Sophie Christophy lives in the UK and is unschooling with her husband and two children. She is a self-directed scholar and she joins Pam to chat about her personal Unschooled Master of Arts project: to explore the theory that the key to transformative social change is found via shifting parent-child education/child dynamics to a human rights model.
Quote of the Week
“I feel like just imagining our children’s adult experiences, experiences when they are older, when they are making much higher risk choices like to get married, or to buy a property or they are taking this job or that job or where they are going to live. Help them out by not disorientating them. Just allow them to be themselves the whole way then hopefully, when they reach the point of making those decisions, they are going to be so much closer to what they actually want to do, deep down.” ~ Sophie Christophy
Questions for Sophie
Can you share with us a bit about you and your family, and how you came to unschooling?
Last summer you started a personal project you’ve called an Unschooled Master of Arts. I’d love to hear the story behind it.
You’re working your way through Module 1, The History of Childhood. I find the distinction between children and childhood really interesting. With unschooling, we’re quite focused on children’s lives and parenting, whereas the concept of childhood is tightly woven into societal systems. What are your thoughts around that distinction?
What is one of the most interesting connections between your studies and unschooling that you’ve come across so far?
You’re coming up on one year now, what have you learned so far about the process, and about yourself? How well has it meshed with your unschooling lives?
You wrote an post on your blog a while ago exploring some ideas about consent in education. In it, you talked about negative stereotypes of children society holds and learning through mistakes. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts around this.
I know the issue of childism/adultism is close to your heart. Can you explain the concept and share a bit about the impact you see in our lives?
Links to Things Mentioned in the Show
Dr. Carlo Ricci’s episode, an alternative education professor who strong believes children are capable
The Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation
Sophie’s personal blog, “intersecting parenthood, childhood, education and consent”
Sophie’s Unschooled Master of Arts blog
Sophie on Twitter and Facebook
Episode Transcript
I am always eager to listen to the podcasts and have learned so much from all of them. This one though, wow! I am absolutely fascinated by the ideas that Sophie has around how ending childism could lead to less of the other -ism’s! I also love that she’s living the unschooling life herself by learning at her own pace and interest level for her masters of unschooling.
Right? So much to contemplate! And I’m glad you’re finding the podcast helpful, Sara. 🙂