LIFE is Good has spawned a comprehensive and entertaining flurry of activity on Facebook. On somebody's conference photos somewhere, I saw a comment about "all the hippie unschoolers." Hmmm. I don't recall seeing any hippies (with the exception of a couple former hippies like Frank), so I've been puzzling over this comment ever since I saw it.
All I can come up with is that unschoolers embrace an alternative culture. The thing is, our alternative culture is actually limited to our educational and parenting philosophies. Beyond that, our philosophies are varied and often pretty mainstream. Many of the moms stay home with the kids, and many of the working parents are part of corporate America. We drive minivans. We take the kids to soccer games and t-ball practice and ballet lessons and so on. Most of our kids use computers and play a lot of video games and have heaps of plastic toys.
Sure, some of us are into natural foods or Eastern philosophies or tie-dyed shirts or liberal politics, and most of us value creativity. But the same could be said of just about any cross-section of humans—at least on the West coast! To attach any label other than "unschoolers" to such a diverse group is shortsighted and seems rather dismissive (even to someone who admires hippies).
Maybe to some, "hippie" is synonymous with "alternative," and we qualify by the very act of keeping our kids home from school. I dunno.
This 9/11 Morning
5 days ago
9 comments:
hippie, as in "not sheep", yeah :D
What I *do* know - we've got more redheads per capita than any other group I've been part of!! <3
Scotty says the one-word stereotype for unschoolers is: HOT :D
he's got some weird good parent fetish ;)
Wait a minute. Are you saying I can't just sum up unschoolers with a few labels and put them in a box? How do you cope with all the diversity? And you're saying all these types of people can get together and get along?
;-)
Some day I'm going to have to find a way to come to one of these conferences.
My mom said the same thing when she looked at my pictures from past conferences. I think she saw tie-dye and then really needed to fit me in somewhere.. *g*
There's interesting self-labelling going on here, too. Heather calls herself a "hippy" but she's sociopolitically ultra-conservative. How does that work?
And I'm pretty much an original, leftover hippie; but I've worked and functioned in the "mainstream" (kind of), so am I really still hippieish?
New witty aphorism: Labels are for designer clothes not people.
Socio-politically ULTRA conservative? YIKES! Frank! You are not making me any friends here are you?
I feel an explanatory blog coming on. :-)
Some people could see tye dyes and birkenstocks and long hair and smiles and laughter and dancing and music and that "free" feeling one might get from conference photos and think: HIPPY! Then again they might get that same feeling if you were all stoned out of your minds whirling in a cloud of smoke too. It's seems like an encompassing word. :-)
well said ronnie, and you other hippies (just joking ;) ) i've had friends and family (from the east coast) call us and our friends hippies out here, and ya, besides being open minded and trying to afford organic food i don't see it. it is that need to label. it is so joyous to know that we all start at the line of working really hard to live consensual lives with our kids, and then we can spend lots of time getting to know each other. unschoolers are NOT boring! ;) thanks scotty!
Hippies examine the value of everything. We are known for accepting what nurtures and attempting to put aside that which isn't. Conclusions are always different, but it's the questioning that matters!
Maybe it's having grown up and lived so long in northern New Mexico (and now Albuquerque, the embarrassing actual city in New Mexico), but I just can't be offended by that idea.
If we're trying to live in more natural ways, regardless of the opinion of our mainstream relatives, and if we're willing to "drop out" of the school culture to do things according to our own groovy consciences, then perhaps if the lack of shoes fits...
I wasn't offended by the label itself but by its use to dismiss us. But I can get behind embracing it instead. :-)
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