Unschooling group and gifts

Last night, my sister, mother, and I attended an unschooling meeting. It was advertised as an unschooling meeting, but really what the woman who's organizing it wants is to start a democratic "school". The building she's renting is GORGEOUS! The main floor is one large open room (with bathrooms and an office coming off of it), with a large open upstairs room (with a curtain drawn across one end of the room to create a meditation area) as well as a dugout basement (the building itself used to be a house, and must be about 100 years old). A few years ago it was renovated, and now the floors, walls, and ceilings are all a beautiful honey coloured wood. If you haven't guessed, I love this place! Marilyn (the woman who's starting this thing) is interested in this place mainly being used by teens, both unschooled, homeschooled, high school rise outs, and teens who are currently in school, but interested in doing more or finding out more about unschooling. The "school" will be run entirely be the teens, with all decisions (finance, projects, workshops, classes, which adults/parents are invited to work with the teens and kids...) based on consensus decision making. Although it's basically starting with high school aged kids in mind, the plan is be welcoming of both younger children and cegep (college) aged people. Pretty cool, eh? The space will also be used for unschooling parent support groups, activities and play groups for the younger ones, and possibly as a space for teens to run businesses out of. Last night only a small group showed up, and Emi and I were the only teens, but there's going to be a meeting just for the teens interested in running this place soon. This whole project is very exciting!

In other interesting news, a Facebook gift exchange was started. You post a note offering to make a unique gift for the first 5 people who respond, then send it to them by mail. If you respond to a note asking for a gift, you must re-post the note and send gifts to 5 people who respond to your note! This thing is spreading like wild fire. I've been tagged a billion times, and even my mom got tagged by a couple people now! Really cool. :-) So now I'll be receiving 4 gifts in the mail, and I need to make and send 5 gifts. Actually, 9 gifts, because several people commented that they were sad they missed it, and I don't want them to be sad! So I'm making a bunch of stuff, it seems. :-P

I'm thinking about the things you guys asked me to talk about in future vlogs (thank guys!) and I'll try and record a new vlog post soon. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

Unschooling books, my newest vlog post

Anti-civ and environmental quotes

I'm sorry to be depressing yet again, but I've found lots of really cool anti-civ and/or environmental quotes lately, and I wanted to share them.

"The people of your culture cling with fanatical tenacity to the specialness of man. They want desperately to perceive a vast gulf between man and the rest of creation. This mythology of human superiority justifies their doing whatever they please with the world, just the way Hitler’s mythology of Aryan superiority justified his doing whatever he pleased with Europe. But in the end this mythology is not deeply satisfying. The Takers are a profoundly lonely people. The world for them is enemy territory, and they live in it like an army of occupation, alienated and isolated by their extraordinary specialness.” Daniel Quinn

“For us to maintain our way of living, we must tell lies to each other and especially to ourselves. The lies are necessary because, without them, many deplorable acts would become impossibilities.” Derrick Jensen

"Having long laid waste our own sanity, and having long forgotten what it feels like to be free, most of us too have no idea what it’s like to live in the real world. Seeing four salmon spawn causes me to burst into tears. I have never seen a river full of fish. I have never seen a sky darkened for days by a single flock of birds (I have, however, seen skies perpetually darkened by smog). As with freedom, so too the extraordinary beauty and fecundity of the world itself: It’s hard to love something you’ve never known. It’s hard to convince yourself to fight for something you may not believe has ever existed." Derrick Jensen

"Even now, we hardly love the Earth or see with eyes or listen any longer with our ears, and we scarcely feel our hearts beat before they break in protest." Stanley Diamond

"We have been too kind to those who are destroying the planet. We have been inexcusably, unforgivably, insanely kind." Derrick Jensen

"I should really like to think there's something wrong with me —
Because, if there isn't then there's something wrong,
Or at least, very different from what it seemed to be,
With the world itself — and that's much more frightening!" T.S.Eliot

"The only measure by which we will be judged by the people who come after is the health of the land base, because that is what is going to support them. They are not going to give a shit whether or not we were pacifists; they are not going to give a shit if we supported Israel or we didn't support Israel; whether we voted green or democrat or republican or not at all. What they are going to care about is whether they can drink the water, whether they can breathe the air, whether the land can support them. One of the important questions is to ask what does the land need from you." Derrick Jensen

"How is it conceivable that all our lauded technological progress--our very civilization--is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal?" Albert Einstein


You know, many people find learning about the type of stuff I read about depressing, but I don't. And surprisingly, many, if not most, green anarchists feel the same way. Or I shouldn't say that. It is depressing, but it doesn't affect my overall happiness, and neither does it affect the overall happiness of other green anarchists I know. More than anything else, I find the knowledge freeing.

Peace,
Idzie

The interconnectedness of life

I feel a need to write about something, but I'm not sure what...

I wanted to write a lovely 'about me' post like Sheila did, but I'm not sure how to go about that... I know myself very well, but actually putting that knowledge down in an even semi coherent manner seems very difficult, especially considering how tired my brain is right now.

I also wanted to write about how ridiculous homophobia is. But I think I'd do a really lousy job of it at the moment.

Oh, here's something I think I can manage, since it's far from the logical/researched end of things and much more on the emotional/feelings end of the spectrum. And that thing is how much it pisses me off when humans look at (our)themselves as somehow special, and "better" than all other creatures. Unlike many of my opinions, this is something that's bothered me for years! I'd often read books when I was younger that portrayed humans as the only ones with souls or real personalities, and all other creatures as nothing more than animals to be used, eaten, or controlled. This portrayal always bothered me a great deal, and felt amazingly wrong on a fundamental level.

On a personal level, I can simply see the ridiculousness of it. I look at one of the furry family members that share my home, I look at the raccoons that clatter around on the deck, or the squirrels that race around the tops of fences, or the maple tree that rustles in the wind, and I don't see empty bodies blindly going about basic tasks. I see separate individuals who are simply living their life. I don't understand how they can be looked at as worthless by so many. Life is life, and every creature looks different. We're just one of a vast hots of different species that inhabits this planet. What makes the human race believe it's so special?

On a much larger level, I've recently realized how absolutely stupid and destructive this world view is. If humans are intrinsically of more value, and everything else is somehow lesser, than that leads to the belief that the world is here simply for us, and we as humans have the right to use, abuse, and destroy absolutely anything we wish.

As many of you know, this worldview is leading to the destruction of our planet.

Yes, I'm going to talk about something Derrick Jensen said again. I love how his ideas and words make such perfect sense. Instead of saying that it's always wrong to kill a creature for food, or that it's always wrong to cut down a tree, he instead says that as soon as you or I consume the flesh of an animal, we are obligated to ensure that species survival and well being. As soon as we cut down a tree, we are obligated to insure the survival and well being of that forest. To me, this way is the most ethical, simple, and intelligent way we can possibly look at things. He also goes on to say that if you consume the flesh of a factory farmed animal, you are then obligated to do everything in your power to end factory farming. Same goes if you consume the flesh of a factory farmed carrot.

By looking at things that way, it's impossible to not see how inextricably everything is linked.

I've heard people question why they should care about the extinction of a specific species, whether it's animal or plant or tree, and the answer is so amazingly obvious. Even if you believe that humans have some innate something that makes them "better" than other animals (for we are simply another species of animal), our survival is linked with the survival of every other species on the planet. When a forest is cut down, every human and non-human is ensured less oxygen. When the great fish of the ocean are driven extinct, we ensure ourselves, as well as countless other animals, and countless other forests, less food. When we pollute a river, or all rivers (there are toxins in every single river now), we ensure that both humans and non-humans will no longer be able to drink clean water. Everything we do to harm another life, whether it's trees, animals, rivers, it harms us. Karma in it's truest form.

My mind is feeling very tired, so I'll stop here for now. Just a few thoughts and opinions I figured I'd throw out there, since I think they are extremely important.

Peace,
Idzie

Starting an unschooling group in our area!

When we were away at the UWWG, my mom attended both of Kelly Lovejoy's talks. One of them was a kind of 'ask Kelly anything' one, and my mother brought up the issue of finding an unschooling community. My mom said how as far as we know, there are virtually no unschoolers in our area! Kelly's response: "Montreal?? There's tons of unschoolers there! Start a group, and I guarantee you'll have at least 30 family's". Well, what could we say to that? So we're starting a Montreal unschooling group! It may not be a success, but at least we'll know we tried. :-)

So for now, we're simply gathering info. Finding what other people did/do with their groups, thinking of how we can publicize it, what activities to do, where to meet... If anyone has experience with an unschooling group, or even if you have no experience but ideas, I'd love to hear them! :-D

I'm very excited about this, and hoping it works out. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

P.S. I'm still looking for unschooling articles for Homeschooling Horizons! If ANYONE who unschools is interested in writing something, I'd love to know! Thanks a bunch. :-D

Boxes, continued

I wasn't entirely satisfied with my post on boxes to start with, and then Michele (who's blog is awesome, by the way) brought up a good point, so I figured I'd add a bit to my original post.

It's true that labels can be useful. For instance, I call myself an unschooling vegetarian pagan anarchist hippie (or my new version, an unschooling soon-to-be-vegan animistic green anarchist hippie ;-)) in the hopes that people will get at least a bit of an idea of what I believe in, what my world view is. That said, I don't want anyone to base how they treat me on that; I want them to base their treatment of me on ME! That was my big point. By putting people in boxes, people often treat those people a certain way, based not on who they are as a person, but on what box they fit them into. Does that make sense? I think that whatever labels seem to fit a person, whatever box they're put into, that should be FAR less important than who they are as a person. Hmm... I still don't feel like I'm saying this right. I don't want people to not talk about controlling schooling methods to me BECAUSE I'm an unschooler, I do, however, not want them to talk about controlling schooling methods to me because it bothers me personally. By saying I'm an unschooler I let people know that it would probably bother me if people talk about coercive parenting or schooling to me, and this is what Michele was saying, but it's not the label that's important, it's my feelings about the subject. There, I think that's a better way of putting what I meant. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

Boxes, how I hate thee

I've only recently really realized how many boxes there are, how many people base everything on those boxes, and how very ingrained the idea of putting everything in categories is. Just among teenagers, especially those in high school, you find perhaps the most obvious categorizing going on. There's the preps, jocks, nerds, geeks, emos, punks, goths, gangsters, wangsters... There's the "smart" people, not necessarily synonymous with nerds, who get good grades, the losers who try yet get bad grades, or simply don't give a fuck. Everyone is judged, evaluated, and slotted neatly into whatever box is deemed to fit best. But even beyond high school, you find just as many boxes.

Everyone, teens and adults, are judged on ethnicity, income level, job field, political views, on what their families are like. How you talk, dress, and act are under constant scrutiny, no matter how old you are. And then, of course, there's the matter of age. Few boxes are so final and unbudging as that of age. For some reason, the number of years you've spent on this planet is considered a great judge, and predictor, of how you'll behave. There are certain things teens WILL do, certain ways they WILL behave, simply because they're teens. Yet because teens are expected to be wild, reckless, and generally stupid, in some ways we're lucky, because we can "get away" with lots f things simply because people expect teens to be unpredictable, simply by the fact that teens ARE wild and "uncontrollable"! I think it'sworse for those who've passed the teen markers, and are then supposed, and rigidly expected, to "act like adults", which in most people's lexicon's means to stop having fun. How would someone react if they saw a grown man racing down the street in wild abandon, laughing for the sheer joy of it? Why, horror of course! And what would people think if an adult dressed in an especially eccentric style (or should say what DO people think when they see the few adults who do)? Again, horror, and often seemingly disgust.

My big question is this: why? Why is everyone expected to act in a certain way, in a predictable way, and why are those who deviate from the predictable greeted with horror, disgust, and fear? Because it does often look like the reactions are motivated by underlying fears, fear of looking outside of their neatly plotted and well understood little worlds. Fear of seeing things a different way. Is it just me, or is one of the huge problems with our society that fear of differences? Even among those who don't seem to fit into many specifuc categories, labelers still, sadly, have little trouble dealing with them. They're simply labeled freaks, or something similarly nasty, denoting those who refuse to follow the norm.

The way the rest of the world relates to someone is often based entirely on the boxes it's deemed that specific person fits into. The boxes are all important. And it seems most people don't know how to relate to someone without using boxes. People are scared to look at someone as simply a person, an individual, full of complexity, likes, loves, hates. Different experiences, feelings, hopes and fears. Why are people scared to meet another indivdual head on, without the judgment that is the myriad list of boxes? Well, for one, our culture certainly doesn't encourage that. The boxes are useful to those in power, keeping everyone neatly separated and segregated by class, ethnicity, job. Perhaps that's because if people stopped identifying as goths, as mechanics, as caucasians, African Americans, university graduates, and simply identified as people, as individuals, we would no longer live on our own little islands. Instead, we'd band together, and take back the freedom, community, and life that we rightly deserve, instead of the fabricated existance the powers that be allow us. I've said before that what keeps us trapped in this destructive culture is nothing more substtantial than ideas, and I think that boxes may be simply an extention of that. To function in this culture, we must cling to ideas, to orderliness, and to everyone keeping to their own cliques, their own boxes. That way, we can "know" that people weren't meant to mix and mingle, to have relationships with those older, younger. Those with different opinions than ours, different skin colours, different backgrounds and experiences. If we don't have to stick to our boxes, then we don't need a hierchy that creates and maintains boxes. Boxes are just another block, another idea, that lets us rationalize our culture, our way of living and relating to the world.

So here's to throwing out boxes, destructive ideas, and anything else that gets in the way of good, meaningful relationships with a multitude of different people, and ultimately, gets in the way of the world we want to live in.

Peace,
Idzie

I can't decide what to write about... Pick one please?

Now, I'm having trouble deciding what to write about... There are basically three things that have been on my mind lately, and that I've considered posting about.

1. Boxes. How our culture likes to put everyone in numerous different categorical boxes, from age, to education, job, style, political views... No one is safe from boxes! And the worst thing I find personally, is that I find myself putting people, and myself, in boxes all the time, even though I don't want to!

2. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual) rights. Although I'm heterosexual (I have been attracted to members of my gender occasionally, as I think most people, "straight" or not, are, but since I'm definitely far more attracted to guys, and don't plan on ever doing anything with a girl, I identify as hetero), I have many friends and even more acquaintances who are in the LGBT spectrum. I've never been homophobic in the least, but ever since several friends came out, gay rights have meant a lot to me.

3. Depression and self injury. I'm almost not sure that I "should" be writing about this, since although I've dealt with some depression in the past (not clinical depression, simply spending days on end in my room feeling extremely hopeless, useless, and depressed), I've never cut (or burned, or anything else). However, many of my friends have at one point or another. I've also done actual, search for stats and read mental health websites, research into self injury, since I very much wanted to be supportive to those who were dealing with it, and wanted to understand why.

Since I can't decide what to write about, I'm going to let someone else decide for me. I plan to write about all three of these things at some point or other, but for now, I'd ask that the first person who reads this (really, whoever you are) please pick one! My family isn't available at the moment, so I need an internet person to do it for me. :-P

Thanks a bunch!

Peace,
Idzie