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We all have the public, achievement, visible side of our lives. And then the parts of our life that may or may not be visible, but that's how we are really doing. That's what we really want to talk about. That's where the heartbreak is. This book is a guide to the heartbreak parts, to how we are really doing. Not a self-help book about how to get through school or your first job, but about how to get through the heartbreak and feelings of rejection or the true friendships or how to take steps toward what makes your heart soar. It's like the essential oil of advice columnists, the part where they reflect back to you what your real concerns and priorities are.

I want to gift this book as a sweet 16 present, a graduation present, a 40th birthday present, to just about everyone as well as myself. It's one of those books where you don't really read it, you work through a page and then let that page ferment in your mind for a month.

It helps with some of the trickiest things. How to know when your instincts are telling you no versus when your conditioning or that critical voice in your head is undermining your dreams. How to thrive where there is no time, no money, no rest. How to apologize. How to argue. How to receive a compliment or criticism. Not just "you should accept compliments" but how to actually do these things, step by step, with illustrations and bullet points. Like "how to be a better human for dummies." Without universalizing, without skirting over the our entanglement in imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchy.

I need my own copy to refer to and another to cut out and make posters for my wall.

I started noticing parallels between unschooling/self-directed education and my values as an anarchist around the same time, when my now-teenager was "preschool" age. These ideas are so intertwined, each informing the other, always reminding me there are other ways of living in this world and interacting with people of all ages...especially children. There are few people I trust as much as carla joy bergman to put together a book like TRUST KIDS!, which explores how we can break down the hierarchies that keep children from experiencing autonomy and consent in all areas of their lives (not just in their education).

I wanted to race through this book—it's so down-to-earth and a joy to read! But each piece had so much to say—important points I wanted to make sure I took in fully. TRUST KIDS! features essays, interviews, poems, and artwork from scholars, activists, and artists of all kinds of backgrounds and demographics. I read a number of new-to-me voices, but also many familiar, trusted voices, like Idzie Desmarais, whose essay "Anarchy Begins At Home" moved me deeply. ❤ (Everyone felt familiar and trusted by the end of the book!)

One of my favorite passages is from "A Fatigue-Wearing Judas: Acknowledging Histories and Breaking Cycles" by chris time steele:

"Learning is about unlearning, relearning, or learning-through as well...Unlearning isn't an event, it's an ongoing process, which involves being in community with others, reflecting on internalized white supremacy, and diagnosing the patriarchy within myself."

TRUST KIDS! counters the lies capitalism, colonization, and empire have taught us about children AND about ourselves.