Bio

My name is Idzie Desmarais, and I'm a 20-something year old lifelong learner who lives in Montreal, Quebec.

I'm a kindergarten drop-out who, excluding those six months of kindergarten, has never been to school. Instead, I grew up following my passions and figuring things out in my own time.  In my late teens I  became fascinated with the education (often referred to as unschooling) I'd grown up with, and started reading everything I could about unschooling and self-directed learning, going to unschooling conferences, and writing this blog I'm Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write.  At some points I've also been very involved with the alternative education movement in my home city, as well as the wider unschooling community through the making of connections and friendships with people scattered across North America (and beyond!). I think unschooling has been a very important part of my own life, and that the ideas found in this philosophy can be a powerful tool of both personal and social transformation.

My work has been published in Our Schools/Our Selves, Life Learning Magazine, and Home Education Magazine, among others, and I've spoken at Rethinking Everything Conference, the Toronto Unschooling Conference, the Northeast Unschooling Conference, the AQED Symposium, and the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair.

Some other things you might want to know about me? I'm a queer feminist anarchist (which most definitely influences my writing), I can talk endlessly about my beloved cats and dogs, I'm a cook and low key coffee (and chocolate!) snob, a lover of fantasy fiction, an enthusiastic makeup collector, avid thrifter, and I eventually plan to build a rural homestead with loved ones.

I'm often not able to respond promptly, but I can be contacted at idziedesmarais@gmail.com or through my blog Facebook page.

Find out more about me, my projects, blogs, and interests at my website idziedesmarais.com.

Interviews and conversations with me

Pam Laricchia interviews me on her podcast Exploring Unschooling



A conversation on the online show For The Love of Learning between me, Pam Sorooshian, Pat Farenga, and Laini Liberti














I was featured alongside many other wonderful unschooling advocates in Amy Child's The Unschooling Life podcast episodes Why Unschool?, Learning from Screens, and Geography.

I was interviewed for an article in the Montreal Gazette, Focus on unschooling's end product, professor says

From Life Learning Magazine An Interview With Grown Unschooler, Author, and Speaker Idzie Desmarais By Camelia Jula


12 comments:

  1. I found your blog because I homeschooled (more unschooling)as well during high school. My family also has an Airedale! How fun. :) Winston sure is cute.

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  2. Hey Idzie, I'd like to introduce you to Sig. She's queer, rad, into food especially that fermented stuff, and right up your alley. I know her personally, and she's friggin rad. You'd like her and all her recipes. If I may be so bold, you are kindred spirits. :) Enjoy, she's one of my favourite people in the world http://friedsig.wordpress.com/

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    Replies
    1. hi idzie
      (^^^) <-- shark


      i love your blog. these photos capture huge personality, even in the pets! i agree with much of what you have to say. you are so fuckin' smart! "lifelong learner", i love it! keep up the great work!

      have you peeped this yet? http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110517110315.htm

      hope we meet some day :D it's a small world, you never know


      -siggi

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  3. hi idzie. I really love your writings . How i wish I am Like you . You really have the talent.

    anyways I'm a newbie in blog industries, and your blog really amaze me .


    jhez

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  4. Great bio. I love unschooling. I was homeschooled, not unschooled, but for a few years we did not use curriculum.

    When I think of animism, I think of tribal groups and ancestor worship in Asia, but that's really great that you are pro animals.

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  5. This is really wild. I was googling adult unschoolers and came across you. I am also a 21 year old and was unschooled for a lot of my life. I am sort of tripping out on our similarities right now. I am: a passionate writer, a vegetarian, in a queer relationship, gender-fluid, starting an intentional community, neo-pagan, living in a yurt, and in love with nature! It just so happens I am starting a zine concerned with radical individuality, anarcho-primitivism, DIY ethics and voluntary simplicity. Anyway I would desperately love to connect with you more and if your interested collaborate/publish your work in my zine.

    Write me at: ewokologist@yahoo.com or

    PO BOX 2813
    Paso Robles, CA
    93447

    ~Gloria

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  6. Hi,
    I am a mother of a four and a one year old, and interested in unschooling, trying to establish my parenting philosophy. so far i have come across greeny hippie type ; } {awesome} unschoolers like yourself, against capitalism. Just wondering, free market or anarcho capitalism to me seems to be on par with the general unschooling philosophy? what is your view exactly?

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  7. Many children succeed in School yet fail Life. Then there are those who failed in school yet succeeded in Life. The difference? Those who failed in Life suffered from what I call 'Collaboration illiteracy'. Collaboration Literacy -the ability to get out of your own way and find your way in life and then help others do the same, is a greater priority literacy then even reading, writing or arithmetic. Collaboration like Charity and Compassion begins at home. Self-Collaboration or getting all the different parts of yourself to work together to help you flow and function in Life is the pre-requisite to Collaboration with others. If you get in your own way and you get together with others who also get in their own way, it won't end well.

    Jazz Rasool, Director, Energy Diamond, UK.

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