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Welcome to these regular musings, meanderings, wonderings and wanderings by Wendy Priesnitz. Archives - September, 2004 Banned Books Week
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September
29, 2004 Each year, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom receives hundreds of reports on books and other materials that were “challenged” (asked to be removed from school or library shelves.) The ALA estimates the number represents only about a quarter of the actual challenges. “Most Challenged” titles include the popular Harry Potter series of fantasy books for children by J.K. Rowling. The series draws complaints from parents and others who believe the books promote witchcraft to children. Other titles that have been censored over the years include To Kill a Mockingbird (which looks at the impact of prejudice on society), Brave New World (where babies are conditioned to hate books) and Fahrenheit 451 (where firemen burn books). Hmmmm. Banned Books Week emphasizes the freedom to
choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion
might be considered unorthodox or unpopular. It also highlights the
importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular
viewpoints to all who wish to read them. Those two principles form the
foundation of our democracy. Thanks to the organizers of Banned Books
Week for reminding us of the dangers of censorship. Finding Nature – September 28, 2004 This morning, I returned to my tiny office to find
an email from a friend quoting Rachel Carson, the author of Silent
Spring. Carson perfectly captured the benefits of spending time in
nature – even if you find it between the cracks of a city sidewalk:
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of
strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is a symbolic as
well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of
the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something
infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance
that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. The lasting
pleasures of contact with the natural world...are available to anyone
who will place himself under the influence of earth, sea and sky and
their amazing life.” Bad Backs or Pesticide Poisoning – September
27, 2004 Hand weeding has been the practice on many vegetable farms in
California since 1975, when, prodded by Cesar Chavez and his United Farm
Workers union, the state barred the use of a 12-inch hoe because it,
too, caused back injuries. Farm groups are complaining
about the new regulation, saying it will make their farms less
productive at a time when they face increased competition from less
regulated states. There are long-handled hoes, of course, but their use
is not always practical, according to farmers. The other tool at their
disposal is pesticide spraying, which isn’t much of a solution, either
for the health of farm workers, consumers or the environment. And I
don’t suppose smaller, less specialized, farms would be considered as
a solution.... Follow
Up to “No Comment” – September 22, 2004 Leave
Your Car At Home – September 22, 2004 In Canada, the Sierra Club is coordinating
events. For an international perspective, visit the
World Carfree Network’s website. There aren’t a lot of events
scheduled around the U.S.A., oddly enough, but visit
CarFree City USA to see what’s happening there. And lastly, the
Natural Life magazine archives contain a number of articles on this subject.
Of course, one day with fewer people driving their
cars won’t make much difference in the overall scheme of things. But
change begins with each one of us taking small steps. No
Comment – September 21, 2004 Who
Are We Testing & Why? – September 20, 2004 I have many objections to testing. For one thing, it presumes to judge the growth of knowledge by measuring performance on one test in one moment of time, rather than as a process of growth that occurs over time. The current broadly-based emphasis on standardized testing means that teachers are increasingly “teaching to the test”. They spend much of their time stuffing kids with a curriculum menu of disconnected bits of information so they can be dutifully spit out again in a way that will make teachers and school systems look good in the eyes of the accountability-demanding, tax-paying public. But memorizing facts in order to be able to regurgitate them isn’t learning; true learning is interest-driven, highly individualized and difficult to measure. Tests – especially standardized ones – test test-taking ability. In addition, they can be poorly written, as well as culturally and educationally biased, and are usually used to label and slot children, rather than teachers or educational systems. In a 1986 Canadian Education Association report entitled
Evaluation for Excellence in Education, the author put it
succinctly: “The modern educational evaluator must recognize that
educational endeavors will be supported by the public only to the extent
that they understand the objectives being pursued and see that the
objectives are actually being attained.” Fair enough. That may be the
political reality for educational administrators. But it has nothing to
do with learning. When will we stop harming our kids with such misguided
bureaucratic practices? Shopping
– September 16, 2004 So are the young women who are the market for these publications really that enthusiastic about ostentatious consumption and aesthetics? Yup. That is exactly what Montreal-base polling firm CROP found last year. And how about these numbers from Toronto-based Environics Research Group? Sixty-six percent of females versus 60 percent of males say they “love” to buy consumer goods. In my research I found something else interesting...a 2001 British poll that 52 percent of women say they enjoy shopping more than sex. There
are lots of theories about the reasons for this frightening infatuation
with consuming, and why it is happening in parallel with a trend toward
simpler living (maybe the former is driving the later, or maybe the
latter is, as I wrote on the 12th, just a passing interest).
But much of the drive to shop must be fuelled by advertisers targeting
increasingly young children. At least that’s what Juliet
Schor says in her new book entitled Born to Buy: The Commercialized
Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner, 2004). Dumbing
Down Organics – September 12, 2004 OK, so maybe I’m over 50 and my magazine is almost 30, while this editor looks 20-something and her magazine is barely 3. Or maybe I’m just curmudgeonly middle-aged and/or jealous that they have more ad revenue than we do. Or is this a good example of the watering down of all things “organic”, “natural” and “simple”? Now, I’m happy that millions of people are saying a loud “No!” to genetically-altered food, junk food, pesticides and gas-guzzling SUVs. I’m thrilled that demand for organic food is growing so fast farmers have a hard time keeping up. When my husband Rolf and I started Natural Life magazine in 1976, we joked about how we’d be happy when natural living (and all its related aspects like natural learning) became such a common concept that we’d have put ourselves out of business. It hasn’t happened yet, but one part of my brain cheers the fact that such words and phrases are now commonplace...OK, chic. However, such hopeful trends have their dark side too. While I am all in favor of what author Paul Hawken has called “natural capitalism”, the pursuit of profit often has the side effect of dumbing down the concept it is exploiting. So although it may not be the publisher’s intention, magazines like Organic Style (and Real Simple to name another) are eroding the authenticity of the very concepts they are promoting. And they are insulting their readers at the same time. Watering ideas down in order to make them palatable to the general population is just as unnecessary as adding sugar to otherwise healthy prepared foods. Ever tried to buy soy milk or supposedly “natural” and even “organic” cereal that doesn’t have added sugar? However, the media is not alone in this. As the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has recently pointed out in an important essay by organic farmer and author Eliot Coleman, big corporations respond to the consumers’ concerns about what they are doing to their health and that of the planet, they buy out the small organic companies, monopolize retail outlets, and work with government bureaucrats to lower organic standards. The OCA estimates that everything sold in supermarkets will be labeled “organic” in 20 years...but that word will be just another meaningless marketing word by then. So
what is needed? A large dose of authenticity. Educated, sophisticated
consumers who won’t stand for “organic lite”, who will buy from
local organic farmers rather than supermarkets touting any old imported
product they can slap a greener label on. Consumers who will support
businesses that operate on the principles of Fair Trade and
sustainability. Consumers who are happy to buy second-hand and
small...or not at all. People whose sense of well-being isn’t based on
having the newest, most chic whatevers and for whom living a more
healthy, sustainable lifestyle doesn’t mean just flashing back to the days
of ponchos, peasant blouses and psychedelically painted VWs. Oh, and who
read publications that don’t allow the information they provide to be
compromised by a hell-bent drive for profit without principles.
Freedom
of Speech – September 11, 2004 However,
these two letters are bothering me. One is a natural food store owner in
Arizona who refuses to “spread [my] left-wing agenda” and the other
is a writer from Maryland who said if she had known I was going to
“write such a divisive
editor’s column” she would never have submitted her article to me. I
would have thought that a writer and a natural food store owner would,
by virtue of their vocations, want to nurture the dissemination of a
full range of viewpoints. Maybe freedom of speech has become another
casualty of the so-called war against terrorism. Learning
to Build – September 10, 2004
So MacGregor calls for a refocusing on the part of
all those well-meaning parents. He writes, “...there is...something to
be said for the unbelievable pleasure of building something that lasts,
that matters, that is appreciated, and that has a starting wage of
nearly $30 an hour at the end of an apprenticeship.” Since the father
of four knows that some of the best learning results from play, he
suggests that parents refocus their attention and money from tutoring to
carpentry sets. I wonder if he realizes how truly revolutionary this
idea is? Thanks, Roy, for adding your voice to those of us who have long
envisioned an education system built on real learning experiences rather
than on race-to-the-top competition and elbows-out performance. Talk
and Toss – September 7, 2004
Southern California phone maker Hop-On Wireless has had a throwaway cell phone on the market for a couple of years now, available in stores like Walgreen’s, Target, Kmart and 7-Eleven. Another company, Dieceland Technologies of Cliffside Park, NJ, has won patents for a phone made of paper that will cost about $10. And a few weeks ago, Wireless Age Communications Inc., a Canadian-based retailer of mobile phones, announced that it is teaming up with American-based Azonic Corp. to develop and market two disposable cellular phones designed for low-cost, short-term usage. The companies say they are targeting business people and tourists “in immediate need of a cell phone”, kind of like satisfying your junk food craving with a Big Mac, I suppose. Don’t laugh...market analyst Paul Vittner, who has been tracking the emerging disposable phone market, once wrote a report entitled “Cheeseburgers, Cellphones and Fries”. One disposable phone inventor apparently came up with her patented invention after being tempted to toss her cell phone out her car window in frustration over a bad connection. Just in time, she realized that cell phones were too expensive to lose or throw away. Maybe she could just take anger management classes instead of adding to the planet’s already unmanageable load of garbage. It is estimated that over one billion of the supposedly non-disposable cell
phones are already in use worldwide. Unfortunately, due to fast moving
technology and consumer fickleness, they are used an average of only 18
months before being replaced and moved into the waste stream, along with
the resources and toxic substances that they are made from.
Biodegradable phones anyone? Solving
Educator-Defined Problems – September 2, 2004
I can hardly write for sputtering with flabbergasted frustration! Those so-called behaviour and learning “problems” result from kids not wanting to be in school, not being interested in what they’re being taught, and/or not having their personal learning styles addressed (as the study’s authors, to be fair, recognize). Six-year-olds need less “program experience”, not more! Behaviour and learning problems don’t exist when kids are engaged with life and learning, when they are not forced into situations that don’t nurture their minds, bodies or souls. If your intent is to create obedient automatons who are socialized into
performing well on an outmoded, mechanized educational assembly line, or
even kids who make an easy transition to grade school by not disrupting
their classes, then put babies into programs at an ever earlier age. If
your intent is to help children develop into autonomous, creatively
thinking, actively learning adults, then keep them out of school as long
as possible...or, better still, abolish school as we know it and spend
the resulting billions of dollars on developing a learning society that
works for all ages. If we are talking about the very real need for
universal access to high quality daycare for those who want or need it,
then let’s say that, rather than
suggesting that such institutionalization is good for kids and will
solve their later schooling problems. Until educators and legislators
start thinking outside the system box and realize that education and
schooling are not the same thing, our kids will continue to have
educator-defined behaviour and learning problems. Symptoms
or Normal Reaction? – September 1, 2004 Now, there are two issues here. First of all,
while I don’t carry the unfortunate ADHD label, I find that stepping
outside or walking/running in a park helps calm me down and relieve stress.
Secondly, I wonder if it ever occurred to these or other researchers
that perhaps many of these kids don’t actually have a disorder at all.
What if their “symptoms” are actually a normal reaction to
being in concrete and steel settings all day, to the fatigue that comes
from focusing their attention on a boring task while trying to block out
the distractions of a school classroom? What if they merely function
better when they are allowed to run and play in the park, as children are designed to do? What if the label is blaming the victim? As writer Jan Hunt has pointed out in an article in Life Learning, we
don’t blame flowers that fail to bloom...we adjust their growing conditions! Return
to current weblog copyright © Wendy Priesnitz 2004-2007 |
Topics & Passions: natural learning ~ What I'm reading:
A Walk on the Beach - Tales of Wisdom From an Unconventional Woman by
Joan Anderson (2004, Broadway Books/Random House)
~ What I'm Listening To: Slow
by Ann Hampton Callaway (Shanachie Records)
~ Fav Bookmarks:
Deep Fun
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