Issue 3: The Unschool Files Z I N E

Issue 3 August 2022

this zine is a labor of love. the contents have been︎

collected + curated by meghan, the host of The Unschool Files Podcast︎ ︎ if you have acquired this outside of the subscription,︎ please send at least $1 via ︎ PayPal/ theunschoolfiles@gmail.com or Venmo/ @iamsilenth︎ ︎

OR ︎ a mutual aid fund of your choice and send ︎ a screen shot to meghan@theunschoolfiles.com︎

Community Minecraft Server for Unschoolers Meghan pays a young self-directed person to build + maintain a Java Minecraft Server for Unschoolers.

If you’d like to join in for community building projects, demolition, and to connect with other Minecrafters please submit a request form to be whitelisted here

Lynnie age 13, unschooling in Italy

You Don't Have to Go to Work a semi-epic poem for young adults of all ages

by Blake Boles You don’t have to go to work.

You don’t have to take a boring job, or a frustrating job, or a soul-crushing job.

You don’t need a job at all.

You can read a book, you can ride a bike.

You can wander the world, you can stay put.

You can listen and think and talk and dream.

There are a few things you must do.

You must find meaning, purpose, belonging.

You must feel useful—and be of genuine use.

You must find your unique way of serving the world.

You must accept challenge, fear, discomfort.

You must do good work.

But doing good work is not the same as going to work.

Serving the world is not being someone’s servant.

Being useful is not being used.

You can choose your challenge, choose your fear, choose your discomfort.

You must choose, in fact.

Otherwise they will be chosen for you.

You have no way of providing everything you need.

Even in the simplest, purest, most untainted society—you could not do this.

You need us, and we need you.

So you must get good—at something, anything.

And you must be good—so we can trust you.

That’s all you have to do.

Get good, be good.

Serve your tiny slice of the world.

Embrace a form of discomfort that others reject.

Find ways to be useful that don’t drive you mad.

If you go mad, you can’t do good work.

If you go mad, it’s hard to be Flee every place that drives you mad.

You can stay and try to reform it.

Or you can vote with your feet.

It starts in school.

If school helps you get good, and be good—then good.

If not, fly away.

School, like work, is a package deal.

Certain discomforts bundled with certain advantages.

When the deal is good, take the deal.

It can be hard to know when the deal is bad.

Money, grades, status, credentials— social signals muddy the water.

You’ll know when you start dying.

Take this literally.

Your health declines, your thoughts turn dark.

You don’t know why you get up each day.

Stop right there!

Don’t go to school!

Don’t go to work!

Even if you “must” go, you can stop going, inside.

You can do the minimum required to get by.

You can hatch your plan, plot your escape.

Cut costs, save money, buy time.

Begin with weekends, evenings, early mornings.

Eventually you can buy weeks, months, years.

Use this time to run experiments, to be the mad scientist of your own life.

Explore other sources of belonging, purpose, contribution.

Discover your usefulness, your service, your goodness.

Young people: this means self-directed learning, volunteering, entrepreneurship, creative projects.

Old people: this means self-directed learning, volunteering, entrepreneurship, creative projects.

Why should it be any different?

Each is a little experiment in meaning-making, discomfort-embracing.

Each asks: What is essential?

What is good? What can I add?

What is worth doing in my brief time here?

Most experiments fail.

Run enough, and eventually one will work.

This becomes your path through the world.

Instead of accepting the package deal, Assemble a constellation of experiments.

This is what success looks like.

Success is waking without fear of the day to come.

Success is exhilarating stress, happy exhaustion.

Success is finding yourself by losing yourself.

Success is making someone else’s day better than it otherwise would have been.

Success is contributing to the human project.

Success is being missed if you don’t show up.

Success is feeling spaciousness, having options.

Success is being in control without minding the destination.

Success is doing little that you must, and much because you choose.

A poor person can be more successful than a rich person.

A bad student can be more successful than a star student.

The unemployed can be more successful than the employed.

You don’t have to go to school.

You don’t have to go to work.

You do have to find your way.

And you will.

My name is Roan Allynlee (they/he) I am a multi-racial, non-binary self-taught artist and unschooler.

I have been drawing since I was seven, I am now 15.

My art explores polytheism, paganism and fantasy themes.

Underneath the fantasy are hints of my process with identity and transition. I work in both digital and traditional mediums.

W hat does

Unschooling look like for you?

Repsonses were collected from unschooling families on Instagram

Hello, I am Lucy and I am eleven years old. My favorite parts about unschooling are traveling and having the freedom to explore interests that I want to.

This is a drawing I made of a girl named Nikko and she is half alien.

She likes candy, The Beatles, stuffed animals and playing with her friends. She is thirteen and lives in Iceland.

Her favorite food is cheese ravioli.

www.blackworldschoolers.com

www.bookshop.org/ shop/blkwrldbooks

#FORTHECULTURE

Shop online and! book the bus ! to come to your city!!

Black Worldschoolers

began with our decision to leave the school system and continue with a desire to help positively shape how Black children see themselves in the world.

Our unschooling journey has allowed me (Natalie) to witness first hand through my children how reluctant readers can become flashlight under- the- cover -readers just by reading and hearing stories that are relatable and enjoyable.

I want that for all children.

So, December of 2020 we launched Black Worldschoolers Mobile Bookstore online and June 2022 we debuted

Indianapolis’ first bookstore on wheels.

In a world where we are inundated with negative imagery, harmful stereotypes and false history about Black people, our

bookstore shares stories that uplift Black life, Black heritage and Black joy!

Think bookstore on wheels with ice cream truck energy (Outdoor speakers included!)

We desire to provide access and awareness to our stories as well as excitement and engagement around reading. We would love to bring the bookstore to your city.

Visit our website to shop books, merch, or to book the bus and bring us to your city!

www.blackworldschoolers.com

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok Share our story with your community!

Don't see the book you're looking for? To place a special order, please email Natalie at info@blackworldschoolers.com

A fan podcast by Vesper, an 11 year old unschooler from Michigan

Everything you’ll ever want to know

About Wings of Fire

Also check out the blog at wingsoffirelostheirs.wordpress.com

Sticker page

Thanks to a member of the community, Meghan was able to collaborate and create images for GIFs, to be used as stickers in unschooling Instagram stories – search “unschool” or “the unschool files” to use them!

What would it be like, if we abolished all schools...? !

By: Bria Bloom! ! !

It’s a new day, and when I wake up to sunlight streaming in through the windows, I don’t hear the kids playing in the school parking lot next door. !

I haven’t heard them playing now for seven days. ! !

I used to be jealous of them. Wake up and look out my window to see them playing together, laughing, yelling, the noise carrying across to my room. ! !

Now I know they are somewhere, playing. Not just for twenty minutes at recess, after wolfing down their lunch so they could play longer. Laugh more. !

No, now they’re playing for as long as they want. !

It’s a new day.

Jealous. I was only jealous of the play.

I run downstairs to my friend at the door, this early, like he only used to be on Saturdays.!

No more waiting until 3pm, eagerly watching to see his car drive home, wondering if he can come out and play or has homework today.!

No more bouncing back and forth listening to the kids next door play, for ten or twenty minutes only, but feeling jealous of their connection. !

No more friends in school while I am home. Free, but lonely.

No more friends in school. !

No more anyone in school. !

! !

!

You’d think the freedom for me would be enough. !

That I could be home, or wandering where I want to, while others have to be confined to their buildings, their bells, their homework, their school-obsessed parents. ! !

But it wasn’t enough. !

Not when all my friends were in school. !

Not when I was younger, before my community, unable to jump on a bus on my own and find people. ! !

I waited then, ! for my friends to come home from school. !

I waited and I wished that they didn’t have to go. ! !

Freedom was nice, but theirs was tangled up in mine. !

Their lack of freedom affected mine. ! !

From my loneliness to my sadness they had to suffer there. ! !

You’d think it’d be enough to be free. ! !

It wasn’t.!

Bria is a life-long unschooler who grew up in the 90s and 2000s in a small suburb outside of Seattle, WA. Unschooling communities were sparse, and homeschooling was frequently synonymous with conservative religious families. !

She used to wake up to the sounds of the children playing at recess at the catholic school right on the other side of the fence. !

Hello Dear readers of The Unschool Files, My name is Seth Hawthorne, and today I’ll be giving you all a brief rundown on our newspaper club, The Apple Gazette, where we write serious and playful newspaper articles, create entertaining media like games and horoscope readings, and even create hilarious weather updates on our YouTube channel, BrooklynAppleTV! Sometimes we even add a photo segment to the end of the newspaper, and it’s a very nice way to look over what we did for that month.

Here is a picture of some of our newspaper club members!

The people shown below from left to right, top to bottom are; Seth Hawthorne, Oliver Khost, Josiah Hawthorne, Manuela Concha, Kyra Hawthorne, Beatrice Beckler, Zoe de Pedro, and Marisol Concha

I know I’ve already gone over most, if not all of the aspects of The Apple Gazette, but we’d like to suggest some newspaper articles and videos that we’ve made! My personal favorite that I published, (I’m the one in the blue and white sweater), would be “Top 5 Items To Vandalize From Your Own Home.” In this article, I go over a list of things you can steal from your own house, if you ever wanted to partake in the “devious licks” TikTok trend where you stole outrageous items from your school, but felt left out for being an unschooler.

Frequent writer and founder of the newspaper club Marisol Concha, (she’s the one in the beanie), says her favorite article written by herself would be “One History of Thanksgiving,” where she goes over the real history of Thanksgiving. It’s a very informative piece, and I highly recommend it!

She as well as Charlie Blaise also happen to be the main reporters for our somewhat-not–so-really-accurate weather updates on the BrooklynAppleTV channel.

Charlie Blaise, the main editor for the horoscope readings as well as another frequent writer, says his favorite newspaper article written by himself is “BAA Opens New Location!” This short article also happens to be the first joke article published by an Apple Gazette member, and does a good job at humoring the reader! He’s also the writer of “Hubbism, The New Fad!” It’s a newspaper article where he interviews one of our priests on our religion, Hubbism.

Yes, we made our own religion. Feel free to read the article if you’re curious, or if you’re looking to convert to Hubbism.

The Apple Gazette has lots of great issues and articles for you to read, which all can be found here at https:// voiceofthechildren.nyc/blog/, and be sure to check out the BrooklynAppleTV YouTube channel to see our wonderful weather reports! Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I sincerely hope you all enjoy what we have to offer.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna take a well deserved nap.

www.patreon.com/applegazette

A prompt for unschooling parents from Maria (unschooling parent of 2, Manitoba Canada)

We are Holly, Izaak, and Q (age 10). We live and work from our studio apartment in Los Angeles, California.

Holly learned about unschooling in 2009 while reading a neurology book about how humans learn, and it had a list of alternative education methods. That was the first time they read the word unschooling.

They didn’t have a child at the time, but were discussing education because it was a hot topic among friends in San Francisco.

Q was born two years later and has never attended school or done any type of curriculum.

Izaak and I had already been down the path of public education, and we found it lackluster, despite being on opposite ends of the experience.

I was often in trouble, and Izaak was in the gifted program, attaching his self worth to his achievements.

And yet, none of the things we learned in school were life-changing for either of us.

We had the same interests before attending school that we did after.

Choosing a different path for Q was scary because we were accepting responsibility for a larger portion of our child’s life, but we didn’t feel we could do more harm than school.

We chose for Q until age 6, and then we toured a handful of schools in our area, and she chose to stay home.

For Holly, unschooling means “non-linear learning alongside the people I love.”

Izaak often says, “There is value in all knowledge.”

For Q it’s about “Open learning, autonomy, and filtering societal judgement. I need to fail in order to learn, and I’ve found that a lot of adults aren’t okay with that.”

Together we enjoy walking around Koreatown, especially late at night.

Once a week we meet up with our local unschool group at the beach or to play games.

Our individual interests have varying levels of overlap.

Q likes: role plays & character creation (Roblox, Minecraft, D&D); language (Japanese); games (strategy, animal habitats, genetics); writing (dragon stories); cuddling; drawing; making found-object sculptures.

Holly likes: people (especially queer and/or neurodivergent); languages (Japanese, Spanish, German, Pawnee, Korean); reading (philosophy, astronomy, evolution); food (cooking & trying new foods).

Izaak likes: writing (D&D campaigns); playing strategy games (D&D, Dota2, WoW, Diablo 3, Catan, Betrayal at House on the Hill); Star Trek (TNG, DS9); music (playing drums, keyboard, bass, listening to Rush & other prog rock); language (German, Klingon).

If you’re interested in connecting with us, I’m on The Unschool Files Discord server @creativeholly My private Instagram is also @creativeholly, but you may need to message me on Discord first if we don’t have mutuals.

If you’re local to Los Angeles, we regularly attend HSLA community events.

@DomariDickinson unschooling parent and coach domaridickinson.com

Special Thanks SDE To Patreon Partners

If you’d like your CO-OP, SDE Center or ALC to receive two copies of the print zine and a shout out in the next issue, head to patreon.com/theunschoolfiles to become a partner!

The Unschool Files Community Zine is publishing 3 times a year.

Subscribe on Patreon to be on the mailing list for a printed copy in

August, December and April or purchase individual copies at theunschoolfiles.com

from the Back to School issue of the Youth Liberation Now! zine

designed and distributed by an unschooling teen named Lark in North America

Jake, 16 Unschooling for 8 years!

I felt I needed a change in my clothing around age 14 (I’m almost 17).

I usually just wore whatever my mom said was cool. Not because she made me, but because I didn’t care. And it was just clothes.

I startedwith some streetwear, wanting to develop my own personal style. I branched out to mostly thrifted goods shortly after. Mostly from Austin area thrift stores or online second hand shops.

I would go to the thrifting and find stuff that wasn’t like what I normally wore and style it in my own way.

My style changes from day to day based on whatever I’m feeling (and whatever is clean).

Weather doesn’t entirely matter.

The elements I look for in stuff I buy is, a bit oversized, 2000’s ish, and somewhat grandpa core. I really like button ups with tank tops underneath (paired with baggy jeans) for summer.

Jewelry is always needed to complete an outfit. I wear various necklace’s and rings.

I’m really looking forward to cooler weather to be able to wear some heavier fabrics and sweater.

Unschooling Podcasts to check out

Would you like to see your work featured in the unschool files community zine? please send all submissions to be considered for the next issue of the z i n e to meghan@theunschoolfiles.com