Continuing my experiments in cooking with dandelions, I decided to try this recipe, shared by Gen, author of the guest post on suburban gardening, for fried dandelion blossoms.
First, you collect the blossoms! Dandelion stems are very bitter, so you cut off all the stem, leaving only the flower (plus green flower bit/thingy underneath it, so that the flower holds together!).
Then, rinse the blossoms in lightly salted water.
Pat them dry on paper towels.
For the batter, mix 1 cup flower, 1 cup milk, 1 egg (beaten), and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Then dip the flowers:
And fry them in hot oil! We didn't *quite* put enough oil to make them deep-fried, but you do need a fair bit of oil.
Blotting off any extra grease is always important when frying things, I find.
Annnnd here is the finished product!!
They were great! A lovely, fluffy texture and simple but good flavour. We didn't feel a need to put anything on them, and just ate them plain!
I really want to get more into foraging this year. I'm starting out with one of the most easy to find plants, dandelions, but we've had our wild edibles plant books out a lot lately, and have taken more out from the library. On walks we've been identifying edible plants, and I think we're going to start taking a book or two with us on walks, to figure out what the plants we can't easily recognize are...
Far beside the fact that I think finding and growing your own food is a MUCH better way to do things than buying stuff from a supermarket, I just find it immensely fun. I'll gleefully dance around outside, gathering yummy food, and have been more involved so far this year in gardening than I've ever been before. I love cooking, and I find I also really, really love being part of the growing and/or finding process in the food that I cook. I'm looking forward to many gardening and foraging adventures this summer...
One of the most common questions that I see being asked around the internet after the lousy segment on Good Morning America, that only focused on what unschoolers *don't* do, is quite simple: "what do unschoolers DO?"
I live my life. For most people, the concept of "education" being a separate part of life is so ingrained that they can't see things working any other way. But for me, and for other unschoolers, learning really is nothing more or less than living my life as fully as I can. Life and learning don't have to be separate things. As I wrote a while ago, "Learning IS living, and living IS learning, so why differentiate between the two? If I'm living, I'm learning, and obviously if I'm learning, I'm living!".
"I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma." -Eartha Kitt
And I'm quite happy with that, thank you very much.
If you're an unschooler, or a homeschooler, or interested in alternative learning, and are even *slightly* involved in any of those communities online, you've most likely heard about the Good Morning America segment on unschooling.
Unschooling has been moving steadily into the mainstream awareness in the last few years. I've seen a marked increase in people talking about unschooling since I started paying attention to that type of thing a few years ago. But never have I seen this level of attention.
In case you haven't seen it yet, here is the ridiculously biased, negative, and over-edited segment that appeared on Good Morning America yesterday:
I didn't even finish watching it the first time I tried to. I just kept cringing at how horribly ABC was slanting things, and just imagining the reactions it would get...
Sure enough, if you read just a few of the 830+ comments on this piece, you'll see just what I was afraid of! There are multiple lovely unschoolers commenting positively in the comments section, but there are also a huge amount of ignorant, uninformed, and downright nasty comments. I always attack schools, never people who go to, or went to, school, but even if I did think schooled people were "losers" (discounting the fact I don't think life is about competition, and don't believe you either "win" or "lose", PLUS know a large amount of seriously awesome schooled folk), I can't imagine ever making such vindictive and cruel comments! Why do people feel a need to do that?? Do they feel better in their mediocre life choices if they can believe firmly and with great smugness that there are people out there who chose MUCH worse paths in life than they did... Is it because, if they admitted that there were better, more joyful ways of living life, then much of their own life has been wasted?
Today the Bieglers, the family in the first clip (whom I've met, though don't know well. What I have seen of them has led me to believe that they're intelligent, kind, and caring people!), where given a chance to speak briefly live on Good Morning America, without all the editing. It was MUCH better!! They were articulate, passionate, and just did a great job. I wish they'd been given longer to speak.
The first video was on Yahoo homepage (not sure if it still is?). Twitter and blogs are abuzz with talk of this new-fangled thing called "unschooling" (I keep patiently pointing out to people that it's not new at all!). I have never seen this much attention paid to unschooling before.
And I have to say, it's kind of scary.
I've been watching hits come in on my blog from people searching stuff life "unschooling cons", "unschooling negatives", "unschooling sucks"...
Suddenly the masses are being exposed to something that challenges everything they've always taken to be The Way Things Are (and The Way Things Should Be). Many people don't seem to be reacting well.
Yet, at the same time, I think that publicity is important. I liked reading some comments from Wendy Priesnitz on Twitter, one of which reads: "In the 70s, people were scandalized by idea of homeschooling; now [they're] scandalized by unschooling. This will pass. Evolution happens." I really do think that publicity is good. I WANT more people to know about unschooling, I want more people to understand it, I want more people to accept it, and I want more people to do it. So how can I be against publicity, even if it isn't as positive as it could be? At least we're getting the message out there! And for better or for worse, the message is most certainly out there now.
The Bieglers are going to be on the Joy Behar show on CNN tonight, so you might want to tune into that.
Several unschoolers have written great responses to ABC's portrayal of unschoolers, so I want to share those:
What do you think of the segments? What do you think of the huge amount of publicity unschooling is getting? Does it make you excited to know more people are finding out about it, or scared it just opens things up for stricter government regulations?
Peace,
Idzie
P.S. I'm going through old blog posts and comments and putting together an Unschooling FAQs page... I figure I've answered so many questions, I should gather it all in one place to make things easier!
I'm thrilled to present the first ever guest post on this blog!! In this post, Genevieve shares her adventures in being part of the Food Revolution, also known more simply as having your own veggie garden! ;-) I give you:
My Suburban, Backyard, Food Revolution...Sort Of
I think the fact that I live in the suburbs (of Montreal) still surprises me, even though I’ve been here for almost 6 years. I’ve always felt strongly about issues regarding the environment and peace, but most recently, and perhaps most of all, food. I mention this because suburbia never seemed like the place I could live with a clean conscience with regards to the environment and food. But after university and living in and around downtown for four years, I needed green space (read: yard), clean air and wanted to be closer to the schools where I would be teaching (another story altogether).
So after buying a house and spending time making it our own, we (my partner and I) thought we should spend some time on the yard. So how do you ‘green’ suburbia? Slowly we got rid of some of our lawn, planted perennials and built, drum roll please...raised vegetable beds! For me, it felt like a revolution was happening in my own backyard. I felt empowered and I was really going to stick it to the proverbial ‘man’. However, that first year, the vegetable garden wasn’t quite the picture of success we had imagined (we really didn’t know what we were doing), though we did harvest tomatoes, beans and lots of various lettuces. In subsequent years, we varied the types of seeds we sowed and focused mainly on heirloom and organic ones. Thankfully, our harvest has been slightly better every year since.
Then, almost 2 years ago, I got pregnant with not one, but two wee ones. So, as you can imagine, last summer’s garden was virtually non-existent (the kids being about 6 mths old at the time), though I did plant an apple tree to commemorate the birth of our lovely babes. Having kids has reaffirmed our need for good organic home-grown food, and the need to get rid of more lawn to grow that home-grown food (not to mention the positive environmental implications of growing your own stuff). We have plans to build a cold-frame using reclaimed (we are proud trash-pickers) to extend the growing season. There is also the dream of owning some chickens and goats and moving to a larger piece of land one day, to expand on this dream of ours to be more self-sufficient. This year we’ve planted or started indoors, so far, 7 varieties of tomatoes, lettuces, sunflowers, melon, peas, broccoli, onions, okra, cabbage and eggplant. If all goes well (and space allows for it) there will be many more seeds planted when the soil warms up.
I wish I had the time to dig up the entire yard and care for it in such a way that I could grow food year-round and feed all of us almost exclusively on what I grew, but that is not realistic. The temperature doesn’t allow for that and neither does time. So, we grow what we can, on the land we have time to till. At this point, we’re not saving that much money by growing some of our own food, but anyway, I don’t think that’s the point. Honestly, I think what I love most of all, is that I know HOW to grow food. That, to me, is just amazing. Maybe the second best thing is that, one day, my kids will know that potatoes grow in the ground and cucumbers on vines, not trees J
So, what is everyone else planting and what are your reasons for claiming parts of your yards for food? Are your motivations political, environmental or romantic perhaps? What does your food revolution look like?
Thank you for this, Genevieve!
If YOU have something you'd love to write about (or make art about!), something cool you want to share, I strongly encourage you to submit it to the DIY Life Zine. It's a project I'm really excited about, and I'm so looking forward to seeing all the great stuff people come up with for it!
Beatrice from Radio Free School is doing a series on unschoolers who decide to pass on "higher education", and asked me to answer a few questions. It reads in part:
"Going against the middle class/mainstream entrenched belief that to have a successful life you have to get higher ed can you define your idea of what success means?"
To me it's quite simple: success to me means nothing more or less than being happy. I find it pretty hard to comprehend how EVERYONE can not see this! Nothing really matters if you're not happy, or working toward finding a place in your life that brings you happiness.
The entire interview can be found here! Beatrice is looking for other stories of grown unschoolers who are choosing/chose not to go to college or university, so if you want to share your story, drop her a line at radiofreeschool@gmail.com.
One of the most common concerns brought up about unschooling is possible "gaps". If unschoolers learn only about what they're interested in, won't they have gaps in their education?
And this strikes me as coming from such a very schooly mindset: a mindset that says that schools have the answer. That everything chosen for the school curriculum is Important, and MUST be learned at some point or other for the learner to be a properly functioning member of society! It comes from a presumption that the government knows everything that's essential knowledge for every human being. And it comes from the belief that there IS one essential body of knowledge out there to be learned!
I totally disagree.
The government wants children to learn what will help the system itself, not what's good for the individual or the community. There are also much more important, to the system, anyway, lessons taught in school than what's "learned" about the "core subjects" (see John Taylor Gatto's The Six-Lesson School Teacher).
I also disagree that there are certain "core subjects" that must be learned. As far as I'm concerned, a healthy community is made up of many people with many different skills, experiences, and knowledge bases. The things that are important for each individual to learn are those important to that individual. The idea of "gaps in knowledge" at all is pretty ridiculous, actually, when everyone can agree that there is a colossal amount of information out there. No one can hope to absorb any more than a tiny fraction of the accumulated knowledge available to them, so everyone no matter what their education will have "gaps"! It's just a matter of whether the knowledge you do have is of your own choosing, knowledge that is meaningful and worthwhile to you, or whether it's chosen by someone else, and forced down your throat "for your own good".
And really, even if I did have to pick the things I think it would be truly good for everyone to learn, I'd pick things I think would be freeing, and help people move beyond our horrible system. It would look nothing like a school curriculum. I'd say that I thought everyone should know how to truly look after themselves. Have a basic knowledge of health, how to treat yourself for a variety of common ailments using natural medicines, good nutrition (REAL good nutrition, not the food guide crap issued by governments), how to find/grow/raise your own food, how to make your own shelter, how to make decisions both individually and collectively, and live in a consensual, pro-community way with those around you. I think those things are a hell of a lot more important than algebra or the capital of Oklahoma (no offense to Oklahoma. It was just the first place that popped into my head! ;-)).
The idea of there being an essential body of information is a pervasive one, sadly. Even most homeschoolers, and many unschoolers, buy into the idea of there being core subjects, even if they don't buy into the schools idea of teaching them. I used to think that way myself, and to separate what I was doing into "subjects". Hell, I still find myself doing that on occasion! But I find it more freeing to go beyond that, to stop thinking of life as having anything to do with "subjects", and to never place different activities, different types of learning or knowledge, into a hierarchy of importance based on the pervasive schooling mindset of our society. To try instead to let myself gravitate toward the things that simply feel best, feel the most important, empowering, and good to me, whether or not those things are considered important by the rest of the world!
Something I have heard oh so many times is that, because as teenagers and young adults our brains are not "fully developed", we are "bad" decision makers, and not to be trusted. It's a very frustrating attitude, that really seems to twist scientific data to suite anti-teen feelings in our culture. What constitutes "bad decision making", anyway? That's a very subjective opinion.
When I found this post a while back, I simply loved it. It deals with just that subject, and does so in such a wonderfully positive, pro-people way. It reads in part:
"Though Teen brains may indeed not possess myelin sheaths that adults brains have, that doesn’t make them 'unfinished', in the sense that the article portrays: foolish, flawed, poor decision makers.
Without Teen’s 'unfinished' brains 99% of the risk taking done in the name of love, art, idealism, adventure, protecting family, would disappear.
Teens excel at taking risks because they have perfectly developed brains for doing so.
Saying they have unfinished brains compares to saying a new moon hasn’t 'finished' until it swells to a full moon. The Teen brain marks one moment in the cycle of the brains life where it has enormous potential for one kind of behavior - risk taking, adventure, romantic expression."
I urge you to read the whole post. It's not very long. Personally, I just loved it, and will send it straight to the next person who seeks to silence and dis-empower a teen by telling them of their faulty brains!
Yesterday, I asked, in a YouTube video, for people to ask me questions about unschooling. And I got lots of interesting questions! I tried to do a video on this one, but I was having a lot of trouble getting my opinions on this subject across in that format. So, I decided to answer it in a blog post instead! The question is in italics, my answer in regular font.
Let's say children are like seeds. In order to grow into good people, they don't need to be *forced* to grow, because they do that naturally. But that said, a seed must be planted in fertile soil, in the right climate, and must be watered, etc. What if some kinds of media today threaten the minds of the young- for example, television which provides immediate satisfaction but gives no decent returns in the long run may be more compelling than a book.
Firstly, I think you’re making a huge jump in saying that television gives “no decent returns in the long run”, and automatically assuming that a book has more value than a TV show! I totally disagree with that! Also, what’s wrong with instant satisfaction? A life well lived is one made up of many happy moments: if watching TV gives you joy, I don’t really see how it’s in anyway unworthy of your time. I’m an avid reader, and have been for many years. Books have enriched my life in many ways! But, so has TV. When I was young, I watched tons of science shows and history shows. Tons of “educational” shows on a variety of topics. I also just watched some fictional shows. I was never a particularly big TV watcher, but it was never forbidden to me, and I enjoyed what I did watch. I also learned a ton!
My opinion is that if kids have less manufactured entertainment stimuli they are forced to use their imagination to invent their own games, stories, etc. But because of the exponential growth of media, it is getting harder and harder to give children a world which does not numb their minds and imagination.
Again, I totally disagree. Storytelling fuels imagination, and at their hearts, ALL types of fiction, be it novels, comic books, TV shows, movies, or oral storytelling, is just that: storytelling. You find similar elements in all of them, and stories, no matter the medium they’re told in, can bring great joy, fuel imagination, cause you to question deeply held beliefs, ask profound questions… Storytelling is an amazing art, and I find it rather sad when people start passing judgments on what types of storytelling are “good” or “bad”.
I also want to give some real life examples of this. Far from squelching my very creative sister’s imagination (she currently writes tons of fiction), my sister would play pretend all the time based on various favourite movie characters. She would also, as a young child, spend hours alone in her room just creating huge complex stories and worlds. Soon, that imagination was used to start writing fiction. She’s currently working on her first novel! And she even plays video games, supposedly the most mind numbing things out there, and has played them for years. ;-)
And yet- this brings up two competing ideas about freedom: should we free the child in the immediate moment, by imposing no limits on how they spend their time; or can we control their environment so that they are more likely to build their imaginations and judgements?
I’m sure you’ve gathered my opinion on this by now. I do recognize that some (okay, a lot) of stuff on TV has messages that really aren’t so great (as do tons of books out there, I might add). But I’m not advocating casting your kids loose and ignoring them while they do nothing but watch TV. When you have a good, attentive relationship with your kids, one where you discuss what they’re seeing, have good dialogue, you’re exposing them to the world around you, with all of it’s negative and positive “influences”, and doing so while remaining a loving, supportive, and knowledgeable companion. I don’t think that sheltering your kid does anything but make things more difficult for them later on.
I also think that any time you make something forbidden to your child, you’ve just made it the most interesting thing out there. Kids are curious, and if they’re denied access to something, chances are they’ll both really want to get access to it, and quite likely resort to lying and going behind their parents backs to do so. Really, I don’t blame them! I’ve come to this conclusion from my own experiences growing up, which were that the more controlled a child was, the more likely they where to frequently lie to their parents. It was the only way they could have freedom.
I also want to add that even now, I find TV very “educational”. I find advertising fascinating, I find the underlying assumptions and worldviews in mainstream shows fascinating, and watching TV sometimes helps me to remember how most of the world thinks (my sister regularly tells me I’ve forgotten what “normal” is)!
So that’s my answer to that question. I hope I’ve given some insight into it!
