Salaam.
It was in the year 2005 that I quit my corporate job in a media corporation and set off on an intense journey of learning, exploration and finding what I felt would be a more real and less illusory way of life. I went here and there but quickly found grounding. I was being led to all the things I would need in the decades ahead. Amongst those things was what was then called Homeschooling, but now has many variations and names: Homeschooling, Unschooling, Worldschooling, and so on.
For ease and because it is the most common denominator, I will call what we do Homeschooling, though the word evokes some highly suspicious and negative connotations due to historical associations and uses. Homeschooling does not always take place at home, but it is typically family-led and has the involvement of the whole family. It has many variants too, and also, its practitioners are diverse and completely at odds with one another in terms of their motivations and beliefs.
This is not just a conservative religious practice though for many, that is sometimes the route. This is also practiced by tech families frightened of the overreach and impact of technology and the fragmentation of society, by hippies who want to explore a grounded and gentle way of life, by naturalists who want to connect with the organic world, by hippies and renegades and also, by frightening controlling people.
The diversity of who practices homeschooling is as much if not more than who engages in regular, industrial schooling.
I made the decision, in 2005, to opt for this way of life and wanted to unschool and recover parts of my Self too. My journey in that regards was not linear, as there is no turning back the clock to become a child again and school yourself the way you have always held in your mind and dreams (I did). I was, however, able to teach myself new things in a non-linear way, leaving my days of structured progress behind.
I was able to choose homeschooling for my child though, and we more or less have obtained gains and some success. There is a lot that is needed in the way of creating a more wholesome life, and that comes from culture, community, economy and society which, as we know, is deeply stressed in Pakistan including in the Himalayas where I live. Cultures are changing, economy is shifting and people are not fully aligned with what our new directions should be.
Regardless, I am stayin gtrue to an inner core at a great cost to us, and yet keeping with my mission of obtaining sovereignty and dignity in a world that has become controlling, harmful and erratic. That said, the world is also shifting in many positive ways, and it’s a matter of picking your battles and keeping your focus.
I have returned to this page 2.25 years after creating it. At first, I intended to share a string of happy and positive experiences that we were having in the middle of adversity. Since then, however, the illusion is collapsing in the Collective, life is not all ha-ha, hee-hee, and there are grim realities to contend with as a parent and as a member of a society in which crimes against the children and the young have become rampant, parents are losing hope and direction, and social disarray is increasing. I had some delusion about being a guide to other parents, but our lives are too unusual and autonomous for this. We do not fit the norm; we steer narratives and paradigms and meet rapid shifts. Also, for the sake of safety and security we have decided to live a quiet life.
I am, however, developing a pedagogy that I will release quietly.
It is a pedagogy developed while dealing with severe pain, loss, betrayal, harm, disease, chaos and wounding. So, this is not for parents who want happy, structured and predictable outcomes. This is for warriors, leaders, designers and the quiet invisible leaders who are shaping this world as the silent thought and spirit leaders you do not see.
Stay connected, we will share a bit more about BOTH what we do (in the middle of chaos), AND how we are, in fact, developing a structure and path out of what is an often shifting and instable reality. We have, after all, a plan and, Alhamdolillah, the Best of Guides (Allah). Aameen.