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Editor-in-Chief of Editor-in-Chief
of Editor-in-Chief of Author of unschooling books Interview on Radio Free School
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Musings, meanderings, wonderings and wanderings about unschooling, natural parenting, sustainable living and more by Wendy Priesnitz. Comments? Suggestions? Email Me Caring – December 23, 2007 As I take a few days off to be with my friends and
family, I wish you peace and joy. ‘Tis the Season of Stuff – December 16, 2007 Join Our Magazine Reader Advisory
Panels –
December 11, 2007 When the “Cure” is the Problem – December 9, 2007 But now, the psychiatric watchdog group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) says that report is misleading because the use of those drugs wasn’t taken into account by the researchers. CCHR says the researchers underplayed the fact that 66 percent of the ADHD subjects studied had been on stimulants, which the FDA has warned cause suppression of growth – which could logically include brain development. “With stimulant ‘treatment’ the only physical variable, and ADHD never validated as a real disease, it is likely that the stimulant drugs, not ADHD, are to blame for the slow brain maturation reported by the study authors,” says the release. Earlier researchers have also ignored the probable connection between the drugs and problems with brain size and growth. At a 1998 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Conference on ADHD, 14 MRI studies of people treated for ADHD were reviewed. The presenters reported on-average 10 percent brain shrinkage in ADHD subjects and pediatric neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman pointed out that the vast majority of the ADHD subjects had been treated long-term with stimulants – again, the only physical difference from the control group – suggesting that it was the drugs, not the so-called “disorder,” that was causing the brain atrophy. Does this mean that the “treatment” for the “problem” is actually creating the problem when none existed before??? Bottom line is that the diagnosis of ADHD is
entirely subjective, based on a checklist of “symptoms” that sound a
lot like normal childhood behavior: “Fidgets with hands or feet or
squirms in chair” and “difficulty engaging in activities quietly.”
And for that we medicate children with drugs that can cause psychosis,
aggression, heart attack, stroke and sudden death, not to mention brain
atrophy! Many families have
found that the best “treatment” is to liberate their children from
the need to sit in chair for long periods of time and from engaging in
activities quietly. In order to accomplish that, they remove their
children from school, upon which the “symptoms” often subside or
disappear altogether. Now
there’s a research angle that probably won’t be funded by
governments or the pharmaceutical companies anytime soon. Protecting Kids From Second-Hand Smoke – December
7, 2007 Thankfully, governments are beginning to understand the severity of the threat to children and a few jurisdictions in the United States, Australia and Canada have all banned smoking in cars where children are present. In British Columbia and Nova Scotia, opposition politicians have recently tabled private member’s bills recently that would also ban the practice. In Nova Scotia, the lead was taken by the Town of Wolfville (population 3,600), which has just banned smoking in cars within its boundaries. (Watch for the upcoming January/February issue of Natural Life magazine, which details many other progressive initiatives taken by this amazing little green powerhouse of a town.) Some politicians, like Ontario’s premier, worry about regulating so-called private spaces. But many
governments require the use of seatbelts and child safety seats in
vehicles, so they’re already acting in private spaces. Shame on governments that
don’t act on the problem because they are more concerned with the rights of parents
than those of children. Learning About the Whole Wide World – December 4, 2007
And now, a group of freeschoolers in the UK has created a web-based service called The School of Everything. On the surface, this is a site where teachers can advertise, and where people can browse for someone to teach what they want to learn. But scratch a bit deeper and you’ll find that it’s a good model for a replacement for our current education system. It operates on the principle that learning is personal, and starts not with what you should learn but with what you’re interested in. It’s free to use, whether you’re teaching, learning or both (although, because the group behind the site believes that people should be able to make a living doing things they’re passionate about, teachers may charge). It borrows from the Free University, a free university that existed in Palo Alto, California in the 1960s and 70s (and that others have tried to replicate over the years) and from Ivan Illich’s ideas for decentralized webs of learning networks. The School of Everything is made possible with open
source software over the Internet. And one of the neat things about this
sort of connection between “teachers” and learners is that age is no
barrier. And here’s a great illustration of that. It’s the
story of an 11-year-old in Scotland who used Skype to teach two other
kids in the U.S. how to use Scratch
(a programming language that allows kids ages eight and up to create
interactive stories, animation, games, music and art and share them on
the web). The father of the kid doing the teaching, writes:
“The implications of being able to find what you want to know from
someone who is willing to share… even if they are not present… turns
our traditional model of education on its head… and even more so when
you realize that the person with the knowledge you require might be the
person you thought you ought to be teaching!” New Address –
November 21, 2007
copyright © Wendy Priesnitz 2007 |
Topics & Passions: natural learning ~ Monthly Archives: ~ What I'm Reading: The Real Wealth of
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