79 families spend a week together, many families already traveling full time like we do, many in a planning stage. It has been an amazing week, and we are overwhelmed.
We met hundreds of people, we would have loved to spend more time with and will probably spend more time with as we will cross each other’s paths intentionally or coincidentally.
Af Cecilie Felumb Conrad | October 20, 2019
A week in Granada, sharing experiences and vibrations, opening friendships and enjoying the soothing sensation of being sourrounded by likeminded people.
Project WorldSchool Family Summit was a blast on so many levels. Old friends and new people, sharing and caring, very intense, very meaningful. Week 42/2019 in Granada was not so much about the Al Hambra or the street art, as it was about the people, who in so many different ways live a life on the road.
79 families spend a week together, many families already traveling full time like we do, many in a planning stage. It was an amazing week, and we are overwhelmed.
We met hundreds of people, we would have loved to spend more time with and will probably spend more time with as we will cross each other’s paths intentionally or coincidentally.
Community is probably the one thing, travelers miss the most. This summit and the fact, we can all reach out to each other online, makes us feel part of a tribe now. We did a bit before, as we have been part of the online worldschooling community for about ten years, but now, we have attended a summit and been actually physically sourrounded by likeminded people in the hundreds, it has become more real.
We do need community. We also need to redefine it.
Community can be many things and as nomads, we have to redefine it, since we are not living full time in a neighourhood. I find it wonderful, we have met so many likeminded, and now we need to find a way to keep them all in our circles, to nourish the relations, as relations do not build themselves.
I am sure, the answer to this is more or less the same as always: Stay aligned with who you truly are, and you will be good. The spark of inspiration will be felt, and we will reach out to the right people at the right times.
Facebook is not the solution, it can be a helpful tool. But the solution is the inner peace, and the trust in both life as it is, and in inspiration, when it arises.
One of the defining elements of the summit to me, derives from an amazing radical unschooling mother of four, I met. Erika Davis-Pitre is 20 years in front of me, but our stories have paralells. We both have four children, and we both had them with a 13 years span. She has a HUGE heart, and speaks her truth with such a clarity it blew me away.
I want to be Erika, when I grow up!
Erika hosted several elements on the summit, about radical unschooling. When I first heard her, i had missed almost the whole thing, and just got the Q&A. This was enough to change my perspective.
You see, within the homeschooling and unschooling circles, there can be a lot of drama. There can be kings and queens, and there can be defining, excluding, even bullying. I do not want to define my family life by labels, and I simply get too exhausted if I have to be part of the fights within the groups.
I can easily explain why we do (and do not do) what we do, and I am beyond the point, where I need everyone to understand, even like our lifestyle. But I truly have a hard time coping with others telling me how to do it right or even defining my lifestyle as the wrong way of — my lifestyle.
So I have for a long time more or less just been silent. Once in awhile, I write something on the blog, but it is rare. And if I do, I tone it down a bit. I do not want to start a discussion.
One thing I never claimed to be was radical unschooler. As I have met too many rules for radicals, too many sentences beginning with “you are not at true radical unschooler, if …”
On the other hand one of the things that defines our relation to unschooling is, we do not separate the zones of learning hieracally: So we do not draw a line between learning the stuff you would normally learn in the school and the stuff you would normally learn in your other time.
We find it equally interesting/important/defining to learn to ride a bike to draw circles. We life without schools, and we do not cherish the academics over the rest of this life. We do not even see how academics schoolstyle is more academic than learned lessons from a walk on the beach, listening to music or other learning deriving from a lived life.
Radical unschooling is not about school. Or learning. It is about life.
If we need to learn greeting culture from all over or we need to learn latin, both are equally important.
So in that way it does not make sense to say, we are unschoolers, when it comes to shool-stuff, but not when it comes to other stuff.
Radical unschooling is not about school. Or learning. It is about life.
It is about the respect of all the individuals within the family, and their say in everything. The respect for everyone’s freedom, everyone’s ownership of own body and time, all of the relations within the structure of the family – and beyond.
So, radical unschooling does not mean, there are no limits and no yes and no. Radical unschooling, to me, is about the yes and no being said with respect and after reflection and conversation. It is about not misusing the natural power structure in the family, changing the balance so everyone is heard, strong or not, adult or not. It is about cooperation, being a family who facilitates everyone, including one self.
I am not as clear as Erika (but I shall rehearse every day and never give up, until I am!), but from this day, I will stand up for what I find right, and will call it by its name, not hiding from the conflicts and the dramas, but owning my truth.
I have found an amazing label for it: I shall call us radical unschooling worldschoolrers.
Another thing Erika convinced me, is we need to be a movement, we need to own our truth and stand up for it, speak up about it, as the world needs to see it. If we want to make an impact beyond our own families and actually change the world of childhood and the world of familiy realtions, we have to be strong. The movement is very big, worldwide, and together we can be heard. We more or less ALL have relatives and friends, who just find os crazy and it is empowering to meet so many people carrying the same truth.
So from now on, I shall speak up. I shall own my radicalness. I will learn how to talk about it and how to not defend but define it clearly. How to stay clear of the drama, yet be powerful in my truth. It will be fun.
Interestingly two of the women inspireing me to become an unschooler was actually attending the same summit. What do you know? We were a lot of Copenhageners at the summit, and it was fun, though it meant we maybe did not talk to as many new people. It was great to catch up with old friends. Old idols.
One of them is Luna, who I have learned so much from. She was already an unschooling mom, when we started our journey and it has been a gift to know her all the way. Another is Dawn, who used to be my neighbor or six years, and with whom I have had hundreds of inspiering conversations.
But for now it is not about unschooling, it is about minimalism. You see, I carry too much stuff around. I own too much stuff. Living in a bus is changing it, but I seriously need to speed the process up a bit.
My friend Luna is down to backpacks. More or less all they own is a carry on pr person. This I could probably never do, but I get so amazed by this full time traveling lady with 3 children, who can walk around with so few things I imagine it is just her wallet and phone.
I carry loads of stuff all the time, my husband even more, and this week has been wild. We are used to living in the bus or the van, so though we are used to owning less now, we are also used to being close to all we have. Deciding what to bring takes time, a time we have not had as we needed to be at the summit every day at ten. I find, the van/bus-living life suits us perfectly, as we are very practical as to what we own and how we organize it. Yet, things acumulate, and especially backpacks, and picnics tend to be full of too much. Any inspiration to this is welcome, and I shall write separate blogbosts about cutting down even more.
Of course, we all need to own who we are, and I am not an extreme minimalist as Luna is. I have known her for many years, and it is just part of her. But on the other hand, I can get inspired and now I really want this change.
It does not make any sense to want to travel the world, yet being held down by possessions. We need to change this. And it does not make any sense to travel the world, but not being able to walk far, because the bags, we carry are too heavy. My first step shall be to leave more behind where ever I am sleeping when I go for a walk.
The last thing I want to point out, I took with me from the World School Summit, is: I really want to travel the world with my children. I want to explore the inner world as it reflects the outer journey around the planet, and I want to learn the languages and the cultures, the art and structures, meet the people and meet ourselves.
We like slowtravel, and it has been great to build a true homebase in Catalunia over the first year of our travel. But listening to all of the stories, I re-connected with the nomad inside. I want to go explore again. I want to go to new coutries and new places, cultures I have never met before and places I have never been. It shall be fun.
Firstly, though went to La Herradura to hang out with other world schoolers for awhile.
Thank you for reading the blog. I write to share our experiences and perspective, and would love to hear yours. Please comment in whatever way feels right to you: Facebook-comment, personal e-mail, text-message, whatever you like. It brings a lot of joy in the bus, when we hear from readers. Thank you and may the sun shine on your path.
Not on vacation – week 44 / 2019