La Rééducation: An Unschooling Interview with a Mother and Daughter

An episode of La Rééducation, a Quebec web-series on education, featuring an interview my mother and I did last April, is now out!



The first few minutes are of my friend Marike (unschooling mother and one of two people behind the freeschool starting up in Montreal), in French, and our interview starts, in English, at 3:44.

I find it interesting seeing this now, a year after it was recorded, as my answers to Mathieu's (the guy who put together this series) questions, the things I emphasized, would definitely be different were a similar interview to be conducted now.  Some of my opinions on unschooling have definitely changed (though nothing specifically mentioned in this video), I no longer really differentiate between unschooling and radical unschooling when I'm talking about it, and similar things...  Regardless, I'm pretty happy with what my mum and I had to say (mostly me...  Sorry for hogging the interview, mom!).

La Rééducation and La Déséducation (part 2 and 1 of this series, respectively) are currently only available in French, but a translation is in the works, and soon they'll be available in English as well!  It's a very interesting look at education in Quebec, it's problems, peoples opinions on it, and some marvelous solutions...

Unschooling Publicity in Montreal

A few months ago, my mother and I were interviewed, in person, by a journalist from La Presse, the largest (or one of the two largest: not quite sure) daily French language newspaper in Montreal.  She was writing an article, not just about homeschooling, but specifically about unschooling.  How exciting is that?

In Quebec, alternatives to traditional schooling are even less well known than in the rest of North America.  I've even heard one friend suggest something along the lines that when the Catholic church lost control of the hearts and minds of Quebecers a few decades ago, school stepped in to fill that space!

Saint Joseph's Oratory. (Source)

At least churches are prettier. (Source)

But regardless of whether or not that holds true, the fact remains that homeschooling, and especially unschooling, can be difficult here in Quebec.  The law is ambiguous at best, having one line mentioning home education, and saying only that students must receive an education "equivalent to that received in school."  What exactly "equivalent" means is left open to interpretation, and basically means that the school boards interpret it to mean they have full oversight of all home educators, and home educators interpret it to mean they can do quite well without any school board involvement, thank you very much.  Because of the many troubles school boards can cause, at least half the home learners in Quebec are "under the radar": not registered with any school board.  School board policy states home learners must be registered, but since the actual law says nothing of the kind, it falls into a legal grey area of a kind.  Freeschooling seems to be even less legal, from what I've heard and seen (not that that stops people from starting a freeschool, which is awesome, in my opinion!).  Which is all just to say that educational alternatives in Quebec are very, very far from the mainstream.

But back to the article.  I was excited to know that someone was interested in sharing unschooling with such a wide audience in Quebec, but also rather leery, considering how badly slanted media pieces have been in the past, when talking about unschooling.  We (my mother and I, since the interview request was for me and any/all of my family members if they were interested) came very close to turning down the interview request.  But I discussed it a bunch with my family, since really it would be putting a spotlight on all of us, no matter which one of us was being interviewed, talked a bit to Wendy, who'd already been interviewed over phone with the reporter, and her positive experience talking to the journalist in question was enough to finalize our decision.

So my mother and I met the reporter and photographer at one of my favorite places to sit down and have tea, a co-op health food store and cafe.  And, you know, we talked about unschooling!  And also had a lengthy photo shoot.  Both the photographer and the journalist were very nice, and though as soon as we left I started thinking of things I wish I'd said, or said differently, I was still happy with how it went.

Cooperative du Grand Orme.  Isn't it cute?

But of course, how an interview goes says nothing about how the final article will turn out!

Last Friday, part one of a three part series on unschooling came out in La Presse.  Now all three parts have been published, and you know what?  They're pretty good!  I mean, there's the usual experts-who've-never-heard-of-unschooling-before-but-hate-it included, but the series of articles overall is one of the least blatantly biased against unschooling ones I've seen.  Part three is the one that talks about my family.  And the photos included of me (there are three, spread out over the three installments, though only one is online) are even good, which made me happy!  I mean really, who wants to be in the newspaper looking bad?  At the bottom of any of the articles linked is a list of links to the other parts in the series.

Photo credit: Robert Skinner, of La Presse.

The articles are, of course, in French, but I include them for both my French speaking readers and anyone who feels like using Google translate to get a (very) rough idea of what the article says.

You aren't able to post comments on the articles, but I stumbled across a blog post by the author (in French), and there are most certainly comments there!  And they're basically what you see every time unschooling gets some new publicity, minus all the positive comments by unschoolers jumping in to tell people how wrong they are (there just aren't enough unschoolers in Montreal).  And no, I didn't look at the comments to aggravate myself (though I must admit it does feel weird to have such venom directed specifically at us. It doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but it is weird...).  I looked at the comments because I was curious if the reactions would be different than what I've seen in the past, since Quebec itself is pretty different from the rest of North America.  For the most part, the reactions are the same, though there is a much stronger current of "these people will always be on the margins of society and will also be, *gasp*, RADICAL!"  Evidenced by the fact I'm a radical anarchist hippie, because obviously one unschooler represents all unschoolers...

But despite the pesky comments, I'm most definitely more excited about this than anything else.  So many people who never knew there were any options other than traditional institutionalized schooling now know there are vastly different ways to "get an education."  My blog, since it was mentioned in the article, has been getting a lot more hits from Montreal, so people are actually looking up this unschooling thing for themselves. 

I get all excited whenever some new radical education project starts in Montreal, or there's an alternative ed workshop that gets a big turnout, or there's some new unschooling publicity.  I feel like interest in alternatives has been growing by leaps and bounds here in the last few years, and there really is a small but growing revolution in education happening here!

So while I'm on the topic of freedom based education in Montreal, I want to throw in some links to cool projects and similar things happening in the area:

There's the Montreal Rad School, a freeschool being started up by some really great people, who want to make freedom based education available to all, not just those able to unschool.  This is a bilingual project.

The web-series La Déséducation has been airing since November, and focuses first on what's wrong with education in Quebec (the first eight webisodes), and starting up once again in February, will focus on alternatives to the existing model, including homeschooling, freeschooling, and unschooling (my mother and I were interviewed, and will be included in one of the webisodes).  Sadly, this series is currently only available in French.

The first webisode in the series:


There's also the long neglected (I feel a bit guilty about that) yet hopefully starting up soon once again support group, Unschooling Montreal.  And remember the Summer Montreal Unschoolers Gathering that my mother and I organized last year?  Well, it's happening again this summer (though the location may be changing...  Join the Yahoo group or Facebook group to get all the updates!).

So there you have it!  Montreal.  Unschooling.  Cool stuff.  I'm looking forward to seeing how things progress in our ongoing education revolution!

A Trip to Gaspe

Since I got home, I have been busy!  So this post has been written, in short increments, over multiple days.  But it's now finally finished!

On Tuesday the 18th, we left.  Late.  I think we got out of the house at 3:00 in the afternoon, or close to it!  But, once we actually got on the road, we were cheerful.  The three of us enjoy traveling together.

Yeah.  No explanation needed (we didn't start off well rested, okay?).

We've developed a habit, while traveling, of writing short poetry.  We'll be driving along, merrily talking, when suddenly Emi or I will see something that sparks inspiration, and will quickly drop out of the conversation, shush the others, and start scribbling in our notebooks...

Tree farms pass
some old,
overgrown with
Nature.
a woman waters her
Green Farmhouse
while guitars play
wistfully,
from the stereo.

We drove through the Quebec countryside for the rest of the afternoon, on into evening, at which point we were getting painfully close to the coast, close to the gulf of the Saint Lawrence river, that salt water, rocky shored, beautiful place.

Out of the mist
Soft mountains rolling
Toward the sea

~

lights fall,
glassy,
as we breath deeply:
searching for the Ocean.

We started looking for a motel around 9:00 or so, I think.  I know it was fully dark, and had been so for a little while.  We could smell the sea.  Just a bit, but it was there: that special tang on the breeze.  We found a motel surprisingly soon, considering the usual difficulty we have (my mother and sister are highly allergic to synthetic scents, of which most motels use plenty!).

I sit on a worn comforter
Banged up old motel
And listen to my sister's laugh ringing
Joyous
Through the open window.

We left (much too) bright and early the next day.

After not much driving at all, we reached the coast.

Finally
low tides rocks stretching-
Home.
salt water on my feet and face:
Doubly blessed.

We spent a loooong time on that beach.  I headed straight out to the furthest rock uncovered by the tide, wading through shallow pools of ice cold water to get there, dipped my finger into a retreating wave and tasted the salt.  Then I just stood there, soaking in the sounds and scents and sights of the sea.  I have to admit to even getting a bit teary.  It was like revisiting a second home for the first time in 9 years.  I missed it so much.

We found these amazing water centipede like things.  We watched them in fascination for a while, and even rescued one from a tide pool that had gotten dangerously low for the poor critter!

Doesn't (s)he have a cute face??

Seaglass.

Just a little ways down the road, we stopped again.  This time the beach was home to statues, which stretched out into the water, walking inwards from the sea, up onto land, and then stretching off along the side.

Emi liked the statues.  And she made the same face as some of them.

We stayed for a loooong time on that beach, as well.

But finally, we had to keep going.

There are two ways to get to Gaspe: one, is by going around the coast.  The second, and most popular route with Gaspesians, is going through the mountains, through Murdockville.  Now, the latter is NOT my favorite way.  It may be faster, but it's along high, winding roads, the shoulder washed out in places from the rain, and an extremely narrow shoulder at the best of places.  Plus, if you do happen to have an accident and go off the side of the road, you have a nice 200 foot drop!  Woo hoo!  So, being kind to her daughter, my mother agreed to go by the coast.

Looking out the car window
Eyes flicking lazily.
Suddenly-
A waterfall!
Tumbling down the rocks
Gone in an instant.

We saw so many waterfalls!  As long as it was safe too, we'd pull over every time we saw one, so I could take pictures.

I loved how we'd be driving along, then when we'd go around a curve or get to the top of a hill, we'd suddenly see a village, nestled between the mountains on one side and the water on the other.

There are dozens such villages scattered along the coast.

Finally, we arrived in Gaspe, surprised to find that, out of the motels that were open (many aren't open this early in the tourist season), most were full or nearly full!!  But, though it was a bit pricier than we'd hoped, we ended up staying in a very nice motel in the dead center of Gaspe proper.  These photos were taken around Gaspe on Thursday, our first full day there:

It's probably not a surprise that the second place we went (after the cemetery, where many relatives are buried) was to my great-grandmothers house.

My great aunt's trailer...

The birch grove in front of my great grandmother's house that I always loved playing in as a child...

The house.

 The barn/shed...

On the trip to Gaspe, I saw so many crows!  Flying past our car, swooping in front of us, sitting, stately, on dying trees by the side of the road...  I said they were watching over us.  Emi said I was silly.  But when we walked back into the fields from my great grandmothers house, there was a crow feather, sitting straight up, caught in the grasses before our feet.  Emi found it.  I told her the crows were watching over us.

A field of forget-me-nots, one of my favorite types of flowers...

My grandmother, who stayed at my cousin Linda's house (she lives two or three houses over from my great-grandmother's house) arrived in Gaspe this day, the Thursday, and after spending some time at Linda's, saw our car here and headed over to say hello.  It was a very grey day though, it was raining off and on (making picture taking risky), and I was suffering from truly horrible allergies, so we didn't stay very long.

We took my grandmother out to supper with us, at a nearby casse croute (aka greasy spoon).  We spent a lot of time with my grandmother throughout the whole visit, and amazingly, the four of us got along extremely well.  That never happens!!

After supper, since the beach we always visit, Haldimand, is just five minutes from the restaurant, we headed there.

Gaspe is often chilly in May, and near the water it's even colder!  But, gods, is it beautiful. 

On Friday there was the viewing (remember this whole trip was because of my Nan, my great grandmother's, funeral).  The day of the viewing was a day of much family trouble (not between my mum, sister, grandmother and I, but with extended family), so stressful, but I did get a couple of good shots when at Linda's house...

They say the eye is a window into the soul, don't they?

This was the view I looked out to from our motel room.  Isn't it lovely?

The next day, Saturday, brought the funeral.  It was a beautiful, bright day.  It was also, predictably, a sad one.

After the reception, we all wanted the relaxation and beauty of the beach.  So that's where we went again.

 

On Sunday, we rested.  No, really, we did!  It was a gorgeous day again: this time not just warm, or pleasantly cool as it had been, but hot (in the early 30's celcius).  We lazed around, spent more time at the beach, where it was finally hot enough that we could comfortably wade and slash around, since getting wet was much more comfortable anyway in the heat!  I wish I could have taken pictures, but it was windy, with sand blowing everywhere (stinging my legs like miniture needles as it hit), and I wasn't willing to subject my camera to that.  So I had to take a picture in words, instead.

remembering a day
when the sky landed on the beach
to play in the waves
that stretched long fingers
over the sand

We went out to a mediocre supper with my grandmother, which I shamefully didn't take any pictures of, either, then packed.

The next morning, we looked out the door of our hotel to see the mountain being swallowed by the mist.

We said a final goodbye to my great-grandmother's house, and to my great-grandmother's grave.

Then we set off..  It hurt, leaving.  We were there such an incredibly short time, and I'll miss it.  I do miss it.

We stopped for french fries here.  They have very good french fries! (Note the cloud so low it obscures part of the mountain.)

We arranged to meet my grandmother, at a motel she knew to be nice, that night.  It felt like we'd come full circle, when we arrived there.  It was the same little town where we'd first stopped to walk on the beach nearly a week before.

We all went out to supper at a lovely little place just down the road with delicious food.  They had the most kickass vegetarian pizza ever!  It had onions, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, baby corn...

This was our view when we stepped out the back door of our motel room:

We went down the steps onto the beach, listening to the crashing waves, way bigger than last time we were at this beach (a storm was on its way), and with the tide most definitely coming in, not out!  I walked out to the furthest rock I could get to, and just reveled in the sheer glorious, beautiful, power of this place.  I was finally coaxed back out to solid beach, and the place where I had been standing was covered by water in just a little while.

My grandmother got a motel room just two doors down from ours, and came to hang out with us for a while.

It got steadily darker, and the wind started picking up.  We opened the blinds, eager to see as much of the storm as we could.

three generations
we stood, foreheads pressed
against the cold window
watching the lightning zag
the lighthouse flash
and the whitecaps crash.
the roar of the ocean
held us close
in the cozy hotel room.

It was incredible, and we fell asleep with the window open, listening to the crash of the ocean.

This was the view in the morning from our motel window:

I was sad to leave the coast in the morning.

It was another rather misty day, and when we left in the morning, a cold one!  My grandmother, determined not to get lost (as she very often does), arranged to follow us for the entire way to Montreal.  She stopped where we stopped, turned where we turned.  It was nice to have her with us for the trip.  And, of course, Emi and I wrote poetry!

A cloud landed
Softly,
On the top of a mountain
Slid down onto the road
And enveloped our car.
Muffled, we drove through.

~


I breath deeply
the water
in my bottle
smells of ocean
even though
we've left the waves
far behind us.

It was rather funny when, not far from Quebec city, we took a pit stop and were struck with a wave of heat upon stepping out of the car!  We'd gone from 9 degree weather in the morning, to 33 degree weather in the afternoon!!

And there really isn't much more to say.  We drove for a while more, then arrived back in Montreal.

Driving through the city
(Oppressive air
And crumbling pavement)
when, suddenly-
a bird flits by
lit golden by the setting sun
to disappear down an empty street.

We crashed at home.

I still miss Gaspe.  But, I'm glad to be home!

Or, should I say, glad to be back at one of my homes.

Peace,
Idzie