Editor of Life Learning magazine Editor of  Natural Life magazine Author of educational books Small/ Home Business writer Poet Speaker Interview on Radio Free School

Welcome to these regular musings, meanderings, wonderings and wanderings by Wendy Priesnitz.   Archives - November, 2005 Silence – November 30, 2005 Thanks to everyone who has written wondering why I’ve been neglecting this space recently. It’s humbling to be reminded of  my audience. My mother is dying – first some strokes, then broken ribs from a fall, two weeks later a broken hip from another fall, then increased dementia after surgery, now kidney failure. It’s a long, slow spiral, like her 96-year life. I’m an only child and she has been a widow  for 40 years,  so I have been making difficult decisions...or at least helping her make them. The ultimate one will probably occur soon. After I send off our two magazines to the printer this weekend (I hope to make the deadline), I will use some of that  “spare time” to catch up and put into words some of the musing and assumption challenging that I’ve been doing over the past month. Do come back.... Posted: 2005/11/30 7:10 AM Egalitarian Parenting – November 10, 2005 On the news last night I saw an encouraging item about today’s Canadian teenagers. According to a piece called “Teen Attitude”, the new generation of teens is benefiting from increased autonomy and more “egalitarian parenting”. Featured was an obviously upper middle class family where the articulate 16-year-old daughter was included in family decisions about what to eat for meals and what car to buy. Young people are better informed today, less susceptible to mass media, and more cynical of consumer culture, according to the reporter, and their parents more receptive to their input. As a result, the “battle of wills” is disappearing from families and young people are better prepared for the “adult world”. (Although at face value this piece seemed to suggest – intentionally or not – that the adult world is mostly about consumer decisions!) Near the end of the piece, Gerald Adams, a professor at the University of Guelph, said today’s teens are also more open to “challenging authority” than previous generations. Now, that’s a positive trait if done in a thoughtful context. But in my city, we’re currently seeing the deadly results of the violent rebellion that happens when challenging authority occurs in the absence of egalitarian parenting, not to mention poverty and a coercive school system. So while the CBC reporters may have identified the beginning of the mainstreaming of something I and others have been promoting for decades, we still have a long way to go before young people become equal partners in society. Posted: 2005/11/10 9:56 AM How You Define It – November 6, 2005 Lately I’ve been struggling with the definition of the word “feminism”, which I understand to be about the political, economic and social equality of men and women. Scholars have apparently described at least ten different types, based, as far as I can tell, on the motivation of the person using it. These include core feminism, Amazon feminism, eco-feminism, natural or maternal feminism, cultural feminism, moderate feminism, libertarian or individualist feminism, separatist feminism and radical feminism. And of course, some of these may overlap, resulting in a bunch more definitions, not to mention arguments among those who call themselves feminists! After much confusion and thought, I have decided to define the word in a way that I’m comfortable with. And I guess that’s what others have done, resulting in such a variety of definitions. I’ve also realized that many words have taken on different shades of meaning, depending on who has been using them. Take “homeschooling” for example. Some families use it to label an educational experience that is very linear and school-like, with a parent teaching a curriculum within an insular home environment. Other parents eschew teaching, curriculum, text books and anything school-like, yet consider themselves to be homeschooling. The media, meanwhile, has its own narrow definition, which includes someone with strong religious motivation who supports private rather than public education. Someone asked me the other day when I had stopped promoting homeschooling and begun talking about children’s learning. I responded that what I promote used to be considered homeschooling back in the 1970s, but that as the movement has grown and developed, the term has taken on many new shades of meaning. The term “home business” is another interesting one. When I began advocating for the acceptability and legality of home business back in the mid-80s, I represented the voices of writers, craftspeople and artists, consultants, publishers, professionals like therapists, hairdressers and other self-employed individuals who ran their businesses from their homes, either out of choice or necessity. Now that working at home is both acceptable and legal in most places, the term seems to have morphed into a synonym for selling a product via multi-level or network marketing. While on one hand I sometimes resent the redefinition of terms like these, I have come to understand that trying to find one “right” definition for words that reflect growth and change in society is not only futile but unproductive. Sure would make communication simpler though! Posted: 2005/11/06 11:23 AM 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: The Sustainability Revolution - Portrait of a Paradigm Shift by Andres R. Edwards (2005, New Society Publishers) Writing a Woman's Life by Carolyn G. Heilbrun  (1988, Random House) Liberating Losses - When Death Brings Relief by Jennifer Elison and Christ McGonigle (2003, Perseus Books Group) What the Small Day Cannot Hold  - Collected Poems 1970 - 1985 by Susan Musgrave (2000, Beach Holme Publishing) ~ What I'm Listening To:  Souls Alike by Bonnie Rait (EMI) And Still We Sing by Holly Near (Calico Tracks Music) Corazon Libre by Mercedes Sosa (Deutsche Grammophon) Careless Love by Madeleine Peyroux (Rounder Records) Wind in the Rhythm Circle by Robbie Hanna Anderman and Friends (Morninglory Music) ~ Fav Bookmarks: Radio Free School Positive News Parenting Without Punishing Institute for Local Self-Reliance The Guardian John Taylor Gatto Organic Consumers Association Free2be Common Dreams New Scientist News Link ~ Fav Quotes: Art, Writing, Creativity Life and Living Men and Women Learning Environment and Peace