A River Between

I finally can now see my “Pass” grades online for my final five credits of graduate school. While I’ve decided to not complete the final steps to getting the “degree” - I’m happy to have accomplished the learning and deep inquiry. Parts of my “portfolio” and transcripts will be sent to Duluth to fulfill requirements for a Massage Therapist license with the city (along with other past transcripts).

I’m happy with my learning, but maybe not the “schooling” portions. The following writing completely sums up my own feelings about “The Culture of Schooling” as it is now.

Source: McEducation for All? - Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development

The Culture of Schooling…

1) Labels, ranks and sorts human beings. It creates a rigid social hierarchy consisting of a very small elite class of ‘highly educated’ and a large lower class of ‘failures’ and ‘illiterates’, based on levels of school achievement.

2) Imposes uniformity and standardization. It propagates the viewpoint that diversity is an obstacle, which must be removed if society is to progress.

3) Spreads fear, insecurity, violence and silence through its externally-imposed, military-like discipline.

4) Forces human beings to violently compete against each other over scarce resources in rigid win-lose situations.

5) Confines the motivation for learning to examinations, certificates and jobs. It suppresses all non-school motivations to learn and kills all desire to engage in critical self-evaluation. It centralizes control over the human learning process into the State-Market nexus, taking power away from individuals and communities.

6) Commodifies all human beings, Nature, knowledge and social relationships. They are to be extracted, exploited, bought and sold.

7) Fragments and compartmentalizes knowledge, human beings and the natural world. It de-links knowledge from wisdom, practical experiences and specific contexts.

Artificially separates human rationality from human emotions and the human spirit. It imposes a single view of rationality and logic on all people, while simultaneously devaluing many other knowledge systems.

9) Privileges literacy (in a few elite languages) over all other forms of human expression and creation. It drives people to distrust their local languages while prioritizing newspapers, textbooks, television as the only reliable sources of information.

10) Reduces the spaces and opportunities for ‘valid’ human learning by demanding that they all be funneled through a centrally-controlled institution. It creates artificial divisions between learning and home, work, play, spirituality.

11) Destroys the dignity of labor; devalues the learning that takes place through manual work.

12) Breaks intergenerational bonds of family and community and increases people’s dependency on the Nation-State and Government, on Science and Technology, and on the Global Market, for their livelihoods and identities.

It’s been in the making for a while, but now that we’ve been able to tell some really close friends, I thought I’d make the big announcement here.

In September, Michael and I (and Junebug) will be leaving Northfield to live in Duluth, MN. We have been talking for a while with the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker Community about our desires to someday move to Duluth. At first it was just casual, but then the community gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse. We’ll be moving into Hannah House, helping them out by paying the taxes, insurance, and utilities, as well as helping them out and being involved however we are comfortable.

If you aren’t sure what a “Catholic Worker Community” is - here’s a brief history lesson. Originally founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, the Catholic Worker movement has sought to provide shelter, meals, and hospitality to those who are homeless. They have also been know for their “radical” political stances regarding peace and social justice. Many folks in this movement have been know for their civil disobedience, especially against war, militarism, and nuclear weapons - often from a very radical Christian or spiritual standpoint.

We’re not sure exactly what we’ll end up doing there, but I have a lead on some office space in Downtown Duluth for doing bodywork, and Michael is considering driving for Duluth Transit for a time. Whatever we do for “jobs” we will figure out. This is just an opportunity for us to live on SO MUCH LESS money, and to be around incredibly like-minded friends. Duluth is where Michael lived when we first met, and where he and I did sidewalk chalk drawings all around the city for Hiroshima Day.

We’re incredibly excited! We’re going up this weekend to help clean the house and get involved with a march down the Lake Superior coast. Apparently the military has been dumping some toxic waste in the lake and it’s gotten a bit out of hand.

Wish us luck!

Kombucha is now my biggest guilty pleasure! I love making this healthy,fizzy, fermented tea at home. Kombucha is said to have come from China thousands of years ago. It has been historically a popular health tonic in Russia for centuries. Many people have claimed that Kombucha helped in their illnesses, cancer, the regrowing of hair, the un-graying of hair, and of course, just general all-around well-being.

Kombucha starts with basic black or green tea, sugar, and the addition of a Kombucha “mushroom” or culture. By placing the culture in a glass jar of prepared tea with sugar, over about 5-7 days it literally eats up the caffeine and sugar - then converts it to healthy acids and B-vitamins. The tea begins to taste like fizzy apple cider.

It’s oh so yummy! I’m brewing about 2 gallons a week!

For more information on how to brew your own Kombucha, here are some links:

How to Make Kombucha
Health Claims of Kombucha

After meeting with key faculty at the college I was attending, I turned in my final portfolio of 5 credits, and sent a revised final statement paper to my advisor in the mail. After completing 32 credits of coursework, I have decided to leave the boxes of academia. It was an easy decision after I was shown sample “position papers” adhering to APA standards, and learning that I could only present my colloquium (final presentation) in one lecture hall at the college. A lot of prescription. A lot of “business as usual” that I have taken myself so far away from in the past three years of inquiry and learning. Lots of other reasons also contributed to this decision.

If you are interested in reading my “final integration paper” for my last contract, it details my reasoning and rationale for walking out. I have intentionally taken out any mention of the college’s name. Click on this link or the image above to read my WalkOut statement!

Here’s my cute cute baby, my “swamp thing” as I sometimes call her. Today, like many days, was spent at home working on web sites, napping, and hanging out with Junebug, our dog. She’s 10 months old today, and learning and growing all the time. Life would be so mundane without her in our lives.

Enjoy the pictures of our day at the Saint Olaf College natural areas near their athletic fields, here in Northfield, MN.

I took the time to upload quite a bit of information, photos, art, and reflections from my learning over the past three years. As I want this site to be my living and breathing portfolio of learning, I thought it would be appropriate to categorize these learning journeys in my own way.

I had originally wanted this site to become one for highlighting all of my academic work, but I have since rethought this notion. Because of many frustrations as my association with my university comes to a close, I am reclaiming my learning as I define it. I’ve taken out references to the school I’ve attended and the degree program, so that I can approach learning as an invitation for ALL PEOPLE. My “degree” has become worth less and less to me lately, and my learning remains as the joyous experience that it always has been.

I’ve said this before … As I deepen my notions of “unschooling my life” I understand more and more how degrees and certifications only serve to divide people and to feed into a system that creates this division. If I want portfolios of learning to become more important, I must first develop my own portfolio, and share what I feel could inspire others to undertake their own learning journeys.

I think that I’m developing a new vocabulary for learning as well. Words like “teaching” and “classes” have become “learning exchanges” and “learning journeys.” The word “student” has become “learner” for me now. Stripping away the divisions and hierarchy created by the current “academic” world could prove to be a daunting goal, but I have to say… I’m doing this already when it comes to my own life and learning.

Will you join me?

Enjoy my portfolio of learning! I’d love to hear about yours!

That’s the “grade” I have right now for my last five credits of graduate school. Incomplete.

My journey into this unknown land was intentional. It’s been a very ironic and joyous adventure lately as I learn more about Unschooling, and find beautiful examples of communities that have formed because people “walked out” of traditional academic settings and “walked on” to a more self-directed life. At the very time in my learning journey that I feel so liberated to learn without boundaries, I am receiving many messages from academia, as if a monster wanting to sew me up into a cute package. I can be boxed up - the letters M.A. tattooed to my exterior - a graduation statistic and success story to lure the next eager and awaiting “victim” into its jaws.

I’ve been reading intently a great publication called “Healing Ourselves from the Diploma Disease(PDF).” This is a collaborative work of essays, letters, and writings from Shikshantar: The People’s Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, in Udaipur, India. The book is full of compelling stories and testimonials attesting to the inequalities and injustices that are perpetuated by the culture of schooling. Credentialism, Meritocracy, Specialization, and Degrees have been created to divide people from one another.

(more…)

I thought I’d share this very inspiring video from India. 14 friends set off on a learning journey on bicycles. The film is part of a film festival and project of Shikshantar: The People’s Institute for Rethinking Education and Development. I hope it inspires you to get on your bike and start an adventure - whatever it may be.

Back in January, I met Manish Jain of Shikshantar while at the Unschooling Conference in Madison, WI. I think it’s great that he’s posting these films publicly!

“So what is Unschooling?” you may ask.

I’m glad you asked! This gives me an opportunity to formulate my own working definition!

Unschooling is basically “the freedom to learn in one’s own way.” Unschoolers learn what they want, when they want, and how they want. More recently, unschooling has become a movement for those who homeschool their children. It is learning without a set curriculum, without “teaching”, and without “school” as we define it in our culture. Unschoolers are still “learners” - yet they are free to learn in their own way, deriving meaning and synthesis from life experience.

You will often hear phrases like:

“Learning happens constantly. School is optional”
“I dropped out of school so I could get a REAL education.”

Jenina Mella, the coordinator of The Unschooling Conference I attended in Madison, WI , sums up unschooling this way:

It’s about convergence, pulling together all the threads of life into a seamless fabric, living authentically and in community with others. It’s something that we have largely lost in our society which relies so heavily on competition and accumulation rather than interdependence and sharing…

In my own life, I am finding that those learning experiences that I self-direct, are the most meaningful, lasting, and memorable experiences. They come from within me, and manifest in ways unexpected. To me, unschooling is a kind of “walking out” of societal pressures - consumerism, credentialism, competitiveness, hierarchy, and institutional structures that no longer serve me, or serve humanity. It is an “un-learning” and a welcoming of newness, wholeness, and creativity.

When I make shampoo from scratch, I am unschooling myself from consumer structures. I am also learning a skill I can keep with me for life. When I experiment with vegan cooking, I am “unschooling” my relationship with food. And ultimately, when I rely wholeheartedly on my passions, creativity, and curiosity to guide my educational journey, whatever the subject, I am “unschooling.”

I am finding more and more that “unschooling my life” is an important step for me. It has opened doors and has shown me that I can gather all of the answers I need in life from MYSELF.

So… Stay tuned for more unschooling posts, and unschooling resources in the future.

I came across this video only recently, and it saddens me that since 1992, when Severn Suzuki was only 12 years old, things have not gotten better - they have gotten worse. So I submit to you all to watch this video of Severn Suzuki addressing the UN Earth Summit in 1992, calling for change in environmental and social policy to the leaders of the UN.

If a 12-year old girl in 1992 can have the courage and strength to find her way to address the UN, I believe that all of us have the power to do something. Together we could move mountains - perhaps.

Enjoy this video. The message from 1992 sounds clear today even.