ELN Sustainability through Patreon
If you're reading this, you may fall under one or more in these areas:
- You're curious about Self-Directed and/or Unschooling learning approaches with a desire to learn more
- You're a parent exploring learning pathways outside of compulsory schooling for your children
- Your child(ren) is/are currently enrolled in school (pubic, private, charter, alternative, or virtual) and feeling discouraged by the current state of education
- You're an educator who desires to shift your own practices in ways you engage young people
- You represent a learning center, school, or group with a desire to bring anti-racism work to your community
- You're a parent with children who are now adults and/or desire to support ways young people can tap into the best of themselves sooner rather than later
Whether you connect with one or more of these areas, your openness to explore is appreciated!
Why become Patron?
If supporting any of the below initiatives resonates with you, consider becoming a monthly supporter of ELN TODAY!
As a monthly sustainer, you assist ELN in walking their words in this work. To continue to provide resources and offerings that center BIPOC communities and voices through workshops, training, and programs for individuals and groups who are committed to this work, without the unfortunate barrier that finances often bring. Plus, perks are dope!
- Exploring respectful and equitable ways to center the voices of our young people and oppressed communities
- Providing access to committed individuals and families without the heaviness of finances to engage this work
- Offerings that disrupt the generational, trauma-filled seeds of schoolishness and pervasive whiteness
- Tapping into ways that shift our practice toward relationships built on racial equity, liberatory centered, and ancestral healing
As a monthly sustainer, you assist ELN in walking their words in this work. To continue to provide resources and offerings that center BIPOC communities and voices through workshops, training, and programs for individuals and groups who are committed to this work, without the unfortunate barrier that finances often bring. Plus, perks are dope!
In natural unschooling fashion, Eclectic Learning Network has shifted in and through ways to support communities but not it's vision.
To respectfully explore and disrupt the harmful impact that exist in and between the intersections of education, parenting, and race by offering resources, training, and workshops that shift awarenesses toward liberation-centered and ancestral healing through unschooling and self-directed learning approaches.
To respectfully explore and disrupt the harmful impact that exist in and between the intersections of education, parenting, and race by offering resources, training, and workshops that shift awarenesses toward liberation-centered and ancestral healing through unschooling and self-directed learning approaches.
Community. Connection. Awareness.
The intersections between parenting, education, and race impact all aspects of our daily living experiences. Sometimes we (adults) lose sight that we were once young people with perceptions and experiences that plant the seeds for who we are today. Every bit of it sets the stage for the levels of conditioning and baggage we all carry. From young people to other adults, those experiences from our childhood, create the foundation for how we engage relationships in all its forms.
Whether we've attended "school" or not, schoolishness is all around us and the layers and wounds run deep. Compulsory schooling can begin between the ages of five to eight, depending on where you reside and play a primary role in how we step into adulthood.
From the moment we can hold a pencil, sitting at full attention tethered to a desk, in a classroom with dozens of other classmates and teachers throughout, becomes business as usual. We grow to accept the "do as I say, not as I do" model while simultaneously demanding us to acquiesce. From language to actions displayed, schoolishness extends well outside the walls of a classroom, ripe with harm that impacts us for generations to come.
When paired with the direct experiences learned from our parents and community members, the depth of our understanding and conditioning can bring feelings of permanence in our movements. The role of parent beautifully brings all our known and unknown areas of who we are, together in support of raising our children. It's relentless and joy-filled, stretching and restrictive, all at the same damn time. We do the best we can until we unpack, acknowledge, reflect, pivot, and practice to shift our awareness levels, aka Deschooling.
For BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities, race further adds to this labyrinth of experiences for how we engage ourselves and the people in our lives. But the work surrounding anti-racism, racial bias and equity is not exclusive to BIPOC communities, it's work we must all do, if we want it. Exploring the impact of racism between the intersections of education and parenting brings deep questioning and exploration into the foundation of institutionalized education and ways it continues to oppress BIPOC communities; specifically Black/African American/Pan-African/African communities.
Whether we've attended "school" or not, schoolishness is all around us and the layers and wounds run deep. Compulsory schooling can begin between the ages of five to eight, depending on where you reside and play a primary role in how we step into adulthood.
From the moment we can hold a pencil, sitting at full attention tethered to a desk, in a classroom with dozens of other classmates and teachers throughout, becomes business as usual. We grow to accept the "do as I say, not as I do" model while simultaneously demanding us to acquiesce. From language to actions displayed, schoolishness extends well outside the walls of a classroom, ripe with harm that impacts us for generations to come.
When paired with the direct experiences learned from our parents and community members, the depth of our understanding and conditioning can bring feelings of permanence in our movements. The role of parent beautifully brings all our known and unknown areas of who we are, together in support of raising our children. It's relentless and joy-filled, stretching and restrictive, all at the same damn time. We do the best we can until we unpack, acknowledge, reflect, pivot, and practice to shift our awareness levels, aka Deschooling.
For BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities, race further adds to this labyrinth of experiences for how we engage ourselves and the people in our lives. But the work surrounding anti-racism, racial bias and equity is not exclusive to BIPOC communities, it's work we must all do, if we want it. Exploring the impact of racism between the intersections of education and parenting brings deep questioning and exploration into the foundation of institutionalized education and ways it continues to oppress BIPOC communities; specifically Black/African American/Pan-African/African communities.
ELN who along with the collective efforts of individuals and local organizations has provided over 300 offerings (and counting) for families in the Philadelphia area. In 2019, ELN officially became an international resource for liberated learning to ensure that all interested families can gain access to the support needed throughout this journey of liberation. All we have to do is open the door.
