As I see it, this question is really the crux of the breakdown in our relationships with young people. This might or might not be the crux of it for you, I guess you have to watch Teresa’s session and see what comes up for you. You’re going to need some uninterrupted time to absorb this session. Also, some tissues.
In the opening session, Bayo spoke about the broader systemic issues in relation to schooling, education, decolonisation and about a new (old) way of seeing and relating to young people.
Later, Teresa brought us right up close to the personal and interpersonal, the other two key spaces that accompany the systemic contentions that Bayo shares.
Teresa is so generous in her honesty, in sharing her journey with fear and control expressed as powering over the children in her life towards one of partnering with them instead. Furthermore, the questions and comments that followed gave me a sense of community and solidarity as we all work through our fears towards safe, whole and connected relationships with ourselves and the people in our lives.
Teresa talks about one of her turning points that bring about the realisation that if she doesn’t change how she relates to the children in her life then the generational trauma continues and that completely resonated with me. YES! we have to break it.
And to do it with compassion for ourselves and our parents and parents parents. Thank you Bayo for this reminder.
I would love to hear what comes up for you in listening to Teresa’s session.
Mother | Wife | Unschooler | Education Freedom Advocate | Child Rights Advocate | Learning Reimagined Conference Convenor | She/Her
For the last 25 years, Zakiyya has been experimenting with living and learning in freedom, also known as unschooling. She is an advocate for freedom in education. Her three children have never been to school, living instead as if the idea of schooling doesn’t exist. She has been supporting and has been consistently sharing her reflections on the intersections of unschooling with decolonisation, social change and unschooling’s foundational role in social justice. She convened the Learning Reimagined Conferences of 2017 and 2018, both groundbreaking in their own rights with the 2018 conference being the first conference globally to focus on the socio-political dimensions of Unschooling, Decolonisation and Social Change.