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Homeschooling is virtually outlawed in Sweden (except if you have a disease or condition that prevents you from attending school) and I would rather abstain from having children than see them forced to attend school, robbing them of some 9-12 years of their formative years. Even if I would never have children of my own I would still like to be part of an as-voluntary-as-possible community. Because of this I've decided to relocate to another country that allows homeschooling (unschooling) and preferably a country that have a sizeable community of unschoolers (other factors of voluntaryism/freedom would be greatly appreciated as well). Where can I find such a community? Do you know of any websites or forums (besides this one) that might be helpful? I would like to travel to other countries, get to know people and find my new tribe and place to call home. What countries/regions/places would you recommend? I've been thinking about the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Also which regions/locations within the country in particular would you like to recommend? Other laws that I would like to avoid would be a military draft/conscription and curfew laws. As a side point or secondary factor I would like to move somewhere where sunlight is more evenly spread over the year. We might have x number of hours of sunlight in Sweden but they are very concentrated in the summers and we have very dark winters.

For those of you who don't like the carrot and stick approach to motivation, read my new blog post on the issue: http://franklinmusicacademy.com/intrinsic-motivation-and-its-misappropriation

Came across this guy (Jeff Till) on a School Sucks podcast... He has an amazingly concise and wonderful case for keeping children out of government school, in the form of 54 arguments. It is probably the best source I've found as an introductory offer to people unaware of the importance of keeping children out of these destructive institutions. The page below has links for streaming the 1 hour audio presentation, an audio download link, and a downloadable and printable PDF version: http://fivehundredyears.org/a-complete-case-for-home-education-54-arguments/ Spread the good word!

Hi there! I am an unschooling mama to a bright, creative, and ENERGETIC (almost) four year-old. So... that's how I spend most of my time. But in my 'downtime' (like when I'm nursing her to sleep) I listen to a lot of podcasts, watch Youtube videos, and am always learning something new. I am an intactivist, breastfeeding, birth, and children's advocate, as well as being very outspoken about our corrupt school system. We are very health-conscious, love riding our bikes, hiking, enjoying the sun and water, and exploring together. Even though I have lived in/around Seattle for most of my life, I am very affected by the rain, clouds, and general dreariness. Stefan Molyneux didn't show up on my radar until I watched a video of his on circumcision which I shared around on facebook (when I was on there) and then later shared one on spanking. Some of my husband's coworkers listen to the show and recommended them to me. So for the last month I have been listening as much as I can. My husband and I (and his coworkers) have been sharing episodes back and forth. (And a few times my husband and I have been able to listen to the show together.) The shows offer a lot of challenging information that I am happy to soak up... and process. The topics brought up in the shows have springboarded us into a lot of new conversations, or have revisited old ones. While I am interested in anarchy (just listened to one of Stefan's books), general philosophy, and other political issues, it's the parenting, feminist, and personal development issues that have really resonated with me. For example, my husband and I became pregnant out of wedlock (stupid, I know!) and decided to move in together, get married quickly, and figure out how to make it all work. We did not have enough money to live on with just his income so I took a part-time job where I figured I could leave my little girl with my friends (no family available nearby) and go to work at six weeks post-partum. What I hadn't planned on was the needs of my child. She's extremely 'spirited' (high needs), would not take pumped milk, nor was she comforted by anyone but me. So I started taking her to work with me - which was only a little less miserable, but at least we were together. I totally agree with Stefan when he says that you can make it work for one parent to be with the child/ren - it does take a lot of sacrifices, but it is possible. Anyway, the job only lasted one year and by that time my husband (began to take his career more seriously and) received a raise almost equal to what I was contributing with my job. And to make a long story short, he would not be where he is today in his career if we had both been working full-time jobs. Even though we were home-birthing and everything, we didn't know about 'attachment parenting,' 'peaceful parenting,' or anything like that until after she was born. I am just so thankful we did come across these ideas so we could become sensitive and respond appropriately to our little one's needs. Something that struck me last year was that even within the intactivist movement - where we'd shout about how awful genital mutilation is all day long - there seemed to be a split whenever anyone spoke out about other harmful acts against children like spanking, cry-it-out, or the school system. So as I have been listening, I am impressed with is Stefan's consistency. OK I don't want to go overboard sharing, but wanted to share enough for you all to get an idea of who I am and if we have something in common or you'd like to share new information with me, that'd be awesome Also, go easy on me, like I said, I am a new listener, eager to learn more, and feel like I'm doing a lot of catching-up with ideas, philosophies, and terms you all use frequently.

Hi FDR, We, my partner and I, are expecting a tod (delivery date: Mars 2015) and we're thirsty for all kinds of knowledge: How the baby develops throughout the pregnancy and what to think about in different stages, how the environment and emotions/stress-levels of the mother affects the fetus, what to eat/avoid, exercise that prepares for delivery, facts about nursing, how to create a stimulating/safe environment for the baby's development to thrive, etc. etc. Basically anything that you found/could be helpful during pregnancy and the first year(s) with the baby. That is: What books, blogs, YouTube-videos/channels, studies, etc. would you recommend? FYI: Currently in week 10. We're in our mid twenties, have a cat, live in an apartment in the city, don't really exercise on a regular basis but try to live healthy, eat mostly vegetarian (some fish and occasionally meat from "happy" animals), we're going to unschool/radical unschool, mother's a psychologist (father's a passionate bum ). Oh, and we're living in the socialist Mecca, Sweden, where unschooling is illegal, so we have to emigrate (better sooner than later), do you know if we could get political asylum anywhere (U.S/NZ/AUS/Canada). Thanks in advance, lampan

"Even though I was only nine when my parents pulled me out of the school system, I can still remember my mom being in tears when some of her friends told her she was crazy and that it was a stupid idea. Looking back I am thankful she didn't cave to peer pressure." (Logan LaPlante) Description: "When 13 year-old Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal." The video has 3.9 million views on YouTube and the number of views really took off this month.

So I am contemplating on possible upcoming projects that I will launch to have some income and promote myself in the market and liberty movement. I want to do something productive while I still have youth and complete freedom... (I'm a 16 year old unschooler) ... A big passion I have is writing, and I have been pondering the possibility of writing - and in hopes eventually publishing - my own book on a topic relevant to my daily life. We live in an age of uncertainty, but one thing is for sure and that is freedom related philosophies like anarchism/voluntarynism and unschooling are blossoming in astonishing feats that have no yet been recorded. What a joy it is to live in this time. After hours of past research and more to come, I have a very vague conceptualization and a foggy idea of what I might want to write about that would possibly empower the freedom movement in education. I figured it would be great if I wrote a book on unschooling one day soon, if I focus on what i'm doing right now, read more on it, gathered lots of facts, and finally package it all into a book. But I of course want it to be more philosophical and not like a guidebook or something. Though those are very practical, I want something more in-depth and brain stimulating and enriching for couch sitters like myself who have the willingness to sit down and for a moment live inside there mind, before snapping back into physical reality to find that they had their regular dose of brain food for the day. An idea of what the book might be entitled is "The Anatomy of Unschooling: a philosophical approach to education." ... But I have a problem, and that is a general shortage of ideas enlisted in the book. My question to my fellow Freedomain Radio philosophers alike is what would you like to see come out of this book? What questions should I answer, and what are some ideas that should be listed alongside this book? What should absolutely be included if I really want to make a philosophically related book? Thanks for the answers if you happen to leave a comments below!

As the title says, I wrote this parable and I really want some feedback. I call it an anti-parable because it tells a story and is TOTALLY EXPLICIT about everything you can possibly imagine regarding what was happening in each character. It's supposed to make the reading think more empathically. I wanted your guys' feedback on whether you like the style at all. I think it's quite cool and I genuinely want to know what you all think.Here it is, I hope you like it. Mother: Well I'm going to need to tell your father about this, and it WILL be settled when he gets home!Child (female): fine, I don't care! *storms off to her room, willingly, door slamming loudly Mother (thinking): Oh, he's going to have a field day when he hears this one...Father comes home, sound of the door opening being the trigger.Mother runs to the door to meet him.Mother: How was your day, honey?! *she smiles brightly in a feigned hope for a long and detailed story about his monotonous and uneventful job. The father brushes off his eager wife, no longer finding her faithful interest intriguing in any way at all. To him, she is nothing but a dog showing faithful joy at his return, only to undoubtedly lose every ounce of interest in just a short while.Father: “It was fine!”, he pronounces snippetly towards what he views as nothing more than his house companion. “Lay off...”, he moans, which precedes her subsequent retreat, subconsciously building a wall to mask her painful neglect, as her eager clamoring was not reciprocated... and in fact was downright refused altogether.To her, this must have been some sort of game, for which she is testing the partner's “devotion” and “loyalty”, which seems to be a made-up word in order to invoke a sense of guilt in such a way that the other person gives-up in any given dispute. For example, if I agree to be a life partner with you, and you agree to be a life partner with me, then we agree to tread the same road together. We will no longer be looking out for ourselves, individually. Instead, we agree to look out for ourselves, collectively. We no longer exist as two separate individuals. In our way of thinking, we become one. What is good for me, IS good for us. This is saying EXACTLY the same thing. By playing this game, she is doubting that I am truly thinking in this way. Forever, the woman will doubt this of the husband. She lives in a perpetual state of doubt. It is the perpetual toil husbands will face in marriage... a simple task when you truly think about it. You will never succeed, but is it not still worth it? She will perpetually doubt you, but it is your duty to love her nonetheless. Consistently show her that “you” is the same as “us”. She will forget often. Simply saying to her, in the times when she seems to appeal to “loyalty” or “devotion”, it is important to simply remind her that “you” is the same as “us”... Don't say it in the same way every time. Subconsciously show her. You must HONESTLY be in this point of view to fully achieve what I am talking about. So, this is not a manipulation tactic. This is a “WAY OF THINKING” that will enable you to live wonderfully.In continuation, the wife says, in a fake way, “Well I'm so very happy for you, deary, because, have I got a story for you about the way YOUR CHILD has been treating me.”Father: “What has she done! “ Now, catching on to the game that is being played. Mother: “She told me that she doesn't respect me or anything I say!”Father: “She did?! OUR daughter has some serious explaining to do, because no DAUGHTER of mine disrespects her mother!”Father enters the room. The mother peaks out from behind him, with a stern scowl on her face. The disappointment on her face is as clear as the moon in a vast nigh sky. It is so apparent, it goes beyond mere disappointment. It is a face aimed to make the child ashamed of herself. The goal is to make her feel like she is a “BAD PERSON!” The look creates in her a mental image that she is, at her core, a very bad person and she ought to be ashamed of her very self. That is what it means to be “ashamed of yourself”. Think about this. Truly, think about what it means to be shameful. It means for you to think of the self... the thing that you are... at the core of you... as bad, or wicked... immoral, unjust... despicable... This is what shameful is.What shameful is not, is the idea that 15 years ago, you were NOT AT ALL IN ANY WAY the same person you are today. In fact, 10 years ago you are not the same as you are today. Come to think of it, a few months ago you were a different person than you are now. In fact, I am willing to put forth to you, right now, that you are a different person, a different self, right now than you were 5 minutes ago... no... 5 seconds ago, than you are right now. Think, before you started reading this, you were a different person, totally, after reading it. Now think about the idea of shame. What is there to be shameful of. If you are different, at your core even, right now from how you were 10 minutes ago, what is there to be shameful of? Anything you are is not necessarily what you will become, so what is there to be ashamed of now? Your self (I hate the word “yourself” because it de-emphasizes the concept that there is a “self” that is distinctly “your own”) is merely in a state prescribed to the time of NOW that has changed drastically from the BACK THEN and will undoubtedly change, equally drastically, in the AFTER NOW.So the mother invokes this sense of shame, different from guilt which is the effect of harming another person for the sake of your own self, i.e. selfishness. I suspect that guilt is what you will experience should you ever attempt to manipulate your child in this way ever again after reading this... that is guilt. It is important to distinguish the difference because shame comes from the negative moralistic judgments of other people whereas guilt comes from the regret of some past action. It is important to never think of one's own self as being “bad” for things that we have done in the past. Just think of your self as being “incomplete”. Your way of thinking is not fully established and lead to incorrect outcomes. Just as an operating system is in a constant state of revamping, updates, and even complete over-hall, the self is constantly rethinking, remapping, and readjusting... until it reaches completion.... until it fully understands itself.Now feeling that its very self is something to be shameful of, now that she has judged herself of its quality and found it to be very little, if anything at all. Tears begin to form in the child's eyes.Child: “I'm sorry!!! I'm so, so sorry!”, she yelps as she burrows her face into the palms of her hands. She sobs loudly and her hands and face turn pink and sticky with a combination of tears and mucus which is beginning to collect at the end of her nose. She is utterly pitiful. She is helpless in the dark of her own despair.The father glances at his wife's cold stare and quickly looks back at his daughter.Mother: “...and you know what happens when little girls are disrespectful to their mothers, don't you?” She expresses this as though the question mark was actually a period. There was no question at all, really.The child wheezes as she takes a breath in, followed by the loudest sob yet. The father turns back to his wife, observing the calm demeanor of his wife without any judgment at all.He walks up to his daughter, bends her over his knee. The mother walks out of the room and down the hall. He says calmly, “You... do... not... disrespect... your... mother...”, each word accompanied by a subsequent sting across the bottom.The father releases his daughter, and she immediately scurries off to her bedroom, whaling aloud. While still crying profusely, she closes the door softly, runs and leaps onto her bed, and thrusting her face into her pillow. Her skin no longer stings, and no physical markings will remain. She is utterly destroyed.

I know that having one parent stay at home and teach their children full time is best for the first few years of life, but I was wondering about a model where a group of several unschooling families shares the teaching load with their older children. The idea being that each family teaches a small group of children one day a week or so, enabling this group of parents with older children to work while continuing to provide these children with guided learning until they are ready for completely self-directed learning. This model of unschooling could have the additional benefit of specialization in teaching, as you could have parents with different backgrounds (the sciences, the arts, the skilled trades, etc.) available as specialty resources to children with more specific interests.Does anyone know of any unschooling groups or families that operate in this way?

http://thelivingfreeproject.com/time-to-rethink-radical-unschooling/ This article really spoke to me. It is really fricking hard to parent a high-energy toddler while worrying constantly about being authoritarian. I don't hit or yell at my child but I do force him to buckle his seatbelt and brush his teeth. And I beat myself up over it! Here are some excerpts from the article:

I am currently devising my master's thesis study, in which I'll look at whether people's attitudes towards public schooling and unschooling are correlated with their level of general empathy and their level of empathy towards children. To look at this last piece (level of empathy towards children) I am thinking about presenting people with one or more short vignettes describing a conflict betweena child and an adult (probably, their parent) and asking people to briefly describe how they, if they were the adult in the vignette, would go about resolving that conflict. Afterwards, I will look in the replies for things that suggest that the person is mindful of the child's internal experience (e.g., that they asked about the child's feelings, thoughts, or preferences; or that they attempted to respectfully negotiate with the child). So - I'm trying to create those vignettes, and I'm wondering - what, from your perspective, would be some good parent (or adult) - child conflicts that I could include? Anything goes, I just need help brainstorming Thanks!

I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m trying to work out a path forward in life. I’m 24 years old, born and raised in Sweden. Educational background For the last two years I’ve been studying economics at the undergraduate level at a university in Sweden. The reason for this was that I initially wanted to engage in politics to change the system. I wanted to be able to contribute to the debate in economic/overall policy and provide research and statistics to support the libertarian/voluntaryist cause. My expectations of the quality and the methodology of the educational material were never really high and I knew that I would have to withstand some pseudo-scientific elements during the course of my education. But it turned out to be far worse than I expected. One doctoral candidate took notice of my briefcase from the Ludwig von Mises Institute and told me that he thought that the Austrian methodology was superior to the methodology used by most economists but also told me that the Austrian methodology was unlikely to find any widespread support amongst professors and other economists because the implementation of Austrian methodology would render many of them unemployed. During the course in public economics/finance the professor stated that she was insulted by a comment made by a student wherein he stated that any valid measure of value is impossible in the public sector due to the coercive nature of the transaction (the personal stakes/interests for the professor in these matters makes rational analysis impossible in this situation). It has become ever more evident to me that one of the core purposes of the publicly funded and approved education in economics is to find semi-sophisticated excuses for government force and intervention and a lot of obstacles for anyone daring to claim otherwise. It got increasingly hard for me to pass exams in courses based on faulty methodology combined with mathematical and statistical methods which seemed to increasingly lack relevance for a true study of human action. After failing 7 out of 8 courses in a year I’ve decided to take a break and probably change the path forward for me. I would still enjoy the increased awareness that could be provided by studying economics but this awareness will not be realized through studies at my university. I’m quite confident that I will be able to reach this awareness through self-studies in Austrian economics with some help from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Thoughts on future education or human capital accumulation I’ve also come to realize that a focus on personal development, self-knowledge and personal relationships will do far more to improve society and the cause of peaceful interactions. Following this path I would primarily work on my own self-knowledge and my own personal relationships. I’ve been thinking about studying psychology or something similar to eventually be able to support others with their self-knowledge and personal relationships. However, I don’t know really where to start. If I were to work with people in this field I would most of all prefer to work with parents and children at an early stage. But I don’t know if there is any demand or market for this. The most interesting case that comes to mind would be to work with people thinking about having a child and support them in their thoughts about parenting/child raising. But perhaps I’m looking on this from the wrong angle. Maybe it would be better and more realistic to work with people individually with self-knowledge as a psychotherapist or something of that sort. One concern I have regarding this topic is that the government authorities would try to intervene if I were to advice people in some way that went counter to the approved goals and methods of the government if I were to work as a licensed psychotherapist for example. What are your thoughts on this subject? Is it possible to work/find work in this area (I would like to help people in similar ways as Stef is doing but with more in depth application to specific cases like talk therapy. I think Stef is doing a phenomenal work but I don’t think that podcasts is the right format for me and I think that this area would profit from some division of labor)? Should I pursue formal education? If so, should it be mostly in psychology, behavioral science, sociology, social work or something else? If not, what should I do alternatively to accumulate the human capital necessary to provide some real value in this area? Do you think that my concerns regarding government intervention in my practice is valid? If so, what should I do to make the best of it given this environment? Strategic relocation As long as I can remember I’ve felt an unsettling and frustrating lack of control over my own life and elements of my surroundings that I feel I should be able to control to some degree. I’ve been bossed around and told what to do in school for 12 of my formative years only to find myself steadily unemployed and unqualified to do most anything. I can see the very same chaotic symptoms and consequences of forced economic planning in almost any aspect of my life such as healthcare, law enforcement/provision of security, the food industry, the financial industry, building and construction etc. It should be noted that I’m in the process of starting therapy to work on my self-knowledge after several failed attempts to find a therapist that would help me within the public sector. The only therapist I’ve been able to meet within the public sector was the one responsible for an initial assessment of my mental health. After scoring high enough on a standardized test for depression she started talking about medication and when talking about my lack of motivation she asked me about lack of motivation in school when I was young and said that she was scanning for symptoms of ADD. The only treatment available for public funding was a 6-12 session long treatment for certain specific problems. With potential shortcomings in my self-knowledge in mind I would say that the most damaging aspect of my childhood from my perspective would be the time spent in school with many years of forced schooling robbing me of my inner drive and power of initiative (much like Stef's video on procrastination). As noted above I believe that a focus on self-knowledge and personal relationships is the best way to achieve freedom. Peaceful parenting and minimizing abuse is crucial for the formative years of human life. That is why I believe that one of the most important things if I were to ever have a child would be the freedom or ability to raise my child independent of government influence or intervention. Sweden recently became one of the most restricted countries in Europe with regards to educational freedom (Sweden and Germany being the two most restricted in Europe). This is one of the most important reasons why I’m looking for alternative countries/places to live my life as independent of government influence as I can. I would also prefer to live amongst other unschoolers and peaceful parents/people. The United States is one of the places I’ve contemplated. Do you have any thoughts with regards to strategic relocation? Is the US a good alternative or would you suggest another destination?