About Sarah « Humans Being

About Sarah

Sarah Parent is the whole-life unschooling Mama of Elijah (6.5 y/o) and Sadie (5 y/o). 10 years of labor and birth nursing, mindful childbirth preparation, advocacy for women and families which culminated in a master’s degree in nursing clashed head-on with motherhood when the realization hit that money and degrees were no match for her sensitive, pensive son and spunky, wild-child daughter when it came down to where to spend her time. Their lead and the hearts of she and her husband, Chris, brought them to whole-life unschooling and gentle parenting over bumpy roads of doubt and steep ravines of fear. She maintains a wealth of knowledge and strong belief in and advocacy for the empowerment of women through birth. Now, as her children grow, she has found her voice in advocating for peaceful families through gentle parenting and unschooling if only to support others in navigating the bumpy roads and ravines.

She is the author of Clan of Parents (www.clanofparents.com) which chronicles her family’s unschooling adventures and the host of Humans Being- a podcast focusing on gentle parenting and unschooling issues.

2 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

This is awesome Humans Being has it’s own site!

Comment by sixcrazykanes — September 30, 2008 #

Reply
I found your podcast via Relaxed Homeskool podcast via putting “homeschooling” into iTunes Podcasts. What a journey! It is so refreshing to hear words put to feelings and thoughts I’ve been developing. I’m a 27 yr. old mom of an 18 month old girl and to-be-born-in-May baby. I’ve known I wanted to homeschool since I was homeschooled myself for a couple of years in 7th and 8th grades, but I’m so glad that the concept of Unschooling/Life Learning/Radical Unschooling is now being discussed and I get to learn about it! I also love that between Relaxed Homeskool discussions and what I’m hearing you discuss, I’m getting the tools and language for the concepts of gentle parenting and attachment parenting.

While I’ve been reading about homeschooling vs. schooling, and even a bit about unschooling with John Holt and with Gatto, I grabbed a bunch of books at my library that primarily address schooling at home (which I knew I didn’t want to do) just to see if there was anything of value. One of the books I hadn’t cracked open yet was The Well-Trained Mind, which was highly recommended on Amazon. Then I listened to your assessment of it on your podcast as the driest book. So, I had to at least read the introduction! Wow, talk about putting emphasis on one type of learning! Logic, speaking well, analyzing information etc. are all important, but the implication in the book was that such skills are gained only through a careful and rigorous structure done for 12 years! Then, I watched Sir Ken Robinson on TED talk about how children need to learn to their strengths because for too long schools have emphasized the skills needed to be … a college professor! ( I got the link for that talk from your blog, by the way).

Anyway, I sit in my living room spinning wool on my spinning wheel ( an interest that has come from my own unschooling, now that I’m all done with all the education I “should” have had, and now have time to pursue so many things I’m really interested in) and I’m listening to your podcast. Between that and the internet I’ve joined a huge community of people like me, and I’ve joined a discussion essentially about life and its purpose. What fun! Thank you so much for sharing what is on your mind, how you are living, and the ideas behind it all.

Comment by Katherine Collings — January 25, 2009 #

Reply