I revel in the embrace of summer, when
children are again a part of the community
and a part of the natural landscape! It
brings me such joy to see children jumping in
the waves at the ocean, running through a
wooded trail, exploring plant and animal life,
digging in the sand, climbing trees, creating
artistically in the community or leaping from
boulders into a rocky basin gorge. I reflect
with warmth and love at how September for
my now-grown, unschooled son had always
been a relaxing and relieving time: yet
another month to extend the joys of summer;
the beginning of another cycle of him living
and learning in freedom.
However
, for the majority of children in society, the
“Back to School” nightmare seems to get an earlier start every
year. Many schools are forcing children to return to school
in late August, two weeks earlier than when I was a child. In
mid-July, advertisements on TV, on the radio, online, in stores
and in junk mail flyers begin threatening children a month too
soon about the impending dread of school. It strikes me as
very passive-aggressive that our culture takes a condition that
most children find so distressing—being confined against their
will for nine months of the year—and throws it in their face
relentlessly during the second half of their summer time.
The mainstream media presents “Back to School” with
as much fanfare as if it were a holiday and perpetuates the
cultural myth that school is an inevitable duty of life to which
families must succumb.
Perhaps more concerning is that even
independent media sources, such as natural
health, natural parenting and natural family
living magazines—even Paleo sources—present
traditional schooling as if it is necessary,
inescapable and obligatory.
By mid-summer, sharp photos of children holding
notebooks and pencils, wearing freshly purchased clothing
and awkward, posed grins plaster magazines, supplements
and free monthly papers. The pages are packed with light,
upbeat (and trauma-oblivious) articles about “preparing”
children for “Back to School” routines.
Whether the magazines are mainstream or natural family living, I have
observed that the same “Back to School” article themes recycle every year:
LESSENING THE TRAUMA OF
“THE 1ST DAY OF SCHOOL.”
(Yes, some articles actually admit that school is
traumatic, yet push school anyway!)
GETTING YOUR CHILDREN’S BODIES
BACK ON A “SCHOOL SCHEDULE”
(despite how unhealthy this is for them).
“EASING” (downplaying) the anxieties your children
feel about school (as if being confined to a chair in a
concrete building for six hours a day, forced to be in
conditions that are completely opposite of everything that
nature intended for a child’s body, mind and emotional
development, isn’t something anxiety-inducing!).
GETTING READY FOR THE
“HOMEWORK BATTLE” WITH YOUR
CHILDREN
(rather than getting ready to advocate for your children’s
need for play and free time).
“DEALING WIT #