Tara McGovern Dutcher joins me to talk about neurodiversity, how we are all unique in our experience of the world, and how unschooling creates an amazing environment from which our individual gifts can shine.
QUESTIONS FOR TARA
Can you share with us a bit about you and your family? What is everyone into right now?
How did you discover unschooling and what did your family’s move to unschooling look like?
I’d love to hear more about your journey around neurodiversity. How do you define it and what does it mean to you?
I pretty regularly see questions like, “Will unschooling work for my autistic child?” How do you answer that question? What are some of the benefits of unschooling for autistic or neurodiverse children?
Unschooling is about cultivating a supportive environment that celebrates each child as a unique individual—helping them as they explore who they are, their interests and passions, how they like to engage with others etc. And how that changes over time. We sometimes talk about this as being a student of our child. It also means that our unschooling days can look very different from other families, doesn’t it?
What is your favourite thing about your unschooling lives right now?
THINGS WE MENTION IN THIS EPISODE
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Another awesome episode, thank you! I literally laughed out loud when you said the part about forcing schedules on someone who has difficulty with schedules, because of the way you said it. In a polite way, you exposed the collective insanity of people who believe life is about doing difficult things to learn, like that’s necessary for growth, always. Thank you for showing a different way!
LOL! Thanks, Alice! I love that it resonated with you. It makes so much sense, doesn’t it? 🙂