Words from Akilah S. Richards from her website:
"This work is based on a particular core belief: We cannot keep using tools of oppression and expect to raise free people. Disrupting and deschooling from the practices that keep tools of oppression in place, is precisely the work done here. If you're doing this work, too, there's space for you here.
Raising Free People work examines the ways 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, RFP both challenges and informs us to push past coercion and fear, and walk toward a model for living with children that centers community, addresses social justice issues, and believes in trusting and respecting children.
Raising Free People™ taps into personal narratives and critical analysis to connect communities and open communication among families and intentional learning spaces that practice Self-Directed Education. Through storytelling, honest dialogue, and mad-question-asking, we share the vast and varied ways culture, race, and abilities are celebrated through liberation-minded living.
RFP is actively helping People of Color in Self-Directed Education (#POCinSDE) find and support each other, and the public sharing of these narratives support edupreneurs of SDE learning spaces in understanding some of the specific needs and challenges of the families of color in their communities. This work utilizes technology (podcasting, digital content writing, webinars) to have and to amplify the conversations and questions that create more anti-racism and anti-oppression learning cultures and living spaces
A big part of Raising Free People work is showing up, in person. I want to show up and do the work. If you need me in your community, just ask. I will always ask for compensation, and I'm always open and flexible about what that might look like based on your needs and mine.”
