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Editor of Editor
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Welcome to these regular musings, meanderings, wonderings and wanderings by Wendy Priesnitz. Archives - October, 2006 Scary Stuff – October 31, 2006 Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who has emerged as a powerful environmental spokesman, will advise the British government on climate change. The government is reportedly considering new “green taxes” on cheap airline flights, fuel and high-emission vehicles and intends to become a world leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, in Bonn, Germany, the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has just released new data showing an upward trend in emissions of industrialized countries in the period 2000–2004. This is not new information, but the report ‘Greenhouse Gas Data, 2006’ constitutes the first complete set of data submitted by all 41 industrialized Parties of the Convention to the Bonn-based secretariat. According to the secretariat, in the period 1990–2004, the overall emissions of industrialized countries decreased by 3.3 per cent. However, this was mostly due to a 36.8 per cent decrease in emissions on the part of economies in transition of eastern and central Europe. Within the same time-period, the greenhouse gas emissions of the other industrialized Parties of the Convention grew by 11.0 per cent. The UN’s chief climate change official pointed
out that despite the emission growth in some countries in the period
2000-2004, Parties of the Kyoto Protocol stand a good chance of meeting
their individual emissions reduction commitments if they speedily apply
the additional domestic mitigation measures they are planning and use
the Kyoto Protocol’s market-based flexibility mechanisms. Trouble is,
both the U.S. and Canada have turned their backs on Kyoto. For instance, Canada’s proposed Clean Air Act will wait until 2050 to cut emissions by 45
to 65 percent. For further information on climate change and what
is being done about it, visit the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change
website. Take Back Your Time – October 23, 2006 The Fragility of our Ability to Learn – October
22, 2006 A press release about women’s ability to do math,
which came across my desk a few days ago, underlines how easy it is to
get in the way of learning by convincing someone that a certain subject is
hard, or that they aren’t cut out to master a specific skill. Women and math is a controversial topic that led to
the resignation last summer of Lawrence Summers, the former president of
Harvard. He had speculated in public that one of the potential reasons
why women are represented less in math and science professions is that
fewer women than men have the intrinsic ability required by such jobs.
Some teachers of children seem to agree with Dr. Summers. But a
new study underlines how that theory itself is, in fact, detrimental to
girls’ and women’s ability to do math. Researchers at the University of British Columbia
have found that women perform differently on math tests depending on
whether they believe math-related gender differences are determined by
genetic or social differences. Women who were told they are naturally as
good at math as men did twice as well on math tests as women who were
told men have more natural numbers sense. In a paper published in the
October 19 edition of the journal Science, UBC investigators Ilan
Dar-Nimrod and Steven Heine suggest that women tend to perceive gender
differences in math to be innate or genetic, but when they consider such
differences to be based on theories of nurture rather than nature, they
can improve their performance. “Our study doesn’t explore whether innate sex
differences exist,” says Dar-Nimrod, a Psychology doctoral student.
“Instead, we investigated how the perceived source of stereotypes can
influence women’s math performance.” Associate Professor Heine, who
teaches in the Department of Psychology at UBC, adds, “The findings
suggest that people tend to accept genetic explanations as if they’re
more powerful or irrevocable, which can lead to self-fulfilling
prophecies. But experiential theories may allow a woman to say this
stereotype doesn’t apply to me.” There are a number of messages here for life and
learning, including one that says if you belong to a group for which
there is any kind of negative stereotype, you may end up acting out that
stereotype, whether or not it really
applies to you. AD/HD or Doing What Comes Naturally? – October
19, 2006 The “symptoms” of this “disorder” are defined as frequent fidgeting; inability to get organized, sit still or wait in line; as well as distractibility and procrastination; lateness and relationship problems. I’m guessing that the latter “symptom” is more a result of living with a disorganized, pushy fidgeter, but nobody asked me. According to the news release, “with treatment, a person with AD/HD can sometimes turn negatives into positives.” Uh, or without treatment, maybe people find careers for themselves that fit their personalities! Those supposedly AD/HD-ridden tradespeople (who are often very highly paid, by the way) may simply be cut out for jobs that are free from rigid structure and prolonged desk-sitting. On the other hand, office, bank and retail clerks, with more structure, more public contact and more sitting still (but presumably less pay,) were among the group reporting the fewest symptoms of AD/HD. David Giwerc, a past president of the ADDA who
apparently has AD/HD, is quoted as saying, “Adults with AD/HD have
unique strengths that can also manifest as a result of understanding
their AD/HD. They are often creative, spontaneous, inventive, humorous,
risk-taking problem-solvers.” So where’s the disability from this
disorder? Those qualities sound to me like they bode well for success in
life. Unfortunately for some kids (those with parents who don’t
know about, believe in or feel they can take advantage of unschooling), those traits pose problems in
typical school situations. And perhaps that’s the disability for which they “need” to be treated with drugs. Preventing Violence Against Children – October
15, 2006 The report notes that for many children, educational settings expose them to, and may even teach them, violence. “Violence perpetrated by teachers and other school staff, with or without the overt or tacit approval of education ministries and other authorities that oversee schools, includes corporal punishment, cruel and humiliating forms of psychological punishment, sexual and gender-based violence, and bullying. Corporal punishment such as beating and caning is standard practice in schools in a large number of countries around the world.” In spite of this excellent report, those working to eradicate violence against children will, I’m afraid, continue to have an uphill climb against those whose activism is not propelled by the best interests of children. There is a vocal lobby against anything to do with the United Nations, including its Convention on the Rights of the Child, and against the abolition of laws that permit spanking of children. For instance, in Canada in 2004, the Supreme Court refused to criminalize spanking as a form of parental discipline, disagreeing with one of its most internationally respected and outspoken members – Justice Louise Arbour, the UN’s former chief prosecutor in the International War Crimes Tribunal – that spanking should be criminalized. Arguing on the side of parental abuse of children was a group calling itself the Coalition for Family Autonomy, headed up by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and including Focus on the Family, Canada Family Action Coalition and REAL Women of Canada. At the time, HSLDA’s Dallas Miller characterized the court case as an attack on parents by those who support children’s rights. Lest you wonder about the connection with homeschooling, the logic sees this attack, if successful, as eventually making homeschooling illegal. This fear-mongering has served HSLDA well over the years, but that’s another story. The court seemed to believe that family disruption is more harmful to children than corporal punishment. As Miller is quoted as saying on the HSLDA website, “The decision...is grounded in the recognition that to criminalize the actions of parents who provide loving guidance and correction to their children would result in ruined lives and broken families. As the court noted, this burden is often borne by the children involved.” Um, I beg to differ, but I wasn’t in court. Unfortunately, the support of violence against children is not restricted to right-wing conservative organizations. While the Canadian Teachers’ Federation has a policy that opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools, it has warned that repealing Section 43 of the Criminal Code, which allows parents and teachers to use “reasonable force by way of correction” of children would quickly lead to chaos in the classroom – a confusing and, to my mind, hypocritical stance. But maybe it's “just” semantics. Their current policy notes that “Section 43 of the Criminal Code does not sanction or condone child abuse” and that it provides protection to teachers when the use of force is justified.” Hmmm, I thought that whether or not the use of force is ever justified was what was under dispute! Aside from violating the Canadian Charter of
Rights, Section 43 has been singled out as contrary to the Criminal Code
in at least three decades’ worth of reports, many of them commissioned
by governments themselves. In addition, Canada, as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is
obliged to make the physical punishment of children an offense. A
growing number of countries, many of them Scandinavian, combine law
reform with parental education to change public opinion and private
conduct when it comes to striking children. These governments believe
that as the public becomes better informed about the well-established
link between the physical punishment of children and heightened
aggression among children and youth, attitudes toward disciplining
children will be altered. It’s time for other so-called civilized
countries to come out of the Dark Ages and do the right thing. Early Learning, Not Necessarily Early School – October 14, 2006 Nice try, I said, but my body’s forced slow-down had given me the leisure time to read the papers too. And I countered that the survey had found that Canadians feel that fostering positive attitudes toward life and learning in early childhood is more important than school readiness and personal development. It also found that we believe that parents should have the primary responsibility for providing early childhood learning opportunities, which should comprise play rather than academic pursuits. That does not mean that we all think babies should be sent to schools of one sort or another; it does illustrate an impressive awareness of the need to protect and nurture children’s inherent enthusiasm for exploring the world. However, since they frequently reference the need for access to quality child care, I suspect that the researchers/report authors haven’t made the distinction between teaching and learning. That’s not surprising, since most people fail to admit that one doesn’t necessarily lead to the other, and forget that young children are always, energetically learning. There were some interesting (although perhaps not surprising to many unschooling mothers) differences between mothers’ attitudes and those of fathers. For instance, more mothers than fathers said that informal activities are more important than organized classes for young children, while a majority of fathers felt that organized classes were at least as important as reading and playing, and that the instruction should involve communication and problem-solving skills. These are important topics for public discussion. I hope that this survey, which claims to be the first edition of “a yearly barometer of opinions, perceptions and beliefs about lifelong learning in Canada,” will explore attitudes about informal learning and help to place non-institutionalized education on the menu of choices for people of all ages. Oh yeah, and I’m learning how to say no more often so
that I don’t get so stressed, but that’s another blog entry for another
time. Solving the Problem, Not Avoiding It – October 4, 2006 Embracing Their Choices – October 1, 2006 My own ongoing journey involves embracing and
rejoicing in the life choices made by my two now 30-something daughters.
And that’s how I view the life decisions made by the young people
Peter has interviewed: If we are confident that we’ve given our
children the tools of life learning – the ability to reason,
experiment, take risks, make mistakes, regroup, change direction and try
again – we should be comfortable that they are making the best choices
for themselves at any given point in time. Bringing up independent
thinkers means respecting the choices that result from that
independence, even when we might not agree with them. I do not share the
view of one letter writer who suggested that their making choices with
which we don’t
agree means that “the world of unschooling is in flames.”
That
level of acceptance is not always an easy path for parents to walk
and we can’t always look to our own parents as role models, but it’s
an important part of the life learning journey. One of the contributors
to the November/December issue – Karen Ridd – has an accepting
parent as a role model. Karen interviewed her mother about her feelings
around the unschooling of her grandchildren. Her joy in watching her
grandsons learn provides a good role model for us all. Return
to current weblog copyright © Wendy Priesnitz 2007 |
Topics & Passions: natural learning ~ What I'm Reading: Life Lessons by
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross & David Kessler (Scribner, 2000) ~ What
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