I'm one of the blissfully ignorant unschoolers who didn't bother to watch any of the recent television coverage of unschooling. I've heard about some of it but my general approach is that watching a programme about a subject done by or reported by people who don't do it is really not productive. I know about unschooling, I do it every day. It's my life. Not just my kids' lives, my life too. I unschool. I am still learning. I didn't stop on Diploma Day, I kept right on going. I doubt I would learn anything from television coverage of unschooling other than exactly how biased the reporting is and how rude non-unschoolers are in piling on the hate. And who really needs that anyway? Those of us who openly unschool deal with it without all the extra hype.
One subject I've seen pop up in Twitter or forums from those who are unfamiliar with peaceful living/parenting is the issue of food. Apparently someone, somewhere heard, or maybe saw, some unschooling kids eating candy. Maybe lots of it. I heard it was because the kid wanted candy. Probably wanted to eat lots of it. Gawds, like that never happens in The Real World. This is something Terrible and Scary. This is Bad Parenting. This must be Stopped at all Costs.
Fine, so let's just look at this a mo', can we? People are worried that possibly, some unschooling kid/s somewhere, is/are eating a mountain of candy. And they're not worried about the public/private/homeschooled kids that do? Because....? Because parents who have their kids in public/private or homeschool are more, ummm, responsible than unschooling (ie: Real Lazy) parents? Or am I missing something here? Because, as I have already mentioned, I don't really groove with the whole Mainstream Thing.
While I have little hope in Lemming Society as an entity, I kinda, sorta think that most people actually observe what's going on with their family, friends and around them. Meat thinks I'm giving most people too much credit. I live in hope that the Consciousness Level is rising and will continue to because, well, Enlightenment is a Nice Thing. I have already mentioned that my Freakishness Level is pretty high. I'm not arrogant to think I've achieved Ultimate Freakishness, but, well, from my experiences, I get it that I'm fairly abnormal. Compared to the average sit-n-school, ship-em-out parent. And of our friends, most of them eat pretty nasty stuff. Candy. Soda pop. Box food. Frozen food. Convenience food. Sometimes lots of it. This is the adults, mind, so the kids follow the example. Haute cuisine for most of the people we met when Meat was military was tinned soup and box macaroni cheese. if they ate any veg, it was tinned, lifeless veg, looking more like a science experiment than something picked from a garden. I got tummy ache just listening to the candy and junk my sister-in-law feeds the kids she lives with. So, what I'm saying is, from my observation of Real Live People We Know, these people feed their kids junk! In real life, we are the only radical unschoolers/life learners we know. I've chatted with many online, but I'm not sitting around their family rooms with them seeing how they truly live their lives. Like you aren't hanging in my kitchen with me. Whether you believe me or not (and I suspect this will have much to do with your political/religious leaning...) here's how we do things on Planet Nezumi:
While I respect the concept of letting kids choose whatever food they want to eat, and in fact, we practise it regularly, there are certain foods that never darken our doorstep. I may be kicked out of the Radical Parenting Club for this but I'll take my lumps. I come from a tradition that the foods one puts in the body are put there for the purpose of nurturing, healing and strengthening. Sure, there's room for pleasure eating but a body raised with natural foods enjoys the foods as they are. My chocolate-loving son marveled the other day, "we really don't need cake or cookies if we have fruit. It's delicious enough on its own." (no, I didn't pay or bribe him to say it).
Therefore the following foods (as far as it's within our power) never hit the trolley:
1. Foods made from suffering. No meat or commercially farmed dairy/eggs. Only fair trade or from farmers we know.
2. Foods made from chemicals rather than foods. We grow a lot of our own and buy foods that have identifiable...ummm...food names in the ingredients list. No dyes or preservatives, no spewed soy stuffs.
3. Frankenfoods. No GMO's. No growth hormones. If it wasn't in the food 5,000 years ago, I don't want it in the food now. I don't support agricultural monopolies anyway so there's no need to mass-spray or genetically modify food to protect it from insects or make it grow prettier, faster or bigger. I love my local farmers and gardeners who care for their foods with love and sweat.
4. Fresh foods that are out of season. Since Meat isn't totally on the Seasonal Eating Train, this one has some stretchiness. But when I have a say, we don't by the hydroponic tomatoes from the Farmer's Market when it opens in April.
There are other factors involved in what and how much of anything our family eats. Facts, for one. We don't have loads of money so I'm not going to let the electric get shut off because someone wants to eat 20 bags of Corn Fluffies (plus, if they were conventionally farmed they'd be loaded with pesticides, GMOs & cruelty anyway...) The lesson in wanting to eat the whole package of Treats is that when it is gone, it is gone, it is one of the many choices we are confronted with daily. We also deal with some dietary challenges (that we're in the process of healing) to keep folks healthy. But certain foods can be seriously harmful to individuals. So no matter how yummy it is, it's not worth diminished health or serious illness. Again, Bu & Jane are aware of how these foods impact their systems and understand how their bodies react.
I guess the moral of this story is that we're all individuals and we do things differently. Just because all the Mainstream Folks we know live off of junk food, doesn't mean that everybody does. And just because we try to eat kindly and healthfully doesn't mean all Unschoolers do. We're unique and have lots to learn from one another.
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