Akilah, I would love to be a guest on your podcast and invite you to be a guest on mine ❤

Wow. From a comment thread on a October 2023 Dr. Patton comment thread post, I come across you and the deeducation movement. Refreshingly fascinating. I'm about to dive in.

Wow. She gets down!!! 😮❤

So much wisdom here. So much encouragement. So many gems 💜💚🖤💎 funny how you sometimes just stumble across the exact message you need for that moment. As my family and I wrap up this chapter of land living and we are literally 10 days away from no longer have a house of our own, these words resonate deeply. I love your message about how the resources came first. I’m noticing this too…with each passing moment I am feeling more ready and confident about letting go of the pressure to perform to the cadence of societal norms, consciously choosing a path of my own, and encouraging my family to do the same. Much love, blessings and best wishes and your journey into your new era…and if sailing ever peaks your interest, you know where to find me!

❤ love this

Bit of (attempted) neutral criticism, take (or don't take) from it as you will. Aside from my personal opinion, which is that you seem oblivious the fact that you exert more 'white' privilege than even the most privileged of white people I know in my life, and that's kind of saying a lot. I think it's at the least, ...harmful(?) may be the right word for it. Only in the sense that you are publicly preaching this message with zero realistic context, potentially encouraging others in lower regional and financial settings to adopt an incredibly idealistic view and mindset, likely in their detriment, and one that is objectively not possible to universally translate to others lived experience, even in the most rudimentary sense imaginable. I believe I see the disconnect in your logic/presentation however, which brings me to my next point; you have presented here (as well as on your substack) a very uniform, archetype of a shameless narcissist. Likely, such an accusation will not resonate with a person with those traits, as self-deception is a core tenant of said complex. But I'll add some (arguably) less biased criticism as well, for the sake of adding more empirical 'substance' to this comment. Its strikingly ironic that you refer to your mentality as "savor complex" and yourself as a "savorist". I understand it to be a play on the age-old idiom, "savior coomplex", what you may not know is the historical etymological connection the two words hold, not to mention "savior complex" being another describer of your typical narcissist. Savior has an etymology of interest as meaning 'flavor, to asses using taste', (ironic in my opinion as I find your musings to be rather tasteless). I get the sense that when you say savor, you're thinking along the lines of "stop and smell the roses" type of interpretation. But you are actualky in a more literal sense, expressing it in a way akin to "self-importance" and "overinflated, highly egotistical assessment of your own ideologies", which adds yet another ironic twist, being that you specifically mention "unschooling" as being "decolonizing", and having that "savior-self" inner vision of your opinion, is exactly what produced the colonies people refer to in the context of "colonization", as such events would have likely not occurred in the absence of self-righteous, narcissistic, privileged individuals, such as... well, you know who. I'll lay out a full stop now. Good luck, may you hold true to your claims of wisdom integration.

❤❤❤

❤Sey wah sey.....drinking this nice and slowly as it meet my spirit as herbal tea. Massive gratitude and love for the works that move with and through you.

Wonderful introduction to these awesome language speakers!

Thank you for being you and the gifts you offer

😭🙏

❤

So dope fam!! I felt this shift coming, thank you for all that you’ve contributed, and I’m here for what’s next 🙌🏾❤️✨

My gooooodnessss. You didn’t have to, but you helped me understand even more about your process and I am grateful. Thank you for living out loud and letting us see the beauty and the savoring in real time.❤

woop! woop!

thank you!

So glad this vid came across my feed. So wise of you to take the time to integrate this incredible, absolutely incredible, segment of your journey. So excited for the next segment of your journey. I'll be following!

Thank youuuu Akilah! This is so beautiful. Your words, work, and presence have helped me tremendously in re-humanizing my approach to parenting AND learning. You have deeply impacted many lives. Very excited for what's next for you and the family!!

I accidentally came across this site while at a major crossroads in my life. I'm looking forward to learning more.

Congratulations!!! 🎉🥳🎉 Many people can go their whole lives without ever realizing that they've accomplished goals that they've set, or savoring the experience of doing so. I pray that you relish it! 💜I hope that your really revel in it!!💜💜 I have faith that this next leg of your journey will be even **MORE** rewarding than you anticipate or expect!!! 💜💜💜 Thank you for all you have poured into others in the community over the years. Sending biggest {{{HUGS}} and kisses to you and yours across oceans and continents as you leap to the next level!!! 😘😘😘

Yeesss! Congratulations! You did the work, the benefits are quite evident and now it's refocusing time. A new focus is ALWAYS a good thing (kinda like what's happening with me as well). Got get it, Akilah!

Thank YOU!!!

Thank you for this Marley, EVERY word is speaking to ME right now. In that I have deeply internalized all those messages as a child (which at the time, I was nowhere close to being good/perfect etc in their lens)...but I find that now in adulthood these messages are coming at me loud loud (from my own mind) towards MYCELLF. Although my child is born and raised free...I feel like for sure she can pick these messages up from seeing how I'm being with mycellf.

Say it, Marley!!

Wow! What intelligence! That literally brought tears to my eyes

🥲

Dang! I love this!! Wow! Spot on with what I’m currently dealing with not nearly enough views!

Totally. I love how much Diggs expounds that parenting is wrapped up in mental health and communication about that. It’s uncomfortable and there is a lot of work that needs to be put in which is why is why so many of us forego this.

Watch with captions.

Loved it! I am such a big fan of your podcast. Keep up the good work. I have no kids but am get engaged and my fiance and I are talking about these things now.

Yes!! Following the moon cycle and ebb and flow with the seasons. This is our rhythm. We're only four-ish months into deschooling...and I'm learning a lot. I so appreciate this video.

Thank you, Akilah, for sharing this truly life-altering work with the world! Sending so much 💜LOVE💜 from the Balkans!!! --Karen M. Ricks, Nomadic Chef & Radical Unschooling/Worldschooling Mom

white "educator" here. Thanks for the tips! Im working at a day care center now and Im fairly young and new to education but i feeeeeeeel the need for change and really i think ive always felt it. public school is the space that colonizes our minds, white black and brown. We are born ready to question, and criticize, and in public school we teach kids to be small and fall in line. It is so powerful to understand that this trauma that so many people share in the US and wherever the colonial schooling system exists is connected to so many of the problems we see in the world. I often feel conflicted and in need of guidance, and I don't really have any elders around to show me the way. Another effect of coercive school is that it severs the bond of trust between elders and children. I am likely the only staff member at my school who believes in unschooling, and I find the most challenging thing is when another teacher criticizes me for trying to comfort children who are under great stress with online classes and literal lists of tasks to do that are so meaningless to them. SO, I come to you and your videos, as unnatural and detached as that may be. I just bought your book, and the more I hear you speak, the harder it is to stay at my job. But I feel like trying to find an unschooling community would mean abandoning these kids who are inside of this oppressive space. Have you ever been in a situation like that?

So how do we teach every subject? Not all in one but they need to learn it . I wish there was something as a starting point.

Yesssssssssss Leslie! That part, i mean all of them parts....so good all of what you are saying. I love how when you simply let go of all these ideas that have been passed on, preconceived ideas and notions of what it supposed to look like and just start living and being with our children this is when the simple beautiful and wonderful things occur. We begin to notice ourselves! We begin to notice our children! Then we can start to pivot by changing or in layman’s terms switch up 😁. Start doing what works best for you and yours as FOFC Podcast has been sharing and saying for years now. Good stuff y’all!

Well said Maleka! Yes to learning to give ourself our moments when we need them and yes to radical self care as a preventive measure. I’m here for all of what you talking about!

I wish you could be friends with my mother <3

Yassssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

All Facts. Gotta stay fluid for out growing humans.

Thank you for saying this. I definitely have fears up here (pointing to my head like Maleeka) around screen time and I really spent the last couple months of the pandemic just allowing my kids to “binge” and you’re right, they are fine! The only thing now that gets me in here (pointing to my heart) is the ultra white shows. As Jay-Z says in Entrepreneur “Thru KZbins and Hulus shows with no hues that look like you do” and so I’m gently inserting more black shows and black media because I want me girls to see themselves whenever and wherever they can. I also am going to begin discussions around some fearful topics that come up in media, which I find are only fearful to me, my girls are more than ready to discuss candidly. No fear!

I love how y’all just UN-answered that question, lol! But seriously, that part about intuition is really and the idea of already knowing, on an almost spiritual since, is so what I needed to hear right now. Thank you! 🙏🏾

How did I miss this one?! Thank you for resharing exactly what I needed to hear today. 💜

Thank you for this. I NEEDED this. Just starting my journey of liberating myself & my family. I have never felt more free.

So true! And I suspect, as parents, we tend to fall down even more so at the nebulous divide between those pursuits society has perceived as falling into the classical and scholastic camp, 'versus' those that we perceive as falling into the digital / tech / gaming etc. realm. I suspect, as ever, that this might have to do with our own entrenched schooled-psychology and schooling experiences: many of us were *taught* instruction-style those pursuits and subjects that the schooling (and industrial) system deemed should be instructed, whereas digital interests were a whole new world for many of us (especially applicable to parents currently in their mid-forties or older!). Digital studies were a sideline feature of my schooling until I hit 14 or 15, and even then all of the traditionally-mandated subjects still overwhelmingly took the front seat. When it came to experience in the digital world, we were all expected - and motivated - to just pick-it-up as we went along. And of course, we did! It's funny how there's this break in many of our minds between '*this* needs to be taught and controlled' but '*this* pursuit can be learned autonomously, freestyle, without being taught'. The most profound learning I've witnessed in my family, both children and parents (and all the learning I can't see too, no doubt), has happened autodidactically. Dig deep, Peeps! You know it's our work to do... 😉

Show them the moves!!

I wonder are you deciding what’s appropriate and in appropriate? I feel like this depends on the child/ children... because for example, my 20 year old special needs step- child said to me this morning “girls are usually lighter skinned than men and that’s just the way it is” in another instance a few days ago, he insisted that a child we met was a boy because she had “boy hair” - she had kinky Afro puffs - so natural kinky hair texture is perceived by him as masculine- so I guess my hesitance is the socialization that will happen with media and then the undoing of these messages. I do see how all of this could also simply be seen as opportunity to communicate and instill critical consciousness and critical media literacy in them... but with my 4.5 year old, he is still working out the difference between fantasy and reality.

Another wonderful post, thanks Akilah! This reminded me of Oriah Mountain Dreamer's beautiful poem (and book) The Invitation, and her words: 'I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.'

I’d love to get your opinion on autonomy and media and young children... I’ve been only turning on tv for movie nights (Friday and Saturday) sometimes Sunday morning toons... my littles are almost 2 and almost 5 and we don’t have tablets yet... what I’m avoiding is commercials- advertising and also overstimulation- my almost 5 year old came to me just over a year ago having spent most of his free time watching and emulating the aggression of superhero’s and now I am afraid to give him the freedom to choose this freely- afraid that he will begin to act out again- afraid that he will hurt his little brother... what do you think?

JUICY!!