Earlier this week myself and Caro Giles sat down to have a conversation about her wonderful new memoir Unschooled: The story of a family that doesn’t fit in. We could have spoken for another hour on all she touches on in it, we had so much to say, but I think we managed to cover some really fascinating topics in the hour we did have together !
Unschooled is a book about trying to advocate for your children’s needs in an education system that does not serve them and describes the often Kafkaesque bureaucracy Caro is forced to navigate to access basic supports for her children, two of whom have a diagnosis of autism and can’t access the traditional school system.
It is a book about not being heard - as a woman, a mother, a carer - and how sometimes it is hard to work out how these roles can fit together.
It is also a love story - written to her children and to her partner who she met after seven years single parenting and feeling very alone.
And it is a book advocating for thinking outside the box, for being a little bit wild, for dreaming big and, above all listening and being kind.
We spoke about so much during this conversation -
𓇸 what it means to fit in and whether that is always the right thing𓇸 how education does not always have to equals the classroom𓇸 the impact of being forced to conform to a rigid educational system has had on Caro’s girls, including masking𓇸 what it means to often feel ‘too much’ and be asked by society, health care professionals and more to stay small, to play a very specific role𓇸 the split we often feel as women between the mother and the woman𓇸 how the educational system needs to be taken apart and re built to support the needs and lives of modern day children, and the carers and parents who support them𓇸 the importance of creative practice for Caro - a way of saying this happened, I was here. Of being seen and expressing her anger and drive𓇸 what it means to be kind𓇸 the need for us all to find a little bit more wild
and so much more.
I loved this conversation and I’m sure it will lead to more - we were stamping out tangents left and right!
Here’s a little more on Unschooled and on Caro Unschooled, written by a trained teacher with years of experience, exposes the governmental and societal faults which paint all children into one corner and fails to cater for those who cannot fit in, but have much to give. Unschooled has much to say about an education system on its knees but it has hope at its heart – that it’s possible to live and even, with much effort, thrive outside the system. Finally, Caro realises that to be Unschooled can mean also to be spontaneous, natural and unrestrained, a way to reclaim her identity as a woman.As Dr Sharon Blackie recently wrote of the book:
Unschooled is highly recommended, whether you’re a mother or whether, like me, you’re just obsessed with the many shades of women’s experience and all the ways in which we struggle to understand who we are
Caro Giles lives in Northumberland. In 2021 she won the inaugural BBC Countryfile New Writer Award. She is the author of Twelve Moons (HarperNorth) and writes a monthly column for Psychologies Magazine and her Substack Open in the Middle. She writes of the everyday act of mothering - of caring & advocating for her children with unassuming, humble, raw grace.
The book is available to buy or order from all good booksellers now.
Thanks for listening to our conversation - This post is public so feel free to share it.
