Challenging Assumptions blog by Wendy Priesnitz

 

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Musings, meanderings, wonderings and wanderings about unschooling, natural  parenting, green living, social justice and more by writer, author and Natural Life magazine editor Wendy Priesnitz. 

Archives - February, 2009

One of the Many Things I’ve Learned From my Daughter – February 26, 2009
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.” Buddha via my daughter Melanie.
Posted: 2009/02/26 8:05 PM

Some Wise Women of Home-Based Education – February 25, 2009
A few years ago, my perennially unhappy 96-ish mother came to our home for Christmas dinner. As she was preparing to be driven home, she glanced at herself in our hall mirror and spat out that she looked like an old crone. That was definitely not a happy moment for any of us, because she clearly used “crone” to describe herself as an ugly old hag. She was in no mood to have me tell her that the word has now been reclaimed to honor a cultural change that returns wise elders to their natural and honored place in society. She also didn’t want to hear that women need not lose value as we age, that when we assume the mantle of crone, we gain value in the larger world based on what we’ve learned from our experiences so far in life. She clearly hadn’t read an article we’d published on the topic in Natural Life in 1998!

In spite of that, I won’t deny feeling a flash of alarm at my own self-image when homeschool author and speaker Linda Dobson contacted me recently to say she is using the crone concept to facilitate the passing along of experience to today’s homeschool families. She has gathered some of us crones in Linda Dobson’s Homeschool Crones Café. We’ve been having a great time reconnecting from various parts of the world, catching up on our lives and growing comfortable with our crone mantles. If you’re a crone or someone who thinks she could learn from one, please drop in and join the discussion. We are ready to share our experiences.
Posted: 2009/02/25 8:31 PM

Dissent - February 25, 2009
“The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself...” ~ Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982), poet and social critic, writing in In Praise of Dissent in The New York Times Book Review (1956)
Posted: 2009/02/25 10:25 AM

Freedom to Read – February 23, 2008
 This week is one to celebrate freedom of expression. If you’re in Canada, it’s called Freedom to Read Week, organized by the Book and Periodical Council; if you’re in the U.S., it’s the American Library Association’s more negatively named Banned Books Week. Whatever it’s called, it’s a time to celebrate the freedom to read and features events, displays, readings and lists of books that have been banned or at least challenged. These include works ranging from the Bible and Little Red Riding Hood to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, a couple of the Harry Potter titles and books by Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence and Stephen King.

The week is symbolic, of course, but it emphasizes the freedom to express one’s opinion, even if it is considered unorthodox or unpopular and highlights the importance of ensuring the availability of those viewpoints to all who wish to read about them. Thanks to the organizers for reminding us of the dangers of censorship. Now, why not check out the lists and go read a banned book or magazine!
Posted: 2009/02/23 10:55 AM

The De-Commercialization of Education – February 22, 2009
Free schools are learning communities that encourage the sharing of information, knowledge and skills in a collaborative manner. They have their roots in the educational reform movement of the late 1960s and early 70s, but some are still going today and others are experiencing a revival of sorts in the democratic school movement. At their best, they emphasize free speech and open learning, and attendance is optional. Some are also free of cost. The March/April issue of Natural Life magazine (now on its way to subscribers) features a portrait of one grassroots, community-driven initiative that operates as a collective of individuals interested in learning at the university level.
Posted: 2009/02/22 7:52 PM

Real Life 101 – February 20, 2009
Apparently, the state of New Jersey is trying to inject some real life learning into its school curriculum. So says a piece in our local newspaper entitled “Make Real Life 101 part of school curriculum.” It reported that all high-school seniors will be required to take a course in personal finance before they graduate. The writer bemoaned the fact that kids don’t know how to balance a checkbook, get a mortgage or handle their personal finances and said that such courses should be mandatory everywhere. She’s right about the problem but wrong about the solution. Forcing kids to sit through yet another boring class about something they don’t understand the need to learn will be about as successful as making them study physics or hundred-year-old wars if they’re not interested. Most young people who do know about personal finances and other life skills learned them – sooner or later – with the encouragement of their parents or other significant people, by actively managing their own money and lives. So maybe we could try dispensing with the compulsory curriculum and support kids in living Real Life?
Posted: 2009/02/20 1:21 PM

If We Fixed Education… – February 14, 2009
Just read this article on AlterNet.org this morning. It’s entitled “Homeschooling: America’s Hidden Breeding Ground for Conservative Ideology.” I sometimes read AlterNet, along with dozens of other websites and media outlets, for leads and article ideas. Its stated aim is “to inspire action and advocacy on the environment, human rights and civil liberties, social justice, media, health care issues, and more.” But the tone of this particular piece is worrisome. It comes across as a closed-minded, even fear-mongering attack on homeschooling and it ignores unschooling and other progressive learning philosophies even as it describes them. It’s translated from a French article, where the bothersome tone isn’t present. Ultimately, this piece is another reminder that the need for a revolution in education is something the left just doesn’t get; it’s the one public institution that is seen by activists as a sacred cow. AlterNet lumps education in under “and more” in their list of things to inspire action and advocacy about. Too bad about this mind block, because if we fixed education we’d be well on the way to fixing the other things the site advocates about.
Posted: 2009/02/14 3:20 PM

What is an Amateur Anyway? – February 11, 2009
I’ve recently been reading The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen. Its subtitle is “How blogs, MySpace, YouTube and the rest of today’s user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture and our values.” The book is an opinionated rant (and far be it from this opinionated ranter to quarrel with that!). But I think that Keen has got it wrong…or is, at least, over-reacting.

There is, undeniably, a lot of dumb, incorrect, narcissistic and dangerous stuff on the web. There are lots of folks who don’t respect intellectual property rights (the definition of which is changing as a result). There are too many unjustifiably anonymous posters. Conventional media companies (like mine) are rewriting their business models in order to survive. And, yes, sometimes the professional journalist in me bristles. When I bought the book, I really wanted to agree with Keen. But I started to feel queasy when he talked about monkeys versus experts.

He is spittingly dismissive of “amateurs,” whom he defines as uneducated, untrained and uncredentialed – definitely not experts, to his way of thinking. (Full disclosure: I am a proudly self-trained, uncredentialed but very professional journalist, writer and editor.) Worse, Keen confuses talent with training: “Talent always has been, and will always be, scarce. So just as I want my doctor to have gone to a credible medical school and my lawyer to have passed the bar exam, so I want to be informed and entertained by trained, talented professionals.” I agree that I’d like my brain surgeon to be highly trained (as well as competent, passionate and awake), but I don’t think that entertainers need credentials to be effective – they just need to be talented enough to entertain me. In fact, raw talent is often more entertaining because it retains its passion, awareness and innocence. Some people know more about some things than others do. And if you want to call those people experts, I won’t stop you. But they don’t have to have credentials, or training to know that stuff (unless they are doing brain surgery). And for me to be entertained or informed, they don’t  need to be making money at it. They don’t need to be “professionals.”

In a couple of my books and in many articles, I’ve written about the dangers of the expert mentality. Experts are gatekeepers. Keen thinks that’s a good thing because they’re where the money lies. Making money from one’s talent, training and passion is undoubtedly a good thing. But it doesn’t mean one is better at something or more qualified to engage in that activity. In fact, there is as much bias, sloppy journalism, bad writing and incompetence on the part of the so-called “professional” and employed media as there is among the volunteers who rule Wikipedia.

Keen also confuses expertism with seriousness. He writes: “The simple ownership of a computer and an Internet connection doesn’t transform one into a serious journalist any more than having access to a kitchen makes one into a serious cook.” “Serious” is the wrong word. If he means skilled, then having a computer and Internet connection, or a kitchen, will go a long way toward developing that skill…if one has the interest. Training or not.

The solution, if there needs to be one from the consumer perspective, is that each of us has to learn to discern what is information and what is entertainment…or just democracy in action. We need to be (and to help our children become) media literate in order to trust the information we confront, no matter what tools are used to deliver it. The solution is not to limit the technology to “professionals” but for each of us to learn how to sort through the muck…to be able to think creatively, to know how to use the technology (reading the revision history and using reload buttons in the case of Wikipedia, for instance). And those tools are no different, really, than the ones required to filter Natural Life magazine from the supermarket tabloids, Fox Television from public radio, or PR content from news. We also need to find ways to demonstrate our knowledge without formal credentials, to abolish the structures of authority that too often surround information, news and “knowledge,” to live and learn actively rather than passively.
Posted: 2009/02/11 7:39 PM

Everything Old is New Again – February 9, 2009
Yesterday, we received an email from a person who wanted to buy a copy of an issue of Natural Life magazine from 1978. We had published a letter about how he and his fiancé wanted to move to Canada to live off the land, had a tipi and van ready to roll, and were looking for contacts. He said he had received about 20 responses, one of which led them to move to Alberta and “work the homestead.” Now, his oldest daughter is getting married and is similarly inclined. When he told her about the letter and its consequences, she wanted to see the magazine. Rolf and I dug through the archives and located a copy of the magazine in question, stopping for much nostalgia along the way. I ended up scanning the whole issue – it’s here – a five meg file).

But as we thumbed through those yellowed, 30-year-old magazines with their awful layouts, bad graphics and typos (she writes, blushing), we quickly realized that there’s more there than nostalgia. For one thing, there’s longevity in that the magazine has survived three major and numerous minor recessions, and that Rolf and I are still happily together when many other marriage and business partners of that era aren’t. And there is also an astonishing similarity to the topics in the more recent issues of Natural Life: becoming a vegetarian, extended breastfeeding, home birth, renewable energy, solar greenhouses, growing your own food organically, choosing energy-efficient appliances, home-based learning and alternative schools, baking your own whole grain bread, cooperative games, recognizing greenwashing (although we didn’t call it that back then), hyperactivity and food additives, saving your own seeds. We’re more stylish and colorful now (thanks as much to technology as to my improved skills), and there’s 30 years worth of research, knowledge and experience behind some of the topics we cover. But everything old is new again and it’s quite amazing to still be at the forefront of helping a whole new generation of families to live a greener, more frugal and self-reliant lifestyle.
Posted: 2009/02/09 12:10 PM

The Right to Spank and Other Nasty Things – February 7, 2009
A movement is underway to preserve the right of American parents to spank their children. That’s in case their government finally decides to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 14 years after it was signed by U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Madeleine Albright. Somalia didn’t buy in either, but its lack of a formal government was a reasonable excuse at the time. The U.S. government’s excuse was that it bowed to conservative lobbying and I guess the cons think they can repeat that dubious feat.

Recently, both the President and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have said reviewing the CRC and other human rights treaties should be a priority. And that’s worrisome for those who prefer parent’s right to spank their children and enforce religion on them over the human rights and autonomy of children. Home School Legal Defense Association and ParentalRights.org founder Michael Farris is, as usual, leading the regressive charge. He told one right wing media outlet, “I think it is going to be the battle of their lifetime. There’s not enough political capital in Washington, D.C., to pass this treaty. We will defeat it.”

Those are fighting words and Farris is rallying the troops with his usual tired (but unfortunately effective) tactic of raising the ridiculous specter of the abolishment of the right to homeschool as a result of ratification of the CRC. Maybe he hasn’t noticed that homeschooling is thriving in countries like Canada that long ago ratified the treaty (although perhaps HSLDA Canada would try to tell you differently).

Oh, one of the other arguments Farris has with supporting children’s human rights is that the CRC could be interpreted as making it illegal for a nation to spend more on national defense than it does on children’s welfare. I wish….
Posted: 2009/02/07 1:43 PM

Missing the Motherline – February 6, 2009
“Our mothers are our most direct connection to our history and our gender. Regardless of how well we think they did their job, the void their absence creates in our lives is never completely filled again.” So wrote Hope Edelman in Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss. My mother didn’t talk to me much about our  history – gender-based or otherwise – in spite of my many attempts to draw her out over the years. Some of my mourning is now about that lack of conversation, the sharing that I longed for, the relationship we didn’t have.  In her book Stories from the Motherline: Reclaiming the Mother-daughter Bond, Finding our Souls, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky calls this connection “the motherline.” I am not sure why my mother was not interested in nurturing that important (to me) connection  (or not able to). She seemed not to value it, to denigrate it. But I am feeling its absence. Life learning with my daughters was one way I hoped to bridge the missing link. I have been at least partially successful.   
Posted: 2009/02/06 8:05 PM

Attn: Feminist Unschooling Moms – February 3, 2009
 I’m writing an essay about feminist moms who unschool their kids. It’s for the May/June issue of Natural Life magazine and will eventually appear in my next book It’s Never Shut Me Up. I think it’s important to articulate why helping one’s kids avoid the repression of school supports – and even leads the way – to a more progressive, egalitarian society.

So I’d like to hear from life learning mothers who consider themselves to be feminists – or at least to be in agreement with feminist principles, even if they have doubts about the word or have been criticized by feminists for their families’ learning lifestyle (welcome to the club!). I am creating a short questionnaire that you will be able to answer anonymously if you wish…or you can choose to be quoted more publically. Please email me and I’ll get back to you. Thanks for your help!
Posted: 2009/02/03 4:10 PM

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copyright © Wendy Priesnitz 2009

Topics & Passions

life learning / unschooling
simplicity
environment
natural parenting
creativity / writing
books

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Monthly Archives

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What I'm Reading

The Maternal is Political: Women Writers at the Intersection of Motherhood & Social Change by Shari MacDonald Strong, ed (Seal Press, 2008)
Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto (New Society Publishers, 2009)
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008)

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What I'm Listening To

Dear Heather by Leonard Cohen  (Sony BMG, 2004)
Messin' Around by Molly Johnson (Anthem, 2006)
Frank's Wild Years by Tom Waits (Island Records, 1987)

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Fav Bookmarks

Daughter Blog
The Mother/Daughter Project
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
Organic Consumers Association
Grist
We Are What We Do
Free Rice
Mothers Movement Online
Personalised Education Now
Foundation for a Better Life

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Fav Quotes

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