I hadn’t planned to wade into electoral politics but then I wasn’t expecting young people’s freedom to be the battle ground. I penned these thoughts in the form of a letter in response to the Prime Ministers announcement that National Service will be reinstated if he wins the election. Much to say but I forced myself not to write a manifesto of my own in response. your comments and thoughts in response are welcome as always.

Dear Prime Minister,

If the problem is young people not having enough opportunities and needing avenues to be part of wider society, you don't need new structures like national service. Give them the one opportunity they all truly crave- to show you who they really are.

If our education system was built on valuing children and young people for who they are rather than constantly belittling them as adults-in-training, we'd be able to create an environment that prepares them for the world and leaves the world a better place with them having been in it.

This is not utopian idealism, this is reality in many places around the world. And it's cheaper than the current education system which is failing everyone involved.

Why not give our country an education system that is fit for purpose? Education spending is the second-largest element of public service spending in the UK behind health, representing £116 billion in 2023-24 in today’s prices or about 4.4% of national income.1

Imagine if you used that to build a system that nurtured people's talents and abilities in an environment which encourages self-responsibility and community? When you empower young people by giving them real choice, they will surpass any adult's expectations every single time. Give them a creatively stimulating environment and real support to be curious, try new things, take risks and learn real life lessons and they will show you who they really are. Not everyone will be a Nobel Prize winner but you will meet a generation of people who feel valued and in turn value others.

People are not capable of giving what they don't have. If young people do not have the basic right to choose how they can make a good life for themselves and be a positive force for change, how can you expect them to achieve such things? If the current approach to knowing what's best for children worked, you wouldn't be needing a radical new policy to shake things up.

Educational experts can provide you enough evidence (which you already have) to support this bolder and braver shake up I suggest a s amore effective option, but the real experts are the young people themselves. Let them go out and learn in the world rather than locked away from it and they will be everything they are meant to be. That’s a promise.

“Multiculturalism has failed” cry our politicians.

Multiculturalism has failed, if you don't understand multiculturalism.

Multiculturalism works where cultural sharing and learning is open in all directions. Everyone in such a society would be experiencing the richness of diverse culture, and would be all the better for it.

In Britain, the current attitude of our political leaders is not one of openness to other cultures. The best you can ask for it to be tolerated. Acceptance is not a dream you should pin your hopes on.

What is British culture though? When you strip away the international foods, customs, music, humour, literature and community influences that make Britain what it is today, what do we actually have left? Colonialism? drinking? That stiff upper lip which has repressed emotional development for generations?

From David Beckham to fish and chips; tea to Paddington Bear. There is nothing quintessentially British that hasn't been influenced by other cultures. We are all the better for it. Stop gaslighting multiculturalism.

We do have a real problem of people living isolated and unconnected lives. Imagine a child was adopted into a home where they were consistently reminded they aren't an original family member and as such don't deserve to have their needs met in the same way as those born into the family. Sadly we know too well from our care system that such children would always feel out of place, not fully accepted, and could struggle for life as a result of not feeling entirely safe or welcome. Everyone needs a home that really feels like home. If you don't feel safe and accepted enough to call Britain home, isolation and segregation is inevitable.

The "parallel lives" being lived in Britain are a direct consequence of our leaders refusal to fully accept people (not just immigrants) and their diversity of needs, skills and cultures. To do so would require them to deconstruct and rebuild every aspect of our society. A society built on the value of equity requires a lot of work (and a lot of play), but everyone benefits. The current strategy of scapegoating others and refusing to take responsibility is less work for them, but everyone suffers. It's no coincidence that all the key workers we clapped for in lockdown are now striking. Everyone has had enough. Keep calm and carry on is not part of British culture anymore.

Where does playfulness come in? Play is an essential part of culture. Both play and culture develop through people’s experiences and attempts to understand the world around them. The richness of our multicultural society includes the diversity of playful and creative ideas from across the globe. Culture is play at the highest level. In rejecting cultures different from our own, we are essentially giving the message that we will only play our game by our rules. If this is our national strategy for building communities, we will end up in a position similar to the kid in the playground who will not compromise and work with others to agree how to play: we will be left isolated and alone, and not fully understand why.

It isn't multiculturalism that is failing us. It is our leaders.

It’s a pleasant surprise that people beyond my own network have taken an interest in the Adults Playbook as I get started. So, I thought I'd introduce myself.  

I’m Simi. This is a photo of me in play mode. Water fights may not be the usual model of social justice work, but after years of working in the political, charity and NGO sectors, I can confidently say what I'm doing now is my best contribution to date. 

This photo was taken a few weeks ago, after a freezing but fabulous water fight with a group of children. Once a week I spend a day in community with my daughter and other families, facilitating a space for our children to explore the world through their own interests and curiosities. This self-directed learning space is our attempt at creating the society we want to live in. It’s a huge amount of work, but is as joyful and playful as liberation work can get. 

I never planned not to send my child to school. I knew all the challenges the school system presented, but had never imagined there was an alternative. A wonderful friend who is an academic and is challenging the system from within was the first to open my eyes. Peter Gray’s “Freedom to Learn”  led me to the path of the importance of play in any learning environment. I quickly learned from the engaging and relatable TED talks of the late great Sir Ken Robinson that education empowers freedom and creativity, but the evidence shows that school tends to do the opposite. It’s not the fault of the teachers, but the system in which they are expected to operate. We all deserve better. 

We started our alternative education journey knowing there had to be a better environment in which our child could learn the lessons she truly needed in life. We weren’t sure exactly what that looked like, but we knew from the outset it involved the richness of community. If it takes a village to raise a child, we needed to find our village. The more we talked openly about the educational needs of children, the more families we found who felt the same way. In my own parental-education, I came across the book “Raising Free People : Unschooling As Liberation and Healing Work” by Akilah S Richards. This book cracked me open further, and I continued to explore the fundamentally flawed structures in which we all find ourselves trying to meet societal expectations, whether we have children or not. What started as an educational choice for my child had now become my latest pursuit of liberation. We all need to be unschooled. I had worked in anti-racism and community development before, but this felt different. Instead of pleading with leaders and opinion formers to listen to our case, we were starting a community-based initiative that needed no external buy-in to get started. By the people for the people in its purest form. 

There are plenty of wonderful alternative education provisions if you can afford them. The people that need them most simply can’t. We set out to create a space that everyone could afford to attend. The only way to do this was to create space built on our values, ask families to commit to a pilot, then fling open the door and see what happened next. True to our values, the funding model is based on trust, abundance and self-empowerment. People pay what they can afford, no questions asked. We supplement our income with a fundraising event each year which the children plan and run. We are into our second year and we’ve always had enough money to fund the offerings the children desire. We’ve also managed to build a community rich in its diversity. We have people from so many different backgrounds, ages, lifestyles and opinions. But we all share the same commitment to our values on opportunities for our children to thrive. It’s one of the only places I have experienced people from such broad walks of life have such an intimate opportunity to engage and learn from each other. We haven't created utopia. Making space for 20 children's visions requires empathy and diplomacy. Every week there are discussions on improvements, negotiations, disagreements and difficult conversations. Celebrating diversity requires facing challenges. The magic of the place is that we have created a space for all of this to happen, where parents and children all feel seen and heard.  

Have we found the perfect alternative school? Anyone looking for a blueprint model to copy may be disappointed. Educational environments need to be built according to the needs of the people they are serving. Our space has evolved considerably over time, as the needs of the children evolve, and parental understanding deepens. There are some parts we haven't mastered yet. Just as the children do, we bring our ideas, test them out, give honest feedback and come back again for more. 

Running a self-directed learning space is not a small undertaking, but it is a lot of fun. We have a vision for a more equitable, more fun and welcoming world that all children deserve to grow up in. We have started building it with our kids, but we want everyone to benefit. You cannot create a world like this without play at its centre. The children spend their day playing. I spend my week playing with ideas to prepare for my day with the children. Then I switch off adult mode, throw myself into the water fight and let the fun continue. 

I’m sharing this part of my life by way of introduction as it has led me to the centrality of play in my own life. I’m sure there will be plenty to say about playful adulting without the involvement of children, but I couldn’t start without paying tribute to my daughter, the best teacher I have had in life so far. 

Links to the resources mentioned above and jumping off points for more learning:

Sir Ken Robinson

TED talks:

1. Do schools kill creativity?

2. Bring on the learning revolution!

3. How to escape education's death valley

You can read more from Sir Ken Robinson on his website

Peter Gray

Book: Free to Learn : Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

This animated video is also a favourite of mine Self-Directed Learning Fundamentals

You can follow Peter Gray’s latest work on substack

Akilah S Richards

Book: Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work

I was also inspired by her TED talk

Read more about Akilah S Richards work on her Raising Free People website

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I have spent my life fighting for social justice and grew tired of the fight, but never the cause. I realised fighting the system doesn’t win. Instead, we need to harness our energy, passion and power to create positive disruption, liberating people and communities. We have to create a positive reality that is a realistic option for others to choose to follow our path. This has to be open to all, not the privileged few. If everyone can’t make the choice, it isn’t ready yet.

I choose to do this through the power of play. The need for children to play for freedom, education, creativity and joy is universally accepted (if not always put into practice). I forcefully propose the same is true for adults. If we reconnect to our playfulness, we find our creativity, our energy, our humanity, our compassion, our power, our fun, our love, our community, our lives, our freedom.

Join me in this adventure as I follow my playful curiosity to discover how play can set us all free. I don’t claim to have it all figured out but answers I find are free and open for all to benefit from.

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