In today’s episode of Radical Remembering, Sakile Ramir of Embrace Your Free, a passionate advocate for homeschooling and world schooling, joins me to discuss how Black families can embrace alternative education models to foster liberation.
Sakile shares her personal journey of homeschooling her six children, ranging from ages 11 to 21, and how she integrates the philosophy of freedom into their learning experiences and how she developed a unique homeschooling framework called the LIT System—which takes into account the Learning style of the child, the Identity persona of both parent and child and the Teaching style of the parent.
This conversation also touches on decolonizing traditional education and empowering children to discover their own paths.
Listen to Radical Remembering: Season 2 Episode 3 and find inspiration on your journey towards liberation!
Or watch the full episode on my YouTube channel.
Relevant Links
Radical Remembering Podcast
Website: https://radicalremembering.com/
Connect with Sakile Ramir
Instagram: @EmbraceYourFree
Connect with Dr. Norissa
Living Liberated app: https://livingliberated.passion.io
Radical Remembering is a podcast that covers personal growth, self-awareness and awareness of topics at the intersection of mental health, spirituality and self-help. Each episode will leave you with intimate knowledge of the liberation process, sprinkle a little healing magic, and leave you with wisdom for your journey into living out your purpose. Stay tuned for the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Radical Remembering podcast! Listen to our next podcast and tell a friend about us.
TRANSCRIPT
(Automatically generated)
So welcome to another episode of Radical Remembering. We have coach Sekile from Embrace Your Free here with us today. So I'll start with a little bit of an introduction to how I came to know you. It was 2 I don't even remember the years. COVID just, like, meshed everything together.
But it was sometime during COVID when Omicron was, like, a big thing, and I had actually just moved to New Jersey. I'm a New Yorker. I just stay in New Jersey. But I had just moved to New Jersey, and this is where it was highest. Right?
The highest in the whole country was Essex County with this omicron virus. I have an autoimmune condition, and so they were still doing, like, these kinda hybrid things where you could, like, zoom in. And so my son was like, this is what we're gonna do. He reached out to the teachers. Nobody's contacting us.
Right? There's no engagement at all between the school, and it's one of the best in the top 5% in the country. Wow. But there's really no engagement between the community. My son hadn't even made friends in, like, the fur that that 4 month period or whatever.
And so, what happened? And so they let him watch, but then at the end, they were like, oh, we're not giving him a grade for anything. He's failing. I'm like, what kind of madness is that? I'm like Exactly.
So I told my son, and he was like, can you just homeschool me, please? And I was like, okay. And so my sister I had an example of my sister. She has 4 kids, and she's homeschooled. The first one was 12 when she started to keep going.
She's 25, 26 now. And so she had a long history, and I had seen from her, like, you can have a lot of success with this. You can curate the experience that you want. But because I was working, I was like, I don't know. And so that's when I started looking around for what to do, how to do it.
And so in my search, I came across you. I'll so I'll finish with what I ended up doing, and then I'll say what I liked about you. And so I ended up because he was in the second half of his 11th grade year, I just let him finish the courses that he was gonna take that he was enrolled in anyway. We just finished that out, and then I enrolled him in a community college that gave credit, college credit, to homeschool students. So he went into college.
I think he had what it was? 9 credits? Let me see. 9 credits. And it would have been more like 12 or 15, but he had that curve into high school I mean, into college, he had to, like, get adjusted for that and take some courses over.
Not that he failed, but because he could have done better for the major that he wanted. And so what I liked about you is that there were homeschool models that were modeling it after the traditional school. I also learned about unschooling, which I really liked too because that is just like, wait. We don't have to do it, we don't have to follow this paradigm at all. But then I got to you, and I I learned about world schooling.
And for me, that felt like out of the water altogether, just like the epitome of liberation, the epitome of freedom, and, just like dismantling that whole hierarchical structure that is education right now. Absolutely. And doing it on your own terms, and I just imagine that your children are so, they've traveled a lot. Like, I know this. Right?
This is from what I read. Right? And so I imagine that they are so experienced and and and they have a wealth of knowledge that cannot be compared to your typical public school child. So this is where I've come to know you from, have attended a master class or 2, been on your email list, and I know you have a podcast. So, after I'm, like, all gushing, can you share, can you share, a little bit about who you are and what world schooling is?
Absolutely. Thank you for the amazing introduction, and I am truly honored to be in your presence and on this amazing homeschool adventure with you and to share my experience with you in the audience. So definitely it's an honor. But a little bit about me, I am a wife and a mother of 6 children. And my oldest child will be 21 this year, and my youngest will be 11.
So it's been a long journey, and it's been a beautiful journey. And a little bit about me, my company is called Embrace Your Free because freedom is very important. And we really have been a goal of mine my entire life, to be able to have the freedom to be, do, and have whatever I desire, you know, be able to curate my life. And so, of course, when I had children, I wanted to apply that philosophy to them. I wanted them to be able to be, do, and have anything they wanted.
Right? And so it was always like, what is the best approach to provide them with the tools to really discover who they are and to really optimize who they are? And once, I went to grad school for education, I was able to learn about different educational practices that are not, like, traditional. You know? But I'm like, these practices are amazing.
Why aren't they being implemented in the school system? Like, they have studies and statistics that there are alternative work, types of learning that provide children with amazing outcomes, where they're able to obtain more information. They're enjoying learning. They're able to surpass, you know, what many people are able to achieve in traditional school. And so once I discovered that, I was able to, like, implement a lot of that into my children's education.
And one of the things that I really, really loved is teaching to your child's learning style. Like, there's variety of different learning styles. There's variety of personalities. You have your own unique teaching style to ask a parent to be like, this is the one way to teach, not take into account a parent's work schedule, their personality, their goals. I think that is a mistake.
And so we end up creating the lit system, which is basically the children's learning style, the identity persona, the parents' teaching style, and the time that the parents do have to homeschool or the time that a child can focus. Homeschooling is taking into the account birth, you know, the child and the parent to make a homeschooling, you know, environment that really enhances and cultivates a child's, you know, learning environment where they're eager to learn, where they end up education ends up not being something that they have to do. It's just, like, this is who I am. You know? I am a brilliant person, and I want to learn, like, as a human being.
They're like, it makes sense to want to improve myself, to learn more information. Why not? Right? So I feel like this approach ends up creating lifelong learners where children just automatically understand that learning is everywhere. Learning is what we do.
I just you know, every opportunity is the opportunity to learn. And I was learning that children typically retain 10% of what they read after 2 weeks, 20% of what they hear after 2 weeks, 30% of what they see, but 90% of what they experience, they retain. So why wouldn't we incorporate more hands-on learning where they're teaching each other, where they're going on field trips, where they're having internships, where instead of just learning about a city and the history in a book, actually going to the city and going to the historical sites. So that's kind of how we approached world schooling, you know, when it comes to not just, you know, traveling, but making it experiential and also incorporating our children's unique learning styles, personalities, my unique, you know, teaching style, my husband's unique teaching styles, what our goals are, and the amount of time we have based on, you know, what's going on with our business or our children's personality, their attention span based on their age, and things like that. Love it.
So you so, basically, you've individualized the learning for each of them, you're doing something different. You're approaching it. Yes. Yes. So they all are exposed to the same subjects.
But if a child is more kinesthetic, I'm not gonna make them sit down in a seat. While we're learning a lesson, I may have them fit you know, fixing something or repairing something or doing jumping jacks, and they're learning a lesson. So depending on the child's personality, they'll still learn the same lessons. It's just the way that we curate the environment, how we're able to introduce it so that it's enjoyable for them, where they retain more, where they wanna learn, where it's not like drudgery. Like, oh, I have to do this again.
You know? Oh, it's so horrible. You know? By the time they get to, like, high school, if they've been homeschooling for a period of time, then they usually, for my children and I noticed other children, tend to take more responsibility when it comes to their education and what they want to learn. So more so the personality and the learning style is more for the younger children, but it's something still to look at as a high schooler or young adult.
But by the time they're in high school, they're able to learn from pretty much any, you know, learning style, you know, because we've exposed them to different but they know, like, if I wanna study and I really want to maximize what I'm learning, I'm going to use these certain techniques, you know, versus, you know, if I'm a visual learner, I'm not going to use a bunch of audio techniques to learn because I'm just gonna spend more time. It's not very efficient. It's gonna be frustrating. So by the time that they're older, they understand, and they have used various techniques that they, you know, they know that this works for me. But, of course, they are you know, they use all learning styles because they don't live in a bubble.
Right. But they know I really want to learn this. Like, this is an efficient, effective way so that I can maximize my time, my energy, and have more time to do the things I enjoy. Yeah. Yeah.
I love it. So one of the things is also that I, so I have my sister modeled it for me as well, as well as, you know, coming to know about you the 2 years ago when I did. We took a trip, just also along the lines of experiential learning. We took a trip. He was my son I don't even remember.
I think it was, I guess it was US history. He was doing US history and African American literature. And so we took a trip. We went to I'm trying to remember the sites. We went to a lot of sites, but it was a 2 week trip from here all the way to Kentucky and back.
We stopped and we saw them and in Atlanta, we saw the MLK, like, I don't know what they call it. Like, I guess, they call it, like, a national park area, but they have a museum there where he lived, where he and Coretta where he was born, where he and Coretta were buried. Then I also went to Birmingham, Alabama to see the church, and we were in the park where the children were, where they got hosed down. We also went to the legacy museum, Brian Stevenson's legacy museum. We went to my son who loves Muhammad Ali.
So in Kentucky, we went to the Muhammad Ali home and the museum. And I know I'm forgetting things. It was an amazing trip, one that we still talk about and, like, won't soon forget. But we, oh, you know what was really good too? When we were in Birmingham, we were going to church.
Was it no. It was one of the houses that MLK lived at when he was pastoring a particular church that got bombed. And so we were, like, kinda last minute, and we didn't get a tour schedule. And somebody was, like, oh, you can go right down there. It was a souvenir shop where this woman and I loved the culture, so we also learned something about the culture because we knocked on the door and nobody was there.
Somebody rode by in a pickup truck, and they were like, you looking for such and such? And we were like, yes. We are. Right? New Yorkers, we were not used to that.
Right? And so then, they were like, oh, she's just wrapping some lunch up here such and such. Just wait. She'll be here in 10 minutes. So she came super nice and warm, and she took us on a tour, and then she pointed out, oh, this is doctor Montgomery who lived next door from the time she was a child, so she still lived in the family house.
Wow. Her father was. Child. Yes. It was so beautiful.
We sat on the porch with this woman for, like, 2, 2 and a half hours, and she told us stories of when, yeah, the freedom fighters were in her house. Like, so when people were like, where where are they? Her father was a pharmacist and hid them in her house for, like, 3 days. She told us stories of the boycotts and how organized it was and what you really need for a political movement. And my son, who was there for all of this, we also crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
And at the end of the bridge, the last known man was 97 at that time. I I I hope he's still living. But the last known man that was alive in crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge was there. Right? Wow.
Yeah. He was there. Wow. Pull we have a picture and everything. Pulled my son aside and told him what it was.
And he was like he was sharing that when he first crossed the bridge, he was really, you know, when actually, when the police came and started beating them up and Martin Martin Luther King was like, you know, nonviolence and got on his knees. He was like, what? And he's so mad. Like, we came this far from this nonsense to allow ourselves to get beat up or whatever. But he shared how his view has transformed and that, you know, how that form of resistance is a valid form of resistance.
Right? But imagine we never were locked into, 8 to 3, whatever the school system schedule is. Yeah. School system. We wouldn't have been able to do that.
Exactly. Exactly. That is a rich experience that your son will never forget. Like I said, that he's gonna that is something that's gonna impact him, and it will unfold in his life in subconscious ways that he won't even be aware of. So that is such a beautiful experience.
And even for you and that's the one thing I love about world schooling. I'm just like you know, if my children get, you know, amazing benefits from it, great. That's the goal. But I'm growing. Right.
I'm learning. I'm loving this. And so they get to see, also, me as an adult continue to learn. Like, this is what they expect. You know, they see me and, you know, their father constantly reading, constantly going to these examples because we did similar things.
Like, we went to Massachusetts, and we were able to visit Malcolm X's home. We found out that he worked at the Omni Hotel with a Vietnamese president in the past. So it was, like, 2, like, political leaders worked at the Omni Parker Hotel. And then we were able to buy, like, the Boston cream pie. That's where it was originally made, and so I was just like, we're learning all this history.
Because I went to his home in Ghana and Massachusetts. Oh my goodness. My mind is It's words?
Yes. Okay. He didn't say it. Yes. So his mother had a property in the 1800, and he was the one of the first black families to have property, and it's still there.
We got to, you know, do a tour of it. And so it was, like, great because, you know, they read the book, the autobiography of Malcolm X, and they got to read some books about, like, the 10%ers and all of that. And it was great to, like, actually experience, like, the physical locations where these people actually walked. Yes. And so I think, you know, the great thing about, you know, world schooling is you do get to have these amazing experiences, not just read in a book, but you get to actually experience.
And sometimes when you read, like, history books, they are slanted. You know? They have a political agenda. So they come from the perspective of the person that's the group of people that are in power, and they spin things in a way to influence you. So when you go to a place, you actually, like, get to speak to people that actually experienced it or get to see for yourself, like, oh, I read this, but this is not what I'm experienced.
So it teaches you to question. And, like, okay. Many times, I read something. And when I actually experienced it, it wasn't what I read. You know?
It was, like, partial truths and other untruths. So it also helps with critical thinking. You know? Not just to accept everything you're told, everything that you read, but to question and say, let me dig into this a little bit further. Let me go talk to some other people who actually experienced it from both perspectives and come up with my opinion, you know, based on it.
So they get to learn, like, the scientific method. Not a hypothesis, whatever, but real life. Right? Various areas. Yeah.
So what, where do you like, what countries have you been to? What states have you been with the children in in your world schooling? Yes. So from 2016 to 2020, we were doing a US tour where we visited over 100 cities. So we visited over 110 cities in the US, which was really cool.
So all the way from the West Coast to the southern states to, you know, the East Coast and the center. So it was a really great experience where we would spend basically because it was, like, over 48 months. We would spend, like, a month in different states visiting different locations, historical sites. We would go to resorts. We would go to national parks, like I said, historical locations.
We would also meet with, you know, almost experts. So glassmakers, we would go visit chocolate factories. Like, we would, you know, volunteer on farms. We would do volunteering. We you know, each month, we would volunteer visiting, like, a elderly home, you know, people who maybe their family isn't visiting them, and having a child read to them or talk to them just make their day, or volunteering at food pantries or cleaning beaches or things like that.
So even children that are very young can contribute to making the world a better place. It's not something that you have to do when you're older, right, as an adult. You can make a difference now. So I really, really, yeah. So we end up going to over 110 cities in the US and then in 2020, COVID.
So we're planning on doing a 100 country tour. So we haven't gotten too far with our travels, but we have visited, like, Puerto Rico, a few times since 2020. We went to Canada, and we're in Mexico currently, Belize, the Bahamas, Ghana, and France. And I've been to, like, Cote D'ivoire and Togo without the children. So we were able to visit some countries, and, yeah, we ended up becoming residents of Mexico.
And so now we're staying here, you know, building up our reserves so we can travel on. So we're still on our 100 country tour. Love it. Did you all so your oldest, the 21 year old, did he because I imagine the 11 year old, was he all homeschooled? Or I don't know if it's a if you're a donor or something.
Like, were they homeschool the whole time? Or Yes. So my older 3 were in school for 2 years. Right. So they went to this amazing African centered school called Betty Shabazz in Chicago.
It was amazing. So I actually, the 1st year that my son went to school. So he, my oldest son, actually went 3 years, but the 1st year I attended school with him every day. Oh. It was an open door policy.
I just wanted to make sure that the school actually supported our values and principles. You know? We're vegetarian. The school's vegetarian. It's very Afrocentric.
The day will open up with African drumming and dancing with the Pan African flag. They were learning to speak in ancient Kemetic languages Wow. Swahili, various African languages, and everything was taught from mathematics to history to science from Africa's perspective. So the children were brilliant, and they were super confident. But, after my first like, the 1st year where I attended the school, my younger 3 children at the time, they attended ASO.
So they had a little special table for my twin daughters to sit. So they were learning right along, and I was volunteering. You know, I had a vegan baked good business at the time, so I was providing, you know, the baked goods for the school, which was great. So, like, they really work to support the business. And then that's when I went to school the following year for education.
Yeah. And then my husband, he actually went to school for traditional Asian medicine. So we're like, okay. Everyone's going to school for a couple years. And when I finish, you know, when we are well, when I finish, you guys can come back home.
So it was a great experience for them. Everybody at the school was mama and baba, and everyone treated each other like family. The problem was even when there was school, I had a world schooling, you know, mindset. So I remember taking them out of school like, oh, we're gonna go to Washington DC. We're gonna see, you know, we're gonna go to the different Smithsonians.
We're gonna go see the White House. We're gonna see the mirrors, which are like the monument, which are like and, you know, how Benjamin Banneker has designed Washington, DC, you know, after ancient Kemet and, you know, just learning the history. And then when I came, they're just like, you can't just take the children out. You know? And I was constantly taking them out.
And they're like, if you continue to do this, we're going to have to give your children's face to someone else. So I'm like, we're not gonna stop traveling. So there's an opportunity. You know, if the Joffrey ballet comes to town and it's like a special event for, like, homeschooling children that's during the day where they actually get to meet, you know, the dancers and question that, oh, they're coming out of school. So it didn't really work.
It was a beautiful experience, but it was only supposed to be temporary. But it was a great experience, and then we went back to full time. My younger 2 have never been in school at all. They've only homeschooled, but those, you know, 2 years for my younger 3 and 3 years for my oldest. I guess it was 3 years for all of them because that year, they all attended with me even though they weren't officially, like, enrolled in the school.
So I thought that it was beautiful that they allowed my other 3 children to attend kindergarten. Right. And I couldn't attend. And my son ended up being valedictorian of kindergarten. And he got a letter written to him by president Obama at the time.
Wow. Or yeah. He still has a letter from his academic achievements. And it was amazing. It was a great experience.
It sounds like so it sounds like you also, if you also were, like, never the type of person to be, what's the word, locked in. You know, you always wanted your freedom. You were like, yeah. I mean, this is great, but I need my freedom. So how did you do? How was that?
Is that just your personality? Is that something you learned? I think, as a child, I was very, I don't know. I was always very, like, outspoken, very different, and I would get in trouble a lot for my perspectives. Even though I was a straight A student, you know, I was the fastest in my school, the like, in my class, the strongest, like, I can arm wrestle any one girl or boy.
Do more push ups, more pull ups, you know, straight students. I was considered the class artist. Do you know everything? Like, I was super competitive, but I did not understand, like, the, like, the social cues. Like, I wasn't very good with social cues.
So, you know, if I saw something, like, I remember going, like, seeing one of my grandmother's friends and she dyed her hair red, like, like, really bright engine red. And I was just like, oh my god. You look like both of the clowns. Yeah. Oh, don't let her come back.
But I would like oh my goodness. I would get in trouble. I mean, I would get my little bottom spanked every day. Like, there wasn't a day that I was not in trouble, and I just could not understand. I'm like, I'm just speaking my truth.
If I see something, I'm sharing it. You know, there's things that I wanted to explore. I was constantly reading. Like, my grandmother taught me to read for a year and constantly yes. She had me potty training for 6 months.
Oh my god. My daughter was special. But she was just like, but you're so smart. You're able to do it. Yes.
It is. Because that was her first grandchild. So she pulled out all the stops. I was the first grandchild for both of my parents' side of the family. So I got so much energy and time, like, poured into me, and I was really eager to learn because I would see my parents and my grandparents, like, reading newspapers every day.
And I was like, I wanna do it. And I remember her teaching me to read, but it was, like, only little words like man, can, at, ants. And I was trying to read the newspaper. Having temper tantrums, having straight meltdowns. So I was always eager to read, and I think the ventures and the history really inspired me.
And the first school I went to was a I wouldn't say it's an international school. It was a private school, but, like, my first I was the only black female in my class and those 2 black males. And I remember meeting, like, an Indian girl, Indian guy, like, oh, you're black. And they were just like, no. We're Indian.
I'm like, you're darker than me. Please, you're black. And they're just like, we're not we're and we have, like, Japanese and Chinese and Vietnamese, Filipinos, you know, in my class. And, you know, I was just like, oh, you're all Chinese. And they're just like, no, I'm Japanese.
No, I'm Vietnamese. So it really opened my mind, because to me, you're either black, white, Mexican, or Chinese. But I was a child. And so this school, like open up my mind, like, oh my goodness. There's a whole world out there that I'm completely ignorant about.
There's different languages. Like my Indian friend would bring her lunch and let me try it like chapatis and samosas. I, like, fell in love with Indian food and different things that my parents never tried or would never even think of trying. I was, like, open to different experiences, I think, because of that. But, also, like, when I was in 2nd grade, I had a teacher that it was, like, 3 there were 3 black people again.
2 boys and 1 girl. That was me. And then there was 1, like, euro guy that, like, half the class was, like, people from European descent. And there were just 4 of us that would get notes sent home every day about our behavior. So we'll get, like, bad, okay, or, good.
Right? And I've very seldom ever got good. Every day, I was bad or okay. And every day, I was bad or okay. I'll get to that bottom.
Parents weren't spending good, their good money on a private school for me to just be okay or bad, even though I was looking straight. And I did not understand why I meant that one child, he was, like, really problematic. But the 2, like, black boys, they didn't do anything different than the other children. And I started thinking, okay. I'm noticing, like, people that the people that look like me are, like, just bad or okay even though I'm getting the best grades in the class.
I'm the class artist. I'm, like, you know, answering all the questions, trying to do everything to get this teacher to like me, but she didn't. And so it ended up really impacting my self esteem where I was just like, I don't wanna be black. I don't wanna be black. I'm like, how old were you?
How old were you? I was 7. I was 7. Yeah. I didn't have that experience before that.
Yeah. Yeah. After that, but it had such, you know, a whole year of getting strength every day and then the habit ended up, perpetuating. So, like Also, just to interject, I remember and I and I don't know why I thought of this recently, probably, like, last week or the week before in 1st grade, there was a dog house. Right?
So she used to draw the teacher used to draw a house. And if you were, quote, bad, she would put your name in it. And I remember in 1st grade observing that it's only the black, and there was, one Puerto Rican kid. It was only their names, especially the boys, that ended up being in the dog house. And so, I remember thinking about I mean, we do become we begin to become aware of race between the ages of 3 to 5.
And then 5 is when it kind of like crystallizes that I am a racialized person in the world, particularly in these racialized contexts that we live in. So, I'm hearing you, and I'm remembering, like, this very keen awareness of where blackness landed in this hierarchy. Exactly. Yeah. But what ended up happening is, like, there was a time where there was a habit where every day, you know, I was getting told that I was bad or, you know, okay.
And so I end up getting, like, spankings every day. And then it started happening on the weekend. So it was just, like, a year where it's, like, even with my parents, like, they never just took the teachers. Like, the teachers said she's bad, so she's bad. And it ended up continuing on for the rest of my childhood.
It's like a stigma that ends up sticking, and, like, it never really got better with my parents. With your kids every day. I would have been too. I really Yes. I'm like, we're not.
Mm-mm. Yeah. It was very traumatic. And so I end up having, like, a racial crisis at a really young age. And, eventually, the following year, I end up finding uncle Tom's children in, I think I was 8, in my parents' library by Richard Wright.
And it started talking about all the trials and tribulations that, you know, black people went through during the Jim Crow period from the lynchings to the rapes to the you know, all of that. Right? And so I'm reading that at 8, and I'm just like, oh, and I read that book, like, over 20 times. So I'm just like, oh. And it was really traumatic.
Like, I was really traumatized, but I realized it's not us as a black person. There's something very wrong with the society Mhmm. And this group of people. So I stopped, you know, it ended up going from, like, I don't want to be black to, like, I need to really protect my people, and I'm very proud of my people. Yeah.
I need to find out more about our history and then learn, like, okay. Our history doesn't just begin in slavery. Yeah. And then Jim Crow and then now. But we had, like, a really rich history, 1000 of years that impacted the whole world in a beautiful way, powerful way, that really, really, you know, helped me come out of that to really help boost my self esteem.
Because if I was just to hold on that I'm just bad, I'm just Black people are bad. You know, that would have just left depression and all kinds of like, I can see why, you know, people act out and create negative outcomes for their life because your mindset is really important. If you think that you're bad, you're going to create and act in a way that you think that you are. You know? And so that's why I really want it.
Like, my children are so much more confident Mhmm. Than I have ever been. They're so confident in themselves and in identities and what they're capable of. And I think it's because, you know, of that foundation of seeing the greatness of their people. And then, also, you know, they would go over all these inventions that African Americans have created in the US.
It's amazing. Like, everything from the cell phone to the vacuum cleaner to the refrigerator to the freezer to the stowels to the iron to the ironing boards to the stoplights, to the blood banks, to, you know, satellites. I mean, every area. And I know there's a lot more people whose names are not known because they're working for other corporations. Like my dad, he created a 7 pack. He had 7 patents, right, for the stain resistant carpets that came out in 1989.
I remember that. And I remember talking to my dad. Like like, we could be, like, billionaires. That's right. So what?
Why are you he's just like, well, they're, you know, they're providing the insurance. They have all the equipment. They have all the tools. So, of course, they gave him a little bonus check, but then you know? And he had on our wall the patents on his wall, but it's under the corporation's name.
Mhmm. So I'm just like, how many inventions? And I've talked to many people that their parents, you know, or family members, have similar stories. Mhmm. So I'm just like, we're not just creative in the sense of dancing and singing.
We're creative when it comes to languages. Like, I was looking up the urban dictionary. Like, each year, there's a new urban dictionary. Like, each year yes. There's a new urban dictionary.
Is that a new one or online? Online. Okay. Online. There's a new urban dictionary of new words that we're saying, and a lot of them are created by us.
I mean, like, we're creators of languages. How do you think languages come about? Right. Exactly what you're seeing right now. Like, each year, new terms.
Recreating languages. We know culture, science, and mathematics. You know? It's just like every area we thrive, but we forget that. We're not taught that.
You know? And so that's things that I made very prevalent in our education because I think, you know, I have students from all over the world, and Japanese go to Japanese school. On the weekend, Jews go to Jew School. On Saturday, Chinese go to chime Chinese school on Saturday so you learn about their culture. Mhmm.
Right? Which is very, very important to know about your culture. Way. You know? Yes.
But we're teaching implicitly is important, but what you're saying is also that this happens in systematic ways Yeah. And that might be a gap in a lot of our households. Yes. Consciously, you know, to say, like, this is our history. You know?
Not being taught by someone else, but taught by us, you know, in an empowering way. You know? So where our children are proud of themselves and they feel confident and they love themselves and they love their history and they love their people. And so that's something that we do when we travel to different locations or different countries. We find out the history of Africans.
For instance, the second president of Mexico was a black man. Like, you would never know that. Yeah. Me either. You would never know that.
Right? And so, there used to be a huge African population. But, of course, during the Spanish, the Mexican war, the Spanish were like, fight for us. We'll give you your freedom. Mexicans like, fight for us.
You have our freedom, and they put them at the front lines. So who was getting, like, wiped out but us? So the population after the war was, like, really and then the and then after that, a lot of intermixing. There's still some communities that are still prevalent, you know, black Mexicans, but it's very small. Mhmm.
We used to have large populations. And that goes with a lot of Central and South American countries. Like, we have a really rich history and impact. Mhmm. But you just have to dig for it.
You have to search. You have to talk to people. You know? Ask the right questions. So that's what I really love about this.
I love it. I mean, I think even listening to you, you can hear how rich of an experience even this has been, of course, for your children, but even you, but you've been a lifelong learner as it is. What was I thinking? I wanted to ask if there was something I wanted to ask. I forgot.
You were saying I forgot what I wanted to ask, but this came to mind when you were talking earlier. You were because I was my son, when he went into school, he was so full of personality, all these kinds of things. But once he entered kindergarten, that personality began to change and began to change quickly, and he wasn't as confident, and he didn't think that he was smart. And, you know, I think that he has a shy element to him. You know what I mean?
But all of a sudden, it's like, well, you don't he tickled me in kindergarten. I was like, well, oh, I think it was 1st grade. And I was like, well, if you don't understand, if she's going too fast, just raise your hand and ask her. And she he said, you don't know me. I'm shy.
So, like, it's 6. You don't know me. I think I'm the only one that really does know you. But, you know, he became a different version of himself. I did see a difference in since he was homeschooled.
Right? Because we there are so many so much different messaging to him about his value and his place in society as a black boy in the school systems Absolutely. That I've now seen him even, like, he came back. He wasn't even so he started college in September. By thanksgiving, we were talking and I was like, who is this?
Like, the level of confidence, the level of confidence that he has. So I'm saying that as in thinking of your own experience and the socioemotional consequences for our children in these schools. Now I remember what I was gonna ask. I was gonna ask, so how much time does it take you in planning? Like, your curriculum for your kids.
Yeah. It doesn't take a lot of time because, basically, like, my husband also helps. So when they're younger, we would just have, like, lessons from 7 AM to 9. Like, they're academic lessons. So it wouldn't be a lot.
And so we would just get, like, 30 minutes of math, 30 minutes of, like, reading, 30 minutes of, like, spelling some kind of language arts, 30 minutes of a foreign language, you know, Spanish or something like that. And then within, like, the reading, for instance, they're learning history or they're learning science. So we would you know? Or if they're learning cursive, we will also be learning African Proverbs. So they were doing cursive or their add so we would like each subject would be, like, multiple subjects, but it would only be, like, 2 hours from 7 AM to 9 AM.
So just, like, 4, 25 minutes. Then after that, it was, home economics, we would call it. We're eating breakfast. They're cleaning themselves, cleaning their rooms, you know, organizing. And I'm in the midst of, you know, preparing dinner and lunch.
And then from typically around 12 by 11:30:12, we leave the house, and that's when we are going to museums or concerts or the opera or the planetarium or the aquarium or seeing, volunteering or something. So we would do that at least 6 days a week from, like, 11:30 ish to around 3, and we would pack our lunch because they need to get out of the house. Because if they stay in the house, the house will be a mess. So we would eat out. So from, like, 11:30 until around 6, they would be out of the house.
And then from around 3:30 until around 6, that's when they were doing things like, their basketball, then gymnastics, the swimming, the football, the, the cooking classes, the photography, jury making, coding, and all of that. So they would take classes with other, like, children, like, after school programs. They would do that. Then they would get home around 6:30. It's dinner time.
You know? Wash up. 7, 7:30 is quiet reading time. I'm done. And so, basically, we would have, like, their plans for their lessons, especially when they're younger.
We would do that, like, on the weekends, and it wouldn't take me that long, maybe, like, an hour, like, to, you know, see, okay, this is what they've done so far. We would do, like, different workbooks, and then it would be a matter of scheduling, like, what different museums or what were the which would also take me, like, a hour or 2 to just look at, like, okay. Oh, the circus is in town. You know, oh, you know, this festival is going on this week. So I would just search.
And so you know, and find out events during that time slot. Fill it in, and then I would text it to my homeschooling families that were in my area. And so I would invite them, like, this is my schedule for the week. Feel free to meet us at these locations. And so different homeschooling families. Most of my homeschooling families that I knew had 5 to 10 children.
So we will have 2 or 3 families get together, and we have, like, 10 to 20 children. You know? Mhmm. So my children would have, like, homeschoolers typically who had similar values and principles as they were other African American homeschoolers that they would meet. And then, you know, in the afternoon, they would meet with, like, you know, school regular school age, you know, regular public school or private school students where they would do football, baseball, whatever that way.
But it didn't take a long time because we would just like, I might spend, like, a day or 2, like, at the beginning of each, you know, season or semester to, you know, come up with their schedule. And then after that, it was just a matter of a couple hours each week tweaking it. So it wasn't that bad. Now that the children are older, they pretty much, we just meet, like, once a week, and they just go over what they completed, what they learned. They really help each other.
Like, they'll learn something, and then each person will get up and present what they learned. Wow. So, like, each day and then even when we travel, like, when we travel now, if we go to a different country, a different city or something, we wanna know, like, what to produce. You know? What do they export?
What do they import? What's their GDP? What are the demographics? What's the, you know, when were they founded? Like, some historical things.
So each person will research different things. So in the airport, it's a great time to pass time. They'll get up and give their little presentation. So before we get to the country like now, I'm like, okay. Now I know all about this country.
I know about this new region. So it's really great. So for me and them. So they're working on their writing, their public speaking. I mean, because other people will be sitting there at the airport watching, like, oh, this is great.
You know? We have them stand up and yeah. So it doesn't have to take a lot of time to plan. It's usually, like, planning, you know, at the beginning of each semester, And then it's just a couple hours each week if that. It doesn't take a lot.
Yeah. I love it. I love it. And it sounds so manageable and so doable. I mean, on my own, the year and a half that I did homeschool, because he was older too, it was a lot like that.
And I also can't even remember the name. I think it's called Resplendence Arts. He was taking trees for his foreign language. Yeah. His father is Ghanaian.
My first husband is. And so he did that, and he went to Ghana that year. And this past summer, we also went to Ghana, and his teachers were in Ghana. They were in Ghana. And so that also brings me to something that I wanted to ask you too.
So I saw on your website Mhmm. That you've done something. And first, let me tell you why it excited me. Right? So I studied abroad in Ghana in 2000.
Right? And, yeah, I remember being in the stadium one day, the hearts of Oak Stadium, and someone turned to me and he was like, I heard like, it was a big myth. I heard that Africans were taken from the continent and brought to America for slavery. Like, what is that? Right?
And I was like, they're using it and I had conversations with other Guyanese. Like, what is that about? Like, why does that sound like it's a myth? And he was like, it's textbooks. It's what we're learning in school and how limited it is.
So I saw on your website that you've done some work. Help me fill this gap. Yes. So I worked with Chicago State University, the USAID, and the Ghanaian Ministry of Education in a program called textbooks and learning material, TMLP, program. And well yeah, textbook and learning material program.
And the whole purpose was before the textbooks all reflected the European experience, the European culture, the European everything from their perspective. So we were able to remake the language arts, the science, the math, and various textbooks where it reflected Ghanaian culture. So they saw themselves, and they saw, you know, their food, and you know? So Love it. So they can have pride in their education.
Like, yes. Like, this education is for me. Like, my people learn. My people are important. So I really, really love the program, and the parents loved the textbooks because I was also a field researcher.
So we went to Ghana, traveled to all 10 regions, interviewed parents, teachers, principals, which they called the head teachers, to see what they thought about the books and then how we can improve them, you know, what their experience has been. But it was amazing. I loved it. Yeah. So culturally relevant textbooks.
Yeah. It's really important. It is. I'm just thinking, like, you didn't go to Almena Castle. You haven't heard of that?
Exactly. Here. Right here. So that and so in thinking about world schooling too, how informative. So my daughter was 4 on our trip.
Right? Well, she loves her father very much. I think we're both crafty, but he spends more time on craft. So from the time she was small, when boxes came, it was like, let's make something out of the box. So she made a car couple about a month or 2 ago. And in the car, she's like, come on.
We're going to Ghana. So for me, like, what a win that is to have that in her consciousness at this early age. You know what I mean? So, I really think that what you're doing is expensive. And so, lastly, can you tell us what Embrace Your Free is?
What do you do with that? Yes. So, basically, with Embrace You're Free, we help families create and live the life of their dreams, not someday, not one day, but today because tomorrow's not promised. Right? Like, there's some really sad statistics out there that, like, I always wanna make it less, but we're gonna say 95% of people, like, just in the US, right, die with most of their dreams unfulfilled.
Mhmm. 95%. Right? So most of the people are not like that, they're not even dreaming. They've, like, given up.
They just get caught in the rat race of just, like, you know, work, you know, like sleep, work, rest, TV, go back to work, whatever. Then I have, like, a couple hours on the weekends, but I have to do everything to pack in. But they're not really living. So Embrace Your Free is, like, here to provide the tools, the tools, the inspiration to help you curate your dream life, whatever it is. And one of the segments is worldschooling.
So we help families, basically, also create and finance an affordable homeschool curriculum that involves traveling, affordable traveling with their family, and we also help them make money doing what they love from anywhere. So I think that to be a world schooler, you definitely want to have, like, an educational system that you can create that actually cultivates your child genius. Like, we really focus on your child's unique genius, their personality, their learning styles, how to make them a lifeline lifetime learner. They actually want to learn. They're begging you like, oh, can we like my children?
Can we go to the library today? Can we go to the bookstore? Like, please, hon, can we go? You know, where it's just like, please, we just went yesterday. Can we, like, go another way? Can we walk by ourselves, please?
I've read all my books. You just quit. I've got a bunch of books. Why are you staring at me? Where do you know?
So that is, like, one of the aspects of it when it comes to homeschooling. Yeah. Helping families create and finance that. Good. I love it.
It was such a pleasure to talk to you. Your learning, your enthusiasm and excitement about learning is infectious. Like, I wanna grab a book now. But I I think that there's so much benefit and value to people, at leaning in and hearing more about what you do. So as usual, in the description box below, we will have more information and resources from coach to QA so you can learn a little bit more if you're interested.
Do you have any last words for the audience? So my last words are, like, don't give up on your dreams. Keep dreaming. Like, they are your dreams for a reason. It's because they are possible.
Right? It's just a matter of maybe stepping back, maybe getting some assistance so that you can logically step by step take little bite sized steps to make it happen. But it's possible. Like, never stop dreaming. Anything's possible.
I know it because I'm living. What people would have told me is impossible. Like, when we started our world schooling full time in 2016, we were living off a budget of $2,000 a month, and we were staying at amazing resorts. And this is for a family of 8. So anything is possible if you're willing to take the risk.
You're willing to do research, willing to get that assistance and help. But, yeah, your dream is for you. Don't give up on it. Love it. Love it.
Love it. Thank you, and until the next time.
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