Fran Liberatore

Who here has heard of low-demand parenting and what are your thoughts? I have my own thoughts but I’d love to hear other people’s!

I homeschool and I'm worried about "school choice" Because I think it misses an opportunity to actually support children.

I homeschool and I'm worried about "school choice"
open.substack.com/pub/alifeuns...

EXPANDING CONSENT: PART I. Chapter One: My story I'm sharing my book on Substack, free to read.

I write a lot about parenting and educating in a consent-based way and I’m publishing a book, free to read, over on Substack. Go take a look if you feel like it open.substack.com/pub/alifeuns...

If you are a home educating family, are you *also* explicitly teaching your children the importance of supporting public education? If not, it’s time to start.

For anyone with kids in public school - there’s something you can do.

"AI nurses" as "good as any doctor": RFK hearing confirms he wants to take away people's health care Kennedy's prescription for American health: replace real medical care with a lecture about eating better

Can't blame you if you shut off the RFK hearing yesterday. His storm of lies was exhausting.

I watched it and the one throughline shows why Republicans love him so: He wants to take your health care away. Not just vaccines — all of it.

An analysis.

www.salon.com/2025/01/30/a...

Whenever people push back on me saying children should be able to make decisions, or at the very least participate in decisions, about their daily lives, I remind them that not so long ago women couldn’t vote, do most jobs, and were told we weren’t capable of rational thought and decision-making.

It’s a bit like if you were doing research on women’s rights and most of the research was people speaking to men, surveying men, interviewing men. I know people will say it’s not the same - but it’s similar. There was a time when people didn’t think women could think or speak for themselves.

I’ve been working on a proposal for my research into the way children understand and enact their rights in education settings, and it’s shocking how little research there is that actually involves children - speaks to them, gets their opinions and thoughts. (Especially younger children)

Hello hello 😉✌️

E1: "Tradwives aren't even trad" with Caroline J. Sumlin S2 of my re-vamped pod begins today! I chat to Caroline J. Sumlin about tradwives, capitalism, whiteness and what's actually "traditional."

E1: "Tradwives aren't even trad" with Caroline J. Sumlin
open.substack.com/pub/alifeuns...

That is all true, and it’s not really a democracy so there is that.

Who on here is advocating for queer youth and kids? I’d love to connect.

When school is harmful And home education is the only option (Part 1).

Wrote a piece about the ways school harms (some) children, and why not all home education is a choice. open.substack.com/pub/alifeuns...

100%!!!

Yes, absolutely!!

Ok let me try again: home education, if done from a children’s rights perspective, is a left-wing act.

I totally get this. I think unschooling has become such a broad umbrella term that perhaps it means almost nothing. But that’s not what I mean when I use the term!

Also, home education in all its many versions can be left-wing. It is absolutely not only unschooling/SDE that is left-wing!

I hear you. I don’t see unschooling that way - I see it as my children being self-directed and working in partnership with me, in a relatively non-hierarchical manner. I definitely don’t expect them to stumble into learning! We work together. Perhaps “self-directed education” is a better descriptor.

Actually I don’t particularly want to challenge people, just put it out there as an idea/fact.

Unschooling from a children’s rights & liberatory perspective is a left-wing thing, I challenge you to disagree 😬

This is awful, and also don’t you think homeschooling was used as a ruse? Clearly they weren’t actually home educating. Why did social services not follow up? Why did the school he was pulled out of raise no red flags? Personally i am for some regulation around homeschooling, and it’s also complex

Thanks that’s helpful. I still think school choice often comes at the cost of defunding public schools, in practice. If we could have both fully funded public schools and a variety of choice for our children - well that would be ideal!

Yeah the high-jacking of homeschooling by the right is infuriating. But also - perhaps it was always more of a right-wing thing? I know that John Holt didn’t mean it to be.. but were religious homeschoolers already doing it before Holt?

I’m not worried about that. I’m more worried about public funding doing to private (often religious) schools. That seems like it could be a possibility and I believe it’s happening already in many districts.

*that should say see through!!

As a progressive home educator, I am anti-school choice. Yes, we exist: leftie homeschoolers who are through the conservative agenda to strip public schools of funding AND equally believe children’s rights should be at the centre of public education.

As a progressive home educator, I am anti-school choice. Yes, we exist: leftie homeschoolers who are through the conservative agenda to strip public schools of funding AND equally believe children’s rights should be at the centre of public education.

Another day, another piece scapegoating teens. The way we treat and talk about teenagers and young people is awful.