I attended this year's Anarchapulco conference with my husband. It was our first time there, and we did not have a clue as to what the whole thing would be like. I didn't think I would actually have much in common with anyone there to be honest. I didn't even know Anarchapulco even existed until my husband mentioned it in October.
I was surprised. There were so many amazing speakers and the whole community was great! You could walk up to anyone in the room (and most of the time anyone around the hotel grounds) and have a deep and meaningful and like-minded conversation. You would learn something new and interesting everyday, and quite possibly, make a friend (or friends) for life.
The theme at this conference seemed to be about working on yourself. The whole movement begins with YOU. As a newbie to this kind of event, I thought it enlightening. I wholeheartedly agreed, but had no idea so many others in the movement thought this way too.
My favorite topics during the conference were the ones that brought up the children. Dayna Martin and David Rodriguez were two of my favorites on the topic, and I am so glad to have found out about them and their work. I have spent so long focused on my family, our household, our lives, that I have been "out of the loop" as far as these speakers and others similar in this quest are concerned. Everytime kids were mentioned, I would tear up because I was in 100% agreement in what was said. Respect your children. Treat them like human beings. They have so much potential when they are not beaten and controlled. All this made me feel like we as parents were on the right path after all. That living in this small town in fear of saying too much about what we are about, what we think, how we believe children should be raised, is not something that we SHOULD fear. So what if people may judge us or think we are crazy. We are doing the right thing for our kids and for the future, and if we are able to shift someone's view even a little bit, it's worth it.
I definitely still have tons of work to do on myself and more to learn as a parent. We believe in unschooling, though our children attend school. No public school though. It's an amazing school influenced by many democratic-free models including the Sudbury Valley school where children have the freedom to learn what they want, when they want. We are very fortunate to have one near us.
What I learned after this year's Anarchapulco is that the world is bigger than this small town. The community of like-minded people is bigger than I thought. And with this post I hope to communicate with more. I also hope this post makes someone else feel like they are not as alone in the pursuit for freedom.
Thank you for your time.