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Archives
- August, 2005
Repopulating Communities With
Kids – August 28, 2005
Recently, I was interviewed by an education student who is working on
her Masters thesis. She was curious about the ways in which
homeschooling families contribute to their communities. I began by
saying I’d try to find her some examples of homeschoolers who
volunteer, organize charitable projects, etc. And I mentioned my own two
daughters’ two decade-old peace education project (see August 5,
below). But then I realized that there is a more fundamental way in
which homeschooling families contribute to their communities. And that
is accomplished simply by living there! The separation of work and play,
the compartmentalization of functions in society, the removal of income
generation from the home, the devaluation of the work of women and
children…these things all resulted from the Industrial Revolution
(which created our school system as well). By populating their
communities on a daily basis – by shopping, banking, volunteering,
going to the library, playing in the park, swimming at the community
center – self-educated young people remind their adult neighbors that
children and young people are citizens too, that their needs and well-being must be a
part of community life. And that, I think, is a pretty big contribution.
Posted: 2005/08/28
5:24 PM
No Longer All in the Family – August 21, 2005
I’ve written here before about efforts to institutionalize pre-schoolers
in government-mandated programs, as a way to expand the public school
system’s social engineering and keep the education industry in
business. And now at least one Hollywood celebrity has put his energies behind the movement. Actor/director Rob
Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, All in the Family, etc.)
has introduced a Preschool-For-All initiative slated for the June, 2006
ballot in California.
In response, author and speaker Diane Flynn Keith has
written a clever
open letter to Reiner opposing his plan. The letter
incorporates his film titles, with the idea was that it might be a clever way to get some
attention from the media for this issue, and subsequently to initiate
some open dialogue and debate on the topic.
In addition to having written the book Carschooling,
Flynn Keith owns a discussion list called “Unpreschool” and a
website called
Universal Preschool, where she monitors such issues and provides suggestions for learning alternatives for young children. She points out that the research studies Reiner is
using to justify his initiative do not apply to the mainstream preschool
population; on the contrary, they involved kids who are from
disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and considered to be “at
risk”. In addition, the results have been contradicted by other
research conducted by the same group, and some of the other research has
been shown to be skewed due faulty reporting methods and/or too small
control groups. And that’s not to mention other research that
indicates early separation from parents and too-early academic training
can be harmful to young children and stunt their intellectual,
emotional, social and psychological development.
Flynn Keith says that so-called universal preschool
is a problem worldwide. “So many countries already have government
funded daycare/childcare programs, that the citizens don’t see what
the problem is at all. The mentality seems to be, ‘Of course the
government should raise your babies while you go off to work or play –
and the government can do a better job than parents ever could
anyway!’ But here in the States, we haven’t been used to government
funded daycare/preschool programs, although people are really in favor
of them, especially if we call them ‘preschool’. There’s an
entitlement mentality…when it comes to education. To most folks,
public preschools are just an extension of public schools and they
support them, without ever asking, “What’s best for the children?”
Life learners know, as Flynn Keith says, “that
children learn best through imaginative play and exploration of their
environment in the natural rhythm and routine of their home with loving
parents, not in the artificial environment of classrooms with transient
strangers who indoctrinate them with academic curriculum.” Initiatives
like Reiner’s succeed by playing on people’s fears of their children
“falling behind” if they don’t have the “advantage” of an
early start. Flynn Keith asks, “The government has a track record in
public schools and they are failing so what would possibly make parents
think that they can rely on the government to properly nurture and
educate our completely vulnerable little children?” I believe our
governments would be better off spending our tax money to create the
social and economic environment that would allow families to do what
they do best: help their children learn and develop. If you agree with
me, tell them so and don’t let misguided guys like Rob Reiner be the
only voices heard.
Posted: 2005/08/21
11:23 AM
Ideology As a Barrier to Change –
August 14, 2005
Over the past week, I’ve had conversations with two people – both
academics – who oppose any educational alternatives that aren’t
public schools. I believe their views are seriously myopic and, indeed,
harmful to the future of public education.
The first person – a woman –
carefully explained to me that her feminist beliefs do not allow her to
support home-based learning because it keeps women at home. Nonsense, I
snorted, explaining that fathers could – and sometimes do – stay at
home instead, or, as in our family, both parents could find a way to
balance their careers and facilitate the education of their children.
Indeed, an increasing number of families are involved with
community-based learning arrangements that have the same effect. I also
told her that my and my husband’s feminist beliefs were one of the
reasons our daughters didn’t go to school! We wanted them to avoid the
negative influence of sexism as it existed at that time in the public
school system, and in addition, we felt that self-education was a good
way to help change such stereotypes. I saw then, and still do, that
schooling is part of the patriarchal problem and not part of an
egalitarian solution.
The second conversation, which included similar irony, was with a man
who was concerned about the privatization of education. I share his
concern, except that he and I don’t share a definition of
privatization. He uses the word to describe anything that is done
outside the public school system, including alternatives like democratic
schools and homeschooling. When I, on the other hand, use the word
“privatization”, I am referring to for-profit education, which
includes for-profit schools (including many charter schools), testing
companies, textbook publishers, corporate sponsors and the like. Back in
the 1980s, I was on the board of directors of an organization that was
fighting to have its members brought into the public finance tent. They
were all not-for-profit – either informally like homeschoolers or
formally like Montessori schools, remedial learning centers and even religious schools – but all helping kids learn in ways that differed
from the one-size-fits-all publicly funded system. That organization’s
executive director was fond of saying that the government department in
charge of education acted like a “Ministry of Public Schools” rather
than a “Ministry of Education”. I believed then – and I still do
– that a public education system can and must recognize that
one-size-fits-all, top-down curriculum, testing and all the other
outdated methods that we know as schooling do not comprise the best way
for most people to learn...and abolish them in favor of self-directed
education. I ended my recent conversation with this particular public school supporter by pointing out that, ironically, 20 years
later, the public school system is much more dependent upon the
for-profit mentality than most of the alternatives he believes will
erode the integrity of that system.
It seems to me that these supposedly
progressive people are spouting out-of-date, simplistic arguments in
favor of maintaining the status quo. People will always come up with
reasons – many well-founded – why change can’t or won’t happen.
Often, those reasons are some of the biggest barriers to change.
Posted: 2005/08/14
11:20 AM
Still Saying No to War – August 5, 2005
When I first became interested in the peace movement back in the 1960s,
we teens knew clearly what we were protesting: the Viet Nam
war. In the 1980s, our small alliance of local families also had a clear
and immediate target: American testing of cruise missiles in Canada’s north. Even my young daughters, who wrote and performed a play on
August 6, 1985 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were focused on one threat. Outside the public library where their
event took place, they’d done some shadow painting – white water
soluble paint outlining shapes of people to mimic the “shadows” that
were seared onto the ground, all that was left in the wake of the 1945
atomic bombings.
Today, 20 years later, I am saddened that the work
of peace activists is still far from over. In fact, the world seems to
be a more dangerous place than it has ever been. Certainly, those
seeking a way beyond war have a more difficult time focusing on just one
front. Is the threat more from the 30,000 nuclear weapons stockpiled
around the world or from subway terrorists with bombs made from ordinary
ingredients like hair bleach? Are rogue despots a bigger danger than a
stubborn but quasi-democratically elected president?
Those questions didn’t plague activist groups
around the world in 2003 when, in opposition to the invasion of
Iraq, they formed the largest global peace movement in history. The New York
Times dubbed it the world’s “other super power”. Since then, that
energy seems to have drained away. But recently, I’ve been sensing
some new activity.
If you are in Canada, you may have seen the No More Hiroshimas public service announcements
produced by Physicians for Global Survival (Canada), aimed at reawakening public awareness and protest
against nuclear weapons.
And if you are in California this month, you can take in a number of energizing events. Think
Outside the Bomb was a youth conference organized by the Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation, which brings together 60 young
leaders, disarmament experts, educators and activists to help teach and
support young peace leaders. Also this month, women leaders, peace
researchers, writers, poets, educators, journalists and media are attending
the Pave Peace Conference organized by the Israel-based International
Forum for the Culture and Literature of Peace.
And this fall, no matter where in the world you
are, as long as you have access to a computer, you can participate in
the Transcend Peace University, a unique online university based in
Romania. Courses are offered in peace, conflict transformation, development and
global issues.
These and many other initiatives counteract the
hopelessness and despair that threaten us as much as bombs. Fear is one
of the most powerful weapons of those who benefit from war. So it’s
good to see peace activists focusing on bringing people together,
reminding us that we are not alone in wanting a peaceful future,
creating opportunities for us to listen to each others’ fears and
doubts, and thinking clearly about how we can work together to obtain
peace.
Posted: 2005/08/05
10:27 AM
School
is Poison – August 1, 2005
Here is another reason for kids to learn without
schooling. Last week, researchers reported in the
Journal
of the American Medical Association that students and school
employees are being poisoned by pesticide use at schools and by drift
from neighboring farmlands. The study, Acute
Illnesses Associated With Pesticide Exposure at Schools, which
analyzed 2593 poisonings from 1998 to 2002, found incident rates overall
of 7.4 cases per million children and 27.3 cases per million employees.
The authors conclude that the results “should be considered low
estimates of the magnitude of the problem because many cases of
pesticide poisoning are likely not reported to surveillance systems or
poisoning control centers.”
Insecticides caused 35 percent of the illnesses,
while disinfectants containing antimicrobial properties caused 32
percent. Thirteen percent of the illnesses were associated with
repellants, and 11 percent with herbicides. The remaining nine percent
were attributed to other causes, such as rodenticides or fungicides.
Children are more susceptible to pesticide exposure because they breathe
more air pound for pound than adults, they play on the floor and they
live closer to the floor, where pesticides linger, than adults do.
The study found that the incidence rates among
children increased significantly from 1998 to 2002. While the study
looked at acute, or short-term, effects, the study authors note that,
“Repeated pesticide applications on school grounds raise concerns
about persistent low level exposures to pesticides at schools.”
Continuing, the authors state, “The chronic long-term impacts of
pesticide exposures have not been comprehensively evaluated; therefore,
the potential for chronic health effects from pesticide exposures at
schools should not be dismissed. Unfortunately, the surveillance methods
used in our report are inadequate for assessing chronic effects.” In
addition, the authors note that pesticides on school grounds can be
tracked inside school buildings.
The researchers advise schools to use integrated
pest management techniques and try to reduce or eliminate pesticide
drift from nearby farms, to reduce the amount of pesticide-related
illnesses. The public health advocacy organization Beyond Pesticides
called on Congress to respond by passing the School Environment
Protection Act (SEPA).
On the other hand, the conservative
Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) issued a press release suggesting
that West Nile Virus is a bigger problem than pesticide use., and saying
that “the public must be careful not to fall for the hype” of
“anti-chemical activists”. “For decades, environmentalists have
been trying to scare the public about pesticides, when in fact
pesticides pose little risk when used properly and are a critical part
of controlling disease outbreaks and pest-related risks at schools,”
said Angela Logomasini, CEI’s Director of Risk and Environmental
Policy. The CEI declares itself as dedicated to the principles of free
enterprise and limited government. But it clearly puts corporate rights
far ahead of those of children.
Posted: 2005/08/01 2:40 PM
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