School-Free Learning and Religion

One of the first things people think when they hear you don't, or didn't, go to school, is "oh, you must be religious."  And by religious, what they really mean is that we must be either fundamentalist or evangelical Christians. 

I think that the image that instantly comes to most peoples minds when they think of homeschoolers (since most people think that all school-free learners are Christian) is a very specific one: it involves girls in long skirts or dresses, boys in dress shirts, and mothers in denim jumpers.  Families with (often many) more than 2.5 children, who do their schoolwork at the kitchen table and have daily Bible study. The stereotype goes that they may also hate gay people and have a problem with the theory of evolution. 

The Duggar family from TLC's 19 Kids and Counting. (Source)

And, well, that stereotype is actually based in something.  Growing up, many of the homeschoolers I knew fit it almost exactly!  It's probably not surprising to discover my family felt pretty out-of-place at certain homeschooling gatherings.

Because my family?  Well, school-free learning definitely wasn't a choice made for religious reasons of any kind, Christian or otherwise.

My father seems pretty atheistic, but I don't think cares enough about religion either way to even bother labeling himself.  My mother is a rather spiritual person, with her own personal beliefs and a definite attitude of live and let live.  My sister once referred to herself as a "superstitious agnostic", which I loved, but she doesn't feel the label of agnostic fits any more, and hasn't replaced it with any other labels.  And me?  Well, I usually simply refer to myself as an animist, and I also throw a little goddess/earth worship into the mix.

I got a necklace much like this for Christmas. (Source)

The difference in outlook can be seen clearly in this story: I remember a homeschoolers group activity my sister and I were part of one summer.  They gave us each a small New Testament bible, and we memorized a small passage each meeting.  Actually, I think it might have specifically been a bible club thing, that my sister and I decided to go to simply because we had friends there.  But either way, I remember that Emi loved that little bible.  It had a faux-leather cover and gold writing.  Emi thought it looked like a spell book, and used it as such in her regular play.  

It might start to sound at this point like I'm not all that fond of Christianity, and that would be accurate.  To be honest, I'm not all that fond of any organized religion.  But as with everything I'm less than fond of, I try to keep things pointed squarely at the big guys: I have a problem with schools, not those who attend them.  Similarly, I don't like the institution of religion, but that doesn't mean I dislike the followers of a religion.

What I do dislike is the politics and opinions that frequently go along with fundamentalist Christianity, though.  The hatred of GLBTQ folk, the idea of "purity" and repression of sexuality, the belief that physically punishing children is okay, the overall sexism.  When I was young, I didn't notice all that stuff, despite the fact it was very evident at times.  I think kids often don't!  But once I was older, those types of attitudes definitely started making me uncomfortable.

So do I think choosing not to send kids to school for religious reasons is bad?  No, I don't.  I think it's important that children are loved, treated kindly and respectfully, and given the freedom they deserve.  The families who strive for this are the ones I personally agree with most, and I don't really think whether those choices are made with religion in mind or not matters at all.  I consider myself a very spiritual person, and I don't really separate the various part of me into different categories.  Everything I think and feel has an effect on everything else I think and feel, thus my own decision to never send my (unwilling to go) future children to school is as much a spiritual choice as anything else.

And really, it would be very nice if people started realizing that the school-free community is a vast one, and one that encompasses a wide variety of people who don't send their kids to school for a wide variety of reasons.  School free learners are Christians, Pagans, Jews, Atheists, Muslims, Hindus, and any other religion you can think of.  They're conservatives, liberals, republicans, anarchists, supporters of the green party, and libertarians.  There are a LOT of school-free people out there, and thus you find a lot of variety.  Some of them I personally agree with, some not so much.  Yes, I think I've probably come across more Christian homeschoolers than anything else, but there are enough home learners who are other than Christian that automatically assuming they are is not really a good idea!

It would also be nice if people would move away from the idea that Christian=X type of home learning, and Atheist=other X type of homeschooling.  That's slotting followers of a specific religion (or holders of a specific label) into a box, and not taking into account the complexities of each individual, why they decided not to send their children to school (or not to go to school themselves), their relationships with each other, etc.  There are radically unschooling Christians, and there are rigidly classically homeschooling Pagans.  I'd personally like the focus to stay firmly on the important things: are they happy?  Are families living together with love and respect?  Or, are they striving to live that way (since it can be pretty hard to actually achieve at times, as I well know)?  Because isn't that what's important?

Why I'm such a strong supporter of unschooling is because I believe everyone has the right to free choice, and because I believe that free choice leads to happy, connected, caring people.  Ultimately, if people are happy, I don't think it matters what type of education they're following.

So.  I've tackled religion, something I've never really written about before on this blog.  Hopefully I've done so respectfully!  And I'd be interested to hear your perspective.  Do you feel religion had any impact on your educational choices (either to have more or less religion in your environment)?  What's been your experience with the school-free community and religion?

It Begins in Fire

Enjoy Life Unschooling is hosting it's first blog canival, with the topic of New Beginnings, and when I read the list of prompts for writing a New Beginnings themed post, one of them stood out to me:

How do you celebrate new beginnings in your life?

When I was a child, I loved mythology.  All mythology.  Anything I could get my hands on.  Once, I read a novel about an Indian dancer, and in it the main character worshiped the god Shiva, who is both destroyer and creator, benign and terrible.  Shiva is also often associated with fire.  In the book, I remember reading about Shiva, the god of fire and dance, who dances the destruction of the world, then dances it's rebirth.

That must have made an impact on me, since the memory of it has stuck with me for years.

To me, fire is like that: the creator and destroyer.  Bringer of endings and beginnings.

I like to have ritual in my life.  It makes me feel calmer, more grounded.  It's a way of both connecting with the wider web of life and of centering myself.  When I forget to mark passages, and changes, and holidays, and the turning of the season through ritual, it saddens me, and even makes me feel a bit lost!  It's something that I forget about too often, but that adds greatly to my life.

Fire has always felt sacred to me.  Anyone who's ever stared into the flames knows how you can fall almost into a trance while doing so, how fascinating and exciting it is, the warmth and light of it.  Fire is both comforting and dangerous.  So it's not surprising, I suppose, that fire plays an important part in ritual, for me.

And what I want to talk about now is endings, and beginnings.  Because the two are inextricably intertwined!

A few years ago, instead of just making resolutions at New Years that I won't keep anyway, and will just feel bad about when I break, I wrote down, on a blank sheet of paper, all the things I wished for in the new year.  New friends.  Good health.  Discovering new places.  And I went downstairs, along with my family who'd chosen to do the same thing, and in the dark-warm-stillness of past midnight, we placed our papers in the wood stove and watched then curl as they burned brightly, the smoke carrying our wishes up the chimney and out into the night.

I've also used fire to symbolically cleanse bad things from my life.  To burn bad memories and feelings, release them in a tangible way so that I can move on in my life more freely.  Regrets can weigh so heavily, make you wince, and want to just curl up in a dark corner and forget about it all.  I think that too many people carry heavy regrets with them long after they should have been put to rest.  The past is past, and can't be changed.  You can never fully get rid of regrets, I know, but I'm constantly trying to lessen the burden of my regrets, and to realize that every moment is a new beginning, a time to do things differently, to move further toward what and who you want to be in this new moment.  

Fire is both endings and beginnings.  It's change.  It's wild and warm and life giving and life taking.  It's spontaneity and it's meditation.

And it helps me to remember that life is moving, not static, and to mark those passages, those changes, those new beginnings.

Peace,
Idzie

Christmas, Solstice, celebrations...

Wow, long time no post (compared to what I usually do, anyway)!  And I don't even have a good excuse! ;-) But anyway, I did not decide to write a post about the fact I haven't been writing posts, so I will move on...

My family is not Christian.  Not even close, really!  I'm animistic and generally spiritual without being *religious* at all, my dad comes from a Catholic background but isn't exactly a believer, my mom is spiritual and doesn't really like to label herself, and Emi refers to herself as a "superstitious agnostic".  Quite a bunch, aren't we?  However, like many North Americans, we celebrate Christmas each year.  Both sides of the family are Christian to a greater or lesser extant, so I suppose it's logical that we do.  And I love Christmas, I really do.  The glorious music (even the religious music.  I just love Christmas music!), the Christmas tree glowing softly in a darkened room, great feasts, glittering decorations, and yes, Christmas presents.  I can't imagine, and wouldn't want to, stop celebrating Christmas!  However, I don't feel a special significance in WHAT Christmas is celebrating.  I could honestly care less about the birth of the baby Jesus.  So for the past couple of years, I've wanted to celebrate the Solstice.  Marking and taking joy in the natural cycles of the Earth.  Now that makes more sense to me. So, although I know few people who live nearby who would appreciate such a celebration (and when I say "few" I mean one, other than my immediate family, unless someone else I've overlooked pops into my head), and actually take it seriously, I'm still going to have a small celebration myself.  I will drag my family along for the ride, make some lovely decorations out of natural materials dragged out of our local woods, cook some tasty food, light some beeswax candles (I've been moving away from petroleum based ones), and just have a good time.  So that is my plan for the Holidays! :-)


In zine news, I now have all the stuff I need!  Woo hoo!  I want to send out a big thanks to everyone who sent stuff in. :-) I now have the slightly intimidating task of putting it all together in an actual *zine*, instead of just a pile of papers.  I say slightly intimidating because there has been A LOT of interest.  I find it slightly unnerving that there are many people enthusiastically waiting to read it... :-S Also, I've been putting thought into what style I want it to be.  It could be more *magazine-y*, with columns and a more professional look, or more traditional *zine-y*, with scissors and glue and different fonts and handwritten bits, and I've decided after very little thought to go with the latter.  The unique, artistic, free-form style of zines is what drew me to them in the first place, so I don't think going for an overly *shiny* look is the best idea! :-P

Oh, and I just have to mention that I can't believe it's December already!  Time passes too fast!  I need to be thinking about buying gifts, and helping to clean the house, and all those other holiday preparatory things...

Peace,
Idzie

A (very) little bit about animism

I haven't really talked about my spiritual beliefs in this blog before, although I've certainly mentioned (and state at the top of my blog) that I'm an animist. So, when I stumbled upon this post on the blog The Center For Bioregional Animism, I wanted to share this definition of animism, which I find to be very accurate.

"The most common definition of animism is the belief of spirits inhabiting animals, plants, and inanimate objects. However, this is an over simplification based upon western-colonial concepts. Animism is being re-evaluated by many in the fields of comparative religion and anthropology. A new understanding is surfacing. In the writings of Graham Harvey, he explains that animism is not the projection of human qualities upon objects. He argues that these old ideas are outdated. On the contrary, animism is an absence of the idea that humans are superior and/or separate from the living world. Animism relates to the world as a community of people, only some of whom are human. By relinquishing our dominion over the rights and consideration of person-hood, the world is no longer a collection of resources for consumption, but is seen as a delicate web of relationships."

Peace,
Idzie

Depressing world we live in, isn't it?

I actually read the paper today, which I haven't done in a while. I learned even more about how depressing a place the Democratic Republic of Congo is. There's a civil war going on now, and thousands of girls and women are being raped by the official military, the militia, and their own neighbors. Reading that really made me sad... I also read a cool piece on organic farming.

I also did some more research into Paganism. On that note, since I haven't mentioned it in any of my posts yet, I'm Pagan. The best description would be eclectic Paganism. I believe most of the stuff found in Wicca, but I don't like all the rules and hierarchy that comes with it. I've realized recently that a few of my beliefs can be described as Animist, and I also have some beliefs that seem to be all my own. I really enjoy finding out more about all the different Pagan religions... I'm very happy with the path, or at least the direction, that I have chosen. It just feels right to me.

On a different note, quiet day overall... I hung out outside for a bit, soaking up the good weather... Argued with people I don't like, talked to people I do like... And that's about it.

Listening to today: Prayer of the Refugee by Rise Against

Reading: the newspaper