Personal Site Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Natural Life magazine Natural Life Blog Founder and editor of Life Learning Magazine Life Learning Blog Author of unschooling books Small/home business writer Founder and editor of Natural Child online magazine Interview from Life Learning Interview on Inspired Parenting Radio Interview on Radio Free School Blog Updates Facebook Page Follow me on Twitter

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 - November, 2009 A Thuggish Petroleum State – November 23, 2009 I have been struggling for a couple of weeks to write an article or blog posting about how ashamed I am – and how worried I am – about the current Canadian government’s behavior on the world stage, especially regarding climate change. Today, I read this column by British writer George Monbiot. He has said it for me and I hate to admit that he is right. Please read it and do what you can to influence this very dangerous and arrogant government. Posted: 2009/12/01 8:08PM Taking Back the Night – November 23, 2009 There’s not much I can say – nor is any comment really necessary I suppose – on this story. A woman was sexually assaulted while she was walking in a Take Back the Night March in London, England. Disgusting, upsetting, sad, frustrating…we’ve got a long way to go. Posted: 2009/11/23 12:12PM The War on Kids – November 23, 2009 As I was researching films to review for my “Media Beat” column in the January/February issue of Natural Life Magazine, I learned that Cevin Soling’s documentary film called The War on Kids has just been released. It is well-researched, provocative and sure to be controversial because it attacks what is perhaps our most accepted institution – public schooling of middle class kids – using actual news reports of the attacks on kids’ rights that are an accepted part of the instituion. Now, I and others have been attacking this attack on children and young people for decades, but there is something in-your-face about a film that attracts attention. And The War on Kids is getting noticed. It’s being reviewed in mainstream places like the venerable entertainment publication Variety, and so on. In the style of Michael Moore’s films, The War on Kids doesn’t mince words, likening the U.S. public school system to prison and its disciplinary methods to fascism. Schools, it says, are regulated by fear and motivated by the desire to control. And that control comes in many forms, including from police in schools, capital punishment and zero-tolerance policies on everything from homework to violence and drugs. (That zero-tolerance for drugs, of course, doesn’t work both ways, as kids are regularly dosed with Ritalin so they’ll behave in class.) Interviews with impassioned critics are at the core of the film – people like John Taylor Gatto and Life Learning writer Laurie A. Couture, among many others. Gatto says that the compulsory school system is designed to infantilize the mass mind and condition it to take orders in a docile fashion. And I imagine even those who haven’t thought much about the subject before will be left agreeing that nobody in their right mind would go to school like this voluntarily. Then, the film is clear about the need for change if kids and democracy are to flourish. And wonderfully, the change that is proposed is home-based learning. And that, according to Variety reviewer Ronnie Scheib, is a “leap into left field” that will “excite heated controversy” – more controversy, says Scheib, than its depiction of the actual problem! (We can at least be grateful he didn’t say “right field.”) Scheib suggests such a radical solution is not a viable alternative. However, if not the only alternative, it may be the best one – one that I’ve been working toward for three decades. At least, we need to thank director Soling for being so apparently audacious as to have suggested it. Will this hard-hitting documentary be the wake-up call that it could be? Very possibly not. The website lists a few screenings this fall in venues like universities, but not much other activity, even on a discussion board. But it does provide a mechanism for screening the film in your community. Maybe it’s a tool you could use to create change, to make it that wake-up call. Posted: 2009/11/23 10:25AM Have Sorted Myself Out – November 12, 2009 Okay, you wonderful readers, I must apologize for any confusion I have created. I have now sorted out my blogging life. This blog will continue as my personal writing platform and will cover all the subjects in which I am interested. Over the past 33 years, I have concentrated very narrowly on writing about education and green living. Recently, I have become restless and, with the help of my patient and wise business and life partner Rolf, as well as some good friends, I have realized that I want to widen my intellectual boundaries. While sorting oneself out is, I think, a lifelong pursuit, I have jumped a few hurdles recently and am developing a clearer view of the next decade of my life. So, if you are more interested in unschooling / homeschooling / self-education material, my blog at Life Learning Magazine will be of interest. If you are interested in green living and natural parenting, then my blog at Natural Life Magazine is for you. Both of those blogs have direct commenting capabilities (although moderated). I do not intend to cross-post, although some subjects are bound to cross whatever borders I create. And, yes, I am aware of the irony in trying to pull apart the various threads when one of the main principles of my philosophy is that everything is connected. I guess the connection part will happen here! Thanks for continuing to challenge assumptions with me. Posted: 2009/11/12 11:20AM It Hasn’t Shut Me Up – November 7, 2009 When I began working as a writer and a journalist over 30 years ago, I had a sense of coming home, that I was doing work that perfectly fit my temperament and personality. In fact, I felt a sense of relief that I was finally able to ask questions; that I could make money doing so was a bonus. I’m known in my family as a questioner and a communicator. I name problems and issues. Analyzing, describing and challenging is how I understand things. And I believe (stubbornly but incorrectly) that any problem can be solved given enough opportunity to talk about it. My curiosity meets my inner chatterbox child quite often as I go about my day mumbling questions that are, more often than not, rhetorical. It’s likely that I am this way because it wasn’t always this way. I grew up being told to keep quiet and not to question. “Curiosity killed the cat,” snapped my maternal grandmother. Sharing my feelings and ideas, and commenting on what was happening around me was also taboo. “Hold your tongue,” my grandmother would say demeaningly when I began to chatter. Conversation was for adults and learning was a passive, listening sort of experience. “If God had wanted you to talk more than listen, he’d have given you two mouths and one ear,” admonished my mother when I would try to involve myself in dinner table chat. “Little pitchers have big ears,” cautioned my mother mysteriously when the adults wanted to discuss one of the many interesting topics that were off-limits to a child. “Children are to be seen and not heard,” concluded my grandmother. As a child, I felt resentful. As a teenager, I began to reject the way I had been brought up and awkwardly tried to find my voice, which I did, with increasing courage and confidence. As a young mother, I was determined to encourage my daughters’ questions, to respect their opinions and to include them in conversations. That became the foundation on which our unschooling lifestyle was built. Now that I have finally developed enough courage to ask, but can’t because they’re both dead, I wonder why my grandmother and mother were so determined to shut me down. Did those two strong women resent being silenced themselves? Did they long to be heard in their own lives? Or did they truly believe that what I didn’t know wouldn’t hurt me? My mother was aghast as, just a few years before she died, I finally began to break the silence in our relationship, naming things, asking questions and hoping for answers from her that she was not able or willing to provide. Sadly, that is not the only situation in which my relentless questions and observations are not welcome. I’m still occasionally told not to be so nosy or so blunt, to bite my tongue, to suck it up, to know my place. I’ve learned tact and grace over the years, but I have also learned that questioning is the most direct route to learning. And so it hasn’t shut me up. Posted: 2009/11/07 10:09AM More Blogging News – November 3, 2009 As I wrote a few days ago, this blog is being split up into at least two streams. The life learning/unschooling/children’s rights, etc. topics appear on the Life Learning website blog. And the green, healthy living topics are on a totally new blog at the Natural Life magazine website. Each of them has its own RSS feed or you might want to bookmark them. This page will soon be replaced by an information page pointing to those blogs. Posted: 2009/11/03 11:09AM Unschooling Extends John Dewey’s Legacy – November 2, 2009 October 20 marked the 150th anniversary of John Dewey’s birth. If he were alive today, the educational reformer would no doubt be aghast at the fact that the dominant educational philosophy still mimics that of an assembly line, with memorization and regurgitation of isolated “facts” organized in a pre-determined curriculum continuing to be important aspects of school life. As a professor of philosophy at the Universities of Michigan and Chicago in the 1880s and ’90s, Dewey foresaw that our increasing dependence on technology would demand creative thinkers able to solve problems and be inventive…and that was not the sort of person schools were turning out. He pioneered the notion of informal learning, which was quite radical in its day, even though such learning was still organized as curriculum and programs. His ideas never really took hold in education systems because they required small classes and individual attention, and scorned testing. I think Dewey would, however, be pleased to observe today’s unschoolers and secular homeschoolers (Dewey wasn’t popular with the Christian fundamentalists of the day), for whom ideas like interest-led learning, lateral thinking, connections among academic “subjects,” attention to individual needs and learning styles, democratic classrooms, and children’s ownership of the learning process are part of the life learning process. He once wrote, “Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself.” He also wrote, “The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs.” And that describes as well as anything why his ideas haven’t been put to use beyond the progressive homeschooling community! Posted: 2009/11/02 11:44PM Blogging News – November 1, 2009 After five-and-a-half years of blogging, I am making some changes. This blog will be split up into at least two streams. One has already begun on the Life Learning website and will focus exclusively on life learning, which includes homeschooling, unschooling, so-called radical unschooling, autonomous learning, children’s rights, self-education for all ages and any other progressive learning related topics. The other stream will eventually end up on the Natural Life magazine website and will focus on green living  topics. For awhile, this blog will continue with duplicate postings. I will let you know when it is time to change your RSS feed. Posted: 2009/11/01 6:19PM   Comments? Suggestions? Email me copyright © Wendy Priesnitz 2009

Featured Posts Slow Learning Ideology As a Barrier to Change Moving Toward Life Learning How Do They Know That? Instinct to Learn Just Living Life Unschooling is Not Regressive Shakespeare Didn't Blog Whose Learning Agenda Is It? Learning Doesn't Have to be Hard Not Yet a Learning Society Finding Balance Philosophical Babies, Arrogant Adults On the Meaning of Radical Disruptive Innovation Go Look it Up The Respect She Deserves ~ Monthly Archives Oct, 2009 Sept, 2009 Aug, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 Feb, 2009 Jan, 2009 Dec, 2008 Nov, 2008 Oct, 2008 Sept, 2008 Aug, 2008 July, 2008 June, 2008 May, 2008 Apr, 2008 Mar, 2008 Feb, 2008 Jan, 2008 Dec, 2007 Nov, 2007 Oct, 2007 Sept, 2007 Aug, 2007 July, 2007 June, 2007 May, 2007 April, 2007 Mar, 2007 Feb, 2007 Jan, 2007 Dec, 2006 Nov, 2006 Oct, 2006 Sept, 2006 Aug, 2006 July, 2006 June, 2006 May, 2006 April, 2006 Mar, 2006 Feb, 2006 Jan, 2006 Dec, 2005 Nov, 2005 Oct, 2005 Sept, 2005 Aug, 2005 July, 2005 June, 2005 May, 2005 April, 2005 Mar, 2005 Feb, 2005 Jan, 2005 Dec, 2004 Nov, 2004 Oct, 2004 Sept, 2004 Aug, 2004 July, 2004 June, 2004 May, 2004 April, 2004 ~ What I'm Reading (I am not an amazon.com affiliate and don't get/want a commission! Enjoy.) Under Pressure: Putting the Child Back in Childhood by Carl Honoré (Vintage Canada, 2009) Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown & Co., 2008) September University: Summoning Passion for an Unfinished Life by Charles D. Hayes (Autodidactic Press, 2010) ~ What I'm Listening To Take Love Easy by Sophie Milman (Linus Entertainment, 2009) Live in London by Leonard Cohen (Sony Music, 2009) Bare Bones by Madeleine Peyroux (Rounder Records, 2009) ~ Fav Bookmarks Daughter Blog MOTHERS The Mother/Daughter Project TED: Ideas Worth Spreading Organic Consumers Association We Are What We Do Mothers Movement Naomi Aldort Personalised Education Now Foundation for a Better Life Learning Freely Network What's On My Food? Cahoots Online Maqazine Elizabeth Pantley Landshare Zoe Weil Tricycle Editor's Blog Homeschooling Freethinkers AERO Alt Ed Essays ~ Fav Quotes Art, Writing, Creativity Life and Living Men and Women Learning Environment and Peace ~ Topics & Passions life learning / unschooling simplicity environment natural parenting creativity / writing books