#98 There is no one right way to live, with Stephanie McDowell in Texas
About this episode
Esther Jones talks with Stephanie McDowell about her journey from high-school teacher to homeschooling her daughter and addressing personal trauma.
In this episode, I am talking with Stephanie McDowell. Stephanie lives in the US with her husband and five-year old daughter and is a former high-school teacher. Burnt out from her teaching career, she and her husband chose to homeschool their daughter, but Stephanie found the structure and school-focused ways of the homeschooling community an uncomfortable mismatch. She realised that she needed to focus first on herself and began to unpick some trauma from her childhood and her relationship ...
More episodes of The Unschool Space
- #103 Embracing a different kind of learning, with Zahra Lightway and Patricia Sprenger
- #102 From soccer mom to unschooling coach—changing the stories in our heads, with Sue Patterson in Austin, Texas
- #101 Unschooling and one child's recovery from burnout, with Jenny Mainwaring in Oxford, UK
- #100 In celebration of 100 conversations and The Unschooling Summit 2026, with Melissa Crockett-Joyoue
- #99 Trusting the ebb and flow - unschooling with four neurodivergent children, with Cassie Emmott in East Sussex, UK
- #97 Looking back—reflections on grown unschooled children, with Linda Velwest in New Jersey
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Unschool Space podcast page.