and what the hell. ‘What’s gonna happen now?!’ That’s a thing.” -Carter Listener friends: if you’d like to give support, it would be really helpful if you leave a review on iTunes—and it need not be well-formed thoughts following the reflective, solo, quiet cup of coffee that seems to never be coming—it helps our podcast get found. Thank you! Episode recorded October 3, 2021 Producer: Brian Lane-Karnas

We unschool with backgrounds in dance, music, writing, and much appreciation for the arts. But, we are not using unschooling to create fertile conditions for the next concert pianist, and we resist conditions where kids are set up now for intense, external standards for (eventual) arts achievement. We chat about intrinsic enjoyment of arts, lifelong arts engagement, valuing process over performance, and fiercely protecting children’s (and parents’) deep self-expression. Episode recorded August 11, 2021 Producer: Brian Lane-Karnas

Unschooling siblings spend a lot of time together; a normalized experience for the unschoolers themselves, and a real contrast of experience for the unschooling parents witnessing. We talk about it! Episode recorded July 25, 2021 Producer: Brian Lane-Karnas

As COVID-19 “Education Recovery” plans and and panic rise, we discuss the unsaid aspects of recovery and what beneficial changes we have observed through the pandemic. Episode recorded June 13, 2021 Producer: Brian Lane-Karnas

COVID's over, back to normal--?!? Erg, not so much. Our conversation winds its way through what feels ridiculous to ignore at this time. Being mothers during pandemic with kids still not old enough for vaccination, evaluating narratives through lenses that have always resisted school, looking at what-is, showing up in the world as whole as possible. Episode recorded May 14, 2021 Producer: Brian Lane-Karnas