Editor-in-Chief of Life Learning magazine Editor-in-Chief of  Natural Life magazine Editor-in-Chief of Natural Child magazine Author of unschooling books Small/Home Business writer Poet Speaker Interview on Radio Free School

Musings, meanderings, wonderings and wanderings about unschooling, natural  parenting, sustainable living and more by Wendy Priesnitz.  Archives - August, 2007 Dissent is Not Sad, It’s Democratic – August 22, 2007 As a baby boomer, I came of age in the late 60s, and learned well the lessons of rebellion, questioning of authority and dissent. And I’ve been known to participate in my share of protests and political lobbies – although not as many I’d like, due to the sometimes awkward requirements of journalistic “objectivity.” But in all these years, I’ve never witnessed the reaction to dissent that displayed earlier this week by the head of the government of my supposedly democratic country. (Well, being appalled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a near-constant state for me…but that’s another story.) The incident I’m referring to involves his reaction to a demonstration held on Monday in Montebello, Quebec against Harper’s meeting with George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. They were apparently (I say “apparently” due to the secret nature of the meeting and those leading up to it) discussing something called the “Security and Prosperity Partnership” or SPP. This unpopular agreement is so unpopular that the three leaders don’t seem to want to submit it to their respective legislative processes and would rather discuss and agree behind closed doors (that’s been going on for a few years now, without it hitting the public radar until recently.) Negotiated on a bizarre merry-go-round of secretiveness, arrogance and paranoia, this agreement is purportedly about integration, which is a benign-seeming word. But many Canadians fear that means our laws will have to conform with American laws, our military will be led by American military, our energy will become American energy, and corporate needs of any nationality will rule. It’s hard to know what the truth is, but it seems to me that if there were nothing to hide, it wouldn’t be hidden. And that’s the point a thousand or so folks were trying to make this week outside the resort where the big guys were meeting. I think they succeeded, in spite of the government’s and police forces’ best attempts to thwart the protests. ( Reports are now surfacing that undercover police infiltrated the protest and started the violence that was widely reported on Monday.) So what does our embarrassing Prime Minister tell television cameras? “I’ve heard it’s nothing. A couple hundred? It’s sad.”  What is sad – no matter what your opinion of the SPP or the effectiveness of protest demonstrations – is the spectacle of the leader of a supposedly democratic country demeaning and perhaps trying to smother legitimate dissent. Posted: 2007/08/22 11:36 AM Toxic Toys – August 16, 2007 Once again, Mattel is recalling millions of toys made in China due to concerns about lead-based paint and small magnets, both of which are harmful if swallowed. Aside from the obvious and relatively recent problems resulting from China being corruption-ridden and totally out of control, there apparently is a need for a whole generation of parents to educate themselves about child safety. As a relatively naïve young mother in my mid-20s, I knew enough about kids putting things in their mouths to give my daughters unfinished wooden toys made by someone I knew and trusted. But now, 30-some years later, I read a quote in my local newspaper from a young mother who said she had never considered the idea that toys could harm her kid! And then there’s Mattel, which is – like the purveyors of China-contaminated pet and human foods and toothpaste before it – acting like the victim of unreliable and unethical offshore suppliers. Well, excuse me, but one gets what one pays for. When companies relocate or outsource their manufacturing to places like China in order to profit from low production costs, they should expect low quality – as potentially unsafe – products. No matter where their manufacturing is done, companies need to be responsible for the quality of the products they sell. And so do the governments who create and support the economic system that encourages offshore manufacturing. So where are our governments in all of this? Where are the consumer health and environment laws that are supposed to protect us against this sort of thing? I guess they’re in bed with the corporations that their weak laws and even weaker enforcement are encouraging. As the Sierra Club’s Executive Director Carl Pope said today in a statement, “Manufacturers and federal agencies must join together in asking China to clean up its business practices and factories for the protection of its workers and both Chinese and American children.” These recalls will continue until our governments care more about protecting children than corporations. Posted: 2007/08/17 5:31 PM A Potholder Hug – August 12, 2007 Recently I’ve noticed that cooking makes me emotional. Or, rather, cooking certain dishes has that effect on me. The slow and repetitive pouring, waiting and flipping of pancake preparation on a Sunday morning inevitably makes me teary-eyed and nostalgic for my mother’s pancakes at those oh-so-long ago weekend family breakfasts. And the other day, the fragrant yeast working, miraculous dough rising and energetic kneading of bread baking brought both a tear and a smile as I remembered how each of my young daughters approached that same project in such different ways: Heidi with her determination and neatness, and Melanie with her playful abandon. I put this emotionalism down to family circumstances and my age until I neared the end of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. This is the story of how the author’s family documented a year of procuring as much of their food as possible from neighboring farms and their own backyard. In one chapter, Kingsolver writes about how food anchors holiday traditions and how she – somewhat like I – had subconsciously “spent years denying the good in that.” Fortunately, like I did, she got over that and now embraces all the food-related celebrations, including one at the beginning of November called Dia de los Muertos – the Mexican Day of the Dead. As she describes it, this entirely happy ritual has its roots in Aztec culture, where the Lady of the Dead presided over rituals (many food-related) that welcomed dead friends and ancestors back among the living. Aside from the fact that Dia de los Muertos seems like a welcome antidote to Hallowe’en, which I have never enjoyed because it characterizes death as grotesque and scary, it creates a reason for remembering – a “potholder hug” as Kingsolver dubs it with her gentle wit. As I read her words: “When I cultivate my garden I’m spending time with my grandfather, sometimes recalling deeply buried memories of him,” I realized the source of my recent kitchen emotionalism. When I’m cooking certain dishes, I am experiencing the emotions attached to the person who taught me how to cook a certain dish, or with whom I used to cook it. And I give those memories a potholder hug. Posted: 2007/08/12 12:59 PM Gone Fishin – August 6, 2007 I’m now going to shut my computer down and leave my office for at least five days. Not sure I will succeed in staying away from work, since I am not leaving town. And there’s always the BlackBerry.... But I do recognize that it is time for some serious self-care before the fall publishing season heats up. Posted: 2007/08/06 3:57 PM In Defense of Strong-Willed Children – August 6, 2007 Norm Lee has done many things in his life, including a stint in the military, a job teaching English, and – when I first came across him – working with John Holt promoting and leading seminars on home schooling. But his life as an abused child has led him to be a ferocious champion of children’s rights and an advocate for children who are spanked and who suffer other types of abuse. To that end, he maintains a website and sends out an occasional email newsletter. Both are worth reading. His latest newsletter arrived the other day and can be read on his website. It’s entitled “Why I Like the Strong-Willed Child.” It describes how, when he taught high school English, the best pupils he had were “the school-hating malcontents.” These students were, he maintains, way more interesting than those who did well – in addition to being brighter and more creative. Saner, he says. But they had a hard time because they were also the most disruptive. And often had been bullied, humiliated and otherwise mistreated a lot. Anyway, I recommend spending some time on Norm’s site reading this particular essay. If you’re an unschooler, you’ll nod in agreement with his comments and conclusions. If you’re the type who favors schooling, then I hope your mind will be opened just a tiny bit to the assumptions we make about children and schooling. You’ll also find out why Norm quit teaching school. While you’re there, I urge you to sign on to his list of those vowing to “Stop the Hitting.” Posted: 2007/08/06 3:49 PM Birthing a New Magazine – August 3, 2007 For the past couple of decades, our business plan for Life Media has included a third magazine called Natural Child, and now Rolf and I have made the commitment to end that long gestation and launch it for January/February 2008. Its name originated in the late 1980s, when  Rolf created The Natural Child column in our first magazine, Natural Life. The column began in the early 90s and still runs sporadically in Natural Life. For a number of years, Jan Hunt was a regular contributor to the column, and she later took the name for a book and her Natural Child Project website. Here at Life Media, we are excited to be targeting natural parenting, which is a subject that both Natural Life and Life Learning have covered on a regular basis. The magazine will cover green, healthy living for families...from pregnancy, through birth and early childhood. And, of course, it will have our signature intelligent, progressive, reader-oriented style. We are offering a  two-for-one introductory subscription until the end of October.  And we are also looking for contributors and advertisers. Info about all three topics can be found on the website, which went live yesterday. (Do let me know if you find any broken links, typos, etc.!) I hope you will join us as we form a village to raise healthy, happy children...naturally! Posted: 2007/08/03 1:21 PM Whose Learning Agenda Is It? – August 1, 2007 I had a phone call today from a mother wanting advice – ostensibly on behalf of her preteen daughter – about learning a foreign language in an “unschooling” environment. She spent the first part of the phone conversation telling me what she wanted, what she had researched, what she was so her daughter could learn French. She had figured out her goals for the exercise and her expectations for the outcome based on want she wanted her daughter to do regarding the language (speak and write it fluently). She had reviewed a number of courses and programs but none of them met her criteria, she said. The word “I” must have been used a hundred times in five minutes. “I’ve sent away for information from all the language curriculum companies.” “I’ve looked for books in the library.” “I’ve been keeping my eyes on newspapers and magazines for references that I can pursue to pique her interest….” When the woman finally stopped talking to catch her breath, I asked her what her daughter’s goals were for learning this language and why her daughter wasn’t doing the research. Well, said the woman, her daughter just doesn’t seem that interested. Aha. I told her, as gently as I could, that unless the girl was interested enough to research ways to learn French, she wasn’t interested enough in learning it. And, I said, perhaps the woman herself was interested in learning French and that wasn’t a bad thing because while she was doing it she would be a good role model for her daughter. There was a big silence on the other end of the phone, followed by the woman hanging up as soon as she could. I can only hope she thinks about this and doesn’t waste her money, her time, her daughter’s time and their relationship on French lessons that won’t work. Posted: 2007/08/01 5:58 PM Return to current weblog Comments? Suggestions? Email Us copyright © Wendy Priesnitz 2007

Topics & Passions: natural learning simplicity environment parenting creativity / writing books ~ What I'm Reading: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins, 2007) Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken (Viking, 2007) ~ What I'm Listening To:  Messin' Around by Molly Johnson (Universal Music, 2006) Uncover Me by Jan Arden (Universal Music, 2006) Solo Piano - Ten Performances (Fringe Jazz Toronto, 2004) ~ Fav Bookmarks: Daughter Blog Junkyard Sports Radio Free School Parenting Without Punishing Organic Consumers Association Free2be Common Dreams Grist Magazine ~ Fav Quotes: Art, Writing, Creativity Life and Living Men and Women Learning Environment and Peace