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Editor-in-Chief of Editor-in-Chief
of Editor-in-Chief of Author of unschooling books
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Musings, meanderings, wonderings and wanderings about unschooling, natural parenting, sustainable living and more by Wendy Priesnitz. Archives - June, 2008 At the Heart of Education – June 26, 2008 Which Came First: the Baby Bully or the Adult Bully? – June 25, 2008 One person featured in the article is Meline Kevorkian, a Florida-based researcher and author who surveyed 167 educators and found that 25 percent indicated bullying occurs most in elementary schools. I have seen other research indicating that three-quarters of eight- to 11-year-olds have been bullied. According to Kevorkian, rationales for bullying at this tender age include wearing the wrong shoes or socks, not attending the right pop concert, having a smelly lunch or wearing bows in your hair. She says that this sort of aggression among younger kids is
often written off as a routine rite of passage. So are we normalizing abnormal
behavior? One parent quoted in the AP article notes that much preschool bullying
flies under the radar of harried parents, teachers and baby sitters. Harried or
not, do these people turn a blind eye because aggression is so commonplace in
adult society? Think of those ubiquitous sports parents screaming at their
offspring to succeed – or at least to hit their opponent – and those whose
sense of entitlement and competition fuels their need to spend thousands of
dollars on birthday parties for their two-year-olds, on sexy designer clothes
for their ten-year-olds, or on SUV-sized strollers for their infants (when they
could be using a less aggressive and more nurturing baby carrier instead). Ah,
yes, the wonderful socialization that homeschooled kids are missing. Expectations of Childhood – June 23, 2008 Ah, now it makes sense! He is pointing out – albeit a bit clumsily, I think – the folly of hurrying children. I have always admired Mendelsohn’s work. I like his anti-corporal punishment stance and commonsense approach to health. And I remember when How to Raise a Healthy Child came out wishing it had been published 15 years earlier when I could have used it to weather some of the common scrapes and ailments experienced by our young daughters. However, browsing through it today, I am feeling uncomfortable about a lot of the language he uses. For instance, the word “expectation” appears far too often for my comfort. In fact, the excerpt that was presented to me is entitled “What You Should Expect of Your Child.” I hope that is tongue-in-cheek because it’s our expectations that get us into trouble as parents (as well as in many other areas of life). If we must have an expectation of our children, it should be that they will develop in their own way, at their own speed, according to their own agenda – which is something Mendelsohn seems to believe, at least with reservations. However, expecting that children will be “normal” (Mendelsohn’s word), let alone better-than-normal so as to help them reach their potential, negates their unique individuality. It also assumes that the Western sort of childhood is the norm, whereas it’s actually an anomaly in much of the world and a relatively recent phenomenon that has always been subject to differences of ethnicity, class, region religion, gender and politics. Because the time of innocence is so short, I don’t approve of hurrying children to act beyond their years; but neither do I think prolonging childhood and keeping children sequestered away from the day-to-day life of their communities (presumably for their own protection and for adults’ convenience) is the best way to help them learn to function in those communities. Mendelsohn sums up, in this same excerpt, by stating that “Children aren’t adults, so don’t expect them to behave as though they
were.” Perhaps what is lacking here – aside from a smaller dose of
expectations and a new perspective on childhood – is a definition of “adult
behavior.” I have known lots of children who behave in a much more responsible
manner than many adults! What children need instead of expectations is respect. Writer
Looking for Canadian Unschoolers – June 14, 2008
Adapting – June 4, 2008 When we spun off Life Learning and Natural Child, we intended to give readers and advertisers more choice and the ability to focus more tightly, as an alternative to the more broadly-based Natural Life magazine. But we have been noticing a large overlap among subscribers, contributors and advertisers of our three magazines. In fact, some people have told us that they have, at times, been confused as to which one of our magazines they were reading! (And, yes, I've been confused from time to time too!) The merger eliminates the redundancies and puts into practice the important ecological principle that less is more. Subscribers only have to pay for one subscription and contributors and advertisers reach a larger audience of like-minded people. Importantly, our collective ecological footprint is smaller and we will have created a substantial natural family living magazine that will address the changing times, economics and priorities. Rolf and I feel that this is a coming home of sorts. When we launched Natural Life in 1976, the purpose was twofold. We wanted an enterprise that would allow us to facilitate the life learning of our two daughters Heidi and Melanie and we wanted to provide readers with information about sustainable family living and unschooling. For 32 years now, we have explored ways to eat lower on the food chain; to build smaller, more energy-efficient homes; to birth our children at home, to educate them there as well, and to live with them in a loving and non-coercive manner. Natural Life’s mission has been to demonstrate how these are not restrictions, but exciting opportunities to create social and environmental sustainability by choosing the least harmful ways of living on this finite planet and building new paradigms. The combined and expanded July/August issue has just gone to the printer and will be in the mail and on the newsstands for July 1. Meanwhile, we have made a preview available. We hope that each magazine's unique community will continue to thrive, both through Natural Life magazine and their websites at www.NaturalChildMagazine.com and www.LifeLearningMagazine.com. Back issues will continue to be for sale there for purchase as long as stock remains, and available in PDF format for free download. We will be posting new articles there as well, some of which will be website exclusives. All subscribers to Natural Child and Life Learning will now
receive Natural Life, which will contain the editorial from those two
magazines as well as the regular Natural Life articles. (And those who subscribe to two or three of the magazines,
will have their subscriptions extended appropriately.) Contributors to both of
those magazines, and many of the advertisers, have expressed their enthusiasm
for participating in the merged magazine. It appears that we have made a good
decision; here is a small sampling of the
early responses that we’ve received. Please feel free to send me your comments
or questions. When Corporations Can’t Adapt – June 4, 2008 Return
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Mothers
and Daughters – June 14, 2008