Bio

My name is Idzie Desmarais, and I'm a 20-something year old lifelong learner who lives in Montreal, Quebec.

I'm a kindergarten drop-out who, excluding those six months of kindergarten, has never been to school. Instead, I grew up following my passions and figuring things out in my own time.  In my late teens I  became fascinated with the education (often referred to as unschooling) I'd grown up with, and started reading everything I could about unschooling and self-directed learning, going to unschooling conferences, and writing this blog I'm Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write.  At some points I've also been very involved with the alternative education movement in my home city, as well as the wider unschooling community through the making of connections and friendships with people scattered across North America (and beyond!). I think unschooling has been a very important part of my own life, and that the ideas found in this philosophy can be a powerful tool of both personal and social transformation.

My work has been published in Our Schools/Our Selves, Life Learning Magazine, and Home Education Magazine, among others, and I've spoken at Rethinking Everything Conference, the Toronto Unschooling Conference, the Northeast Unschooling Conference, the AQED Symposium, and the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair.

Some other things you might want to know about me? I'm a queer feminist anarchist (which most definitely influences my writing), I can talk endlessly about my beloved cats and dogs, I'm a cook and low key coffee (and chocolate!) snob, a lover of fantasy fiction, an enthusiastic makeup collector, avid thrifter, and I eventually plan to build a rural homestead with loved ones.

I'm often not able to respond promptly, but I can be contacted at idziedesmarais@gmail.com or through my blog Facebook page.

Find out more about me, my projects, blogs, and interests at my website idziedesmarais.com.

Interviews and conversations with me

Pam Laricchia interviews me on her podcast Exploring Unschooling

A conversation on the online show For The Love of Learning between me, Pam Sorooshian, Pat Farenga, and Laini Liberti

I was featured alongside many other wonderful unschooling advocates in Amy Child's The Unschooling Life podcast episodes Why Unschool?, Learning from Screens, and Geography.

I was interviewed for an article in the Montreal Gazette, Focus on unschooling's end product, professor says

From Life Learning Magazine An Interview With Grown Unschooler, Author, and Speaker Idzie Desmarais By Camelia Jula