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Archives
- November, 2007
Exciting New ADHD Research –
November 26, 2007
For many years, I have been writing and speaking about the crime of
labeling kids as having some mythical disease called ADD or ADHD. In
recent years, I’ve been pleased to see others – including Naomi
Aldort who writes about the subject in the
current issue of Life Learning – take up this cause. But it’s not a
popular one, and I have received a lot of verbal abuse on the
subject…even had a few canceled subscriptions by people who were
indignant that I could suggest these problems weren’t real. I don’t
actually suggest that – what I believe is that by the use of these
negative labels we are creating medical problems that need solving with
medication and that it is harmful, useless and inexcusable to
problematize a normal childhood behavior in this manner. As John Holt
once put it, there were no learning disorders, only teaching disorders
– meaning that the “problem” on surfaces for teachers and parents
when children do not fit into the classroom regime. Over the years,
I’ve heard from many homeschoolers whose children’s “symptoms”
have disappeared when they were sprung from the mind-numbing environment
of school.
So I was pleased to see, during my regular perusal
of the abstracts of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(PNAS) for article ideas, a
research report that found children who have been “diagnosed” as
ADHD just have normal brains that develop later than those of other
children. The researchers found that the average age for the maturation
of the cerebral cortex was 10.5 years old in ADHD kids, as opposed to
7.5 years old in non-labeled kids.
I think this is a huge finding, so I went searching
for commentary on it. There wasn’t much – doctors, educators, many
parents (alas) and pharmaceutical companies might not like the
ramifications. But Thomas Armstrong, the
author of Awakening Your Child’s Natural Genius, The Myth of the A.D.D.
Child and many other books, didn’t disappoint me. In his
blog about his latest book, Armstrong notes that in working with
children who have been subjected to the ADHD label, he has noticed that
they act younger and more what is often referred to as “immature”
than their peers. In a characteristically gracefully and positively
worded posting, he suggests that the word “neoteny” could be used,
rather than “immaturity” to capture the vitality of these kids.
Neoteny is a Latin word meaning “holding youth” and refers to the
retaining of childlike characteristics into adulthood – such as was
true for brilliant people like Einstein and Picasso.
So, like me, Armstrong is happy to see the PNAS
research report. And he suggests that the kids who are labeled with
these so-called disabilities are actually to be admired for being the
vanguard in the evolution of our species. Although I’m not sure of the
need for any labels, he suggests “evolutionarily gifted.” Now we
just have to find a way to convince Neanderthal education systems to
evolve away from desks, tests, workbooks, bells, lineups, rules and
other old-fashioned creativity-killing bad habits. PNAS is an important
journal; here’s hoping some of the professionals who work with kids
will read this report and wake up to the damage they’ve been doing and
the wonderful possibilities involved with allowing children to be their
curious, active, imaginative, playful selves.
Posted:
2007/11/26 2:26 PM
An
Alien Education – November 25, 2007
Whenever I have to visit a school I feel like an alien. It started 38
years ago when I became a teacher and continues today. The school model
of education is based on such alienating notions as coercion, ageism,
standardized assessment, autocracy and what I call the “silo
mentality” of separating education from the real world. These
principles are frowned upon in the most leading-edge adult organizations
and companies, but are still the norm in public schools. So I had a good
chuckle when Roland Meighan sent me a link to this
new addition to his Personalised Education Now website. It’s an
amusing animation of a martian querying an Earth child about schooling.
If you’re not familiar with Roland Meighan’s
work, he is a British educational thinker, author and founder of
Personalised Education Now and Educational Heretics Press. He has
written numerous books on autonomous learning, and contributed a couple
of articles to Life
Learning Magazine. He supports learner-managed learning, invited rather than
uninvited teaching, assessment at the learner’s request and
re-integration of learning, life and community.
Posted:
2007/11/25 1:35 PM
When School Stinks – November 25, 2007
A new high school was built in Halifax recently. Two older schools were closed and their students moved to the
new one. As often happens with construction, the new school took longer
to build than planned. So, when school began in September there were
still some things to finish, like the ventilation system and the
off-gassing of formaldehyde-laden particleboard furniture, carpets and
equipment. In spite of the concerns of and advice from a
“healthy-school consultant,” students and teachers were subjected to
this indoor air pollution. And now, almost three months later, they are
still complaining of headaches, itchy eyes and breathing problems.
According to air quality tests, there are high levels of volatile
organic compounds – released from products such as new furniture,
construction materials and cleaners – in the school.
Some of the teachers are, according to media
reports, staying home. Students don’t (always) have that choice. An
education official told the press: “You can only delay the start of
school so long before you start impacting on the school year.” Strange
priorities.
Posted:
2007/11/25 12:31 PM
New Address –
November 21, 2007
If you have this page bookmarked or if you subscribe to the RSS feed, you might want to
update it. I
have just moved my blog from the Life Media website to my own WendyPriesnitz.com. For now, you will be automatically redirected, but that will eventually end.
Posted:
2007/11/21 8:03 PM
Shopping to Save the Planet – November 21, 2007
Shopping is a complicated issue. Some people do it to combat boredom or
stress; some people are addicted to it; some people don’t have the
money to do it. (I recently read about a woman who took her kids to the
local second-hand store every Saturday morning to “shop” – they
wander the store, put a bunch of stuff they’d like into a cart, then
put it all back because they can’t afford it…) Some people think they can shop to save the
planet from global warming. And at least one person thinks that those
shoppers are women.
Simon Fanshawe, writing in the UK-based magazine Green
Futures suggests that male-dominated governments have been
destroying the planet for too long, and now women need to clean up the
mess. And, since we already control the majority of the shopping
decisions, all we need to do is buy the right foods, shoes and handbags.
Fanshawe is referencing a serious initiative on the part of two
British
organizations – the National Federation of Women’s Institutes and
the Women’s Environmental Network – which have launched the
Women’s Manifesto on Climate Change. And, yes, women may be more
inclined than men to initiate and value small, personal and family-based
changes, which is an approach I’ve long championed in the pages of
Natural Life Magazine. But Fanshawe’s article highlights something
I’ve also been
saying since the latest wave of environmental concern surfaced awhile
back: While ethical consumerism is important, we can’t shop our way
out of the problem.
Writing in the
Guardian newspaper last summer, British writer
George Monbiot cynically derided ethical shopping as “just another way
of showing how rich you are.” For the record, I may be the only person
on the planet who dislikes that highly opinionated man and his best
selling book Heat…well, actually I couldn’t stomach his attitude
enough to finish reading the darn thing. But I do agree with him on that
point. If I receive one more cute little miniature recycling box or one
more supposedly biodegradable plastic pen from a PR firm, I’ll have to
move out of my house to make room for all the “eco-junk.”
That has been defined as the Sixth Sin of
Greenwashing in a just released study by TerraChoice Environmental
Marketing. They’re the company that administers the EcoLogo marketing
program begun in 1988 by the Canadian government. They say that the
Sin of Lesser of Two Evils, illustrated as organic cigarettes or a
hybrid-yet-inefficient SUV, occurred in one percent of the 1,000 products
they tested. Unfortunately, 99 percent of the products were, they say, guilty
of greenwashing or stretching the eco-truth. The study and details about
the other “sins” can be found on their
website. So shopping ethically ain’t easy, folks, even if it might do
some good.
Fanshawe says that we will probably have to define
ourselves less by what we buy, and more by how we behave, to make a real
change. So the solution is to buy less stuff, not just substitute green junk
for non-green junk. Perhaps the best immediate choice is to celebrate
Buy Nothing Day this Friday!
Posted:
2007/11/21 2:03 PM
Sharing
the Pleasure of Books –
November 19, 2007
I’m always skeptical about reports like the one released today by the
National Endowment for the Arts, suggesting that people (in this case
Americans) are reading less. In spite of the increase in the number of
teen fiction books and the Harry Potter phenomenon, this study claims
that young people are reading fewer books voluntarily and comprehending
less.
Some of my skepticism relates to the
fact that computer use is seen as a villain rather than an alternative
source of words to be read, and that comprehension is based on my old
enemy standardized tests. But I am happy to read that NEA chairman Dana
Gioia feels this supposed decline in reading is an important
socio-economic issue and is calling for changes “in the way we’re
educating kids, especially in high school and college. We need to
reconnect reading with pleasure and enlightenment.” Now there’s an
earth-shattering idea!
Of course, it’s an idea that
unschoolers have known about all along. And a couple in Ottawa
has created a terrific tool for families who like to read. It’s a
children’s book podcast called Just One More Book! Three times a week,
Andrea Ross and Mark Blevis sit at a table in their favorite coffee shop and record
their conversation about the children’s books their family (they have
two young daughters) loves and why they love them. They also feature
weekly interviews with authors, literacy related discussions and audio
reviews submitted by listeners. Episodes range in length from five to 30
minutes and can be played directly from the website
or downloaded to an iPod for listening on the
go. Through this podcast and its website, this family is building a
lively, interactive community linking children’s book authors,
illustrators, readers (parents and children) and publishers. Here’s to
reading for pleasure and enlightenment! (Oh, and thanks for reading this
blog...even if it is not a book.)
Posted:
2007/11/19 9:05 AM
Keep On Rockin’
in a Free World – November 12,
2007
OK, so I like jazz and Mozart and Bach and women singers. But I also
love listening to Neil Young.
There’s a part of me from the late ’60s and early ’70s that still resonates
with his nasal, sometimes ragged, evocative and
personal lyrics and burn-out guitar. The fact that he’s Canadian, born
here in Toronto – living and working in the USA
but never giving up his citizenship – is now a bonus. Doesn’t hurt that
he is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and small
farmers, having co-founded the benefit concert Farm Aid.
Neil Young has provided
one of the soundtracks of my life, from the early Crosby, Stills, Nash
and Young days when the harmony and sentiment in “Teach Your
Children” took my 19-year-old breath away, through the protest songs
like the Kent State massacre tune “Ohio” and “Rockin’ in the Free World,
to the album After the Gold Rush with “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”, the
Harvest album (1971) with “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold,” which
is his only number one hit single and features the back-up vocals of
some of my other nostalgic favorite singer/song writers James Taylor and
Linda Ronstadt, and “Comes a Time” in 1977. Oh, wait, maybe I like
Harvest Moon better: “But there’s a full moon risin’, Let’s go
dancin in the light, We know where the music’s playin’, Let’s go out and
feel the night.” Every song on that album is a hit in my mind. Or
maybe I prefer Are You Passionate? (2002),
an album of love songs dedicated to his wife Pegi. Somebody once
suggested that I liked his music because he often sings off-key, which
makes it easy for me (who has trouble holding a tune) to sing along!
Perhaps.
We’re all getting
older, of course.
Today’s Neil
Young’s 62nd birthday and a couple of
years ago he was treated for a brain auerysm and we thought he’d burnt out. But he survived to record
Prairie Wind. Today, I’ve been
having a musical party for him while I work. Keep on rockin’, Neil.
Posted:
2007/11/12 7:50 PM
Enlightened Homemaking – November 12, 2007
In the weekend papers, I read a
profile of an interesting woman named Shannon Hayes. She has a BA in
creative writing from Binghamton University, and a masters and Ph.D. in sustainable agriculture and community
development from Cornell University. But when she finished her post-grad work, she rejected the
“Supermom” ideal of blending family and career. So she and her
husband joined her family to run a grassfed livestock farm, planted
perennial beds and an organic garden, and as she puts it, “began
pursuing an authentic life – one where we lived by our principles.”
The rest of her story can be found on her website,
but the point here is that she became a Supermom anyway – replacing
over-achievement in a conventional career with over-achievement in her
career as a mom, writer, “simple liver” and environmental activist.
She is part of a trend (although some of us lived
this way 30 years ago). And she is writing about that trend: Her next
book will profile people like her – either male or female – who have
sidestepped a traditional career to put family and planet first. She
calls us “enlightened homemakers.” You can contact Shannon
about being interviewed through her website.
Posted:
2007/11/12 1:28 PM
Creating a Relevant College Education – November 6,
2007
One of my daughters runs a botanical garden affiliated with Acadia University
in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Maya Frost has a daughter who attends Acadia. The
Acadia faculty has been on strike for three weeks. And that’s how Maya
and I “met.” Maya was writing about the strike on her
Free Agent U blog and so I stumbled upon this fascinating writer, consultant and
world citizen. Although her office is located in Oregon, she is currently living in
Buenos Aires, Argentina with her husband and varying combinations of her four daughters. Aside
from noticing her work as a “mindfulness trainer” (mindfulness is a
mission for me), the title of the book she’s writing caught
my eye. It’s called Free Agent U: Skip the SAT, Save Thousands On
Tuition, and Get An Outrageously Relevant College Education. There’s
lot of info on and connected to her blog about the book, but basically,
it’s about finding ways to get a good education in non-traditional
ways…and “good” includes “multilingual and globally relevant.”
It also means avoiding the angst-filled, hyper-competitive but ultimately
meaningless high stakes testing path. Great to find other people who are
dedicated to helping people learn what they want and need to know, rather than what others
tell them they need. Check it out.
Posted:
2007/11/06 12:38 PM
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