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Research Paper for THE DEMOCRATIC FAITH Winter Intensive 1995 Meadville/Lombard Theological School Faculty: J. Ronald Engel and Ian S. Evison submitted by Linda Olson Peebles Introduction There is a growing movement in the United States, a trend major enough that it will have a considerable impact on the history of education. This movement has been created by individual familes who choose to remove their children, or never even to register them, from schools, both public and private. The movement has been called "homeschooling" or "home education" or "unschooling." Statistics are unreliable as to the numbers involved, but even moderate estimates1 suggest that as many as 500,000 families are choosing to try a form of education that seems new and revolutionary to us in this century, and yet is old and traditional. There are many kinds of people who are choosing to keep their children out of schools - rich, poor, and middle class; blue-collars and professionals; rural, suburban, and urban; conservatives and liberals; and of all faith traditions. The modern version of the movement began to grow precipitously in the early 1970s as an "underground" movement, secretive because of unfavorable compulsory school attendance laws and unfriendly superintendents. Gradually, homeschoolers were able over the next decade to change laws or have new laws written, state by state, that made it possible for them to homeschool legitimately. However, there is still a residual stigma that some homeschoolers fear; and other homeschoolers are so strongly opposed to government interference in their family, they refuse to register with local school systems as home educators. Thus, accurate and comprehensive studies are just now being undertaken to learn about who is homeschooling, how they are doing, and what is happening to the children as they reach adulthood.2 The popular stereotype of homeschoolers frequently pictures these families as conservative politically, part of the religious right, and trying to control their children's lives. While many homeschoolers do fit this picture, there is also a large contingent of people who are liberal, politically and religiously, who are heirs of the Dewey-Illich-Holt strand of educational philosophy. By the 1970s, it became obvious to many of these people that efforts to reform schools were futile. And many of these homeschoolers were or are becoming Unitarian Universalists. It is unfortunate that few in the liberal community know about or understand the UU homeschoolers. And UU homeschoolers themselves have been shy about confessing that their decision to homeschool is religiously-motivated; "religious" language has been relinquished to their conservative fellow homeschoolers. It is their very respect and toleration for others' choices and styles that has kept UU homeschoolers quieter than others in witnessing to the deepest reasons they have chosen to keep their children out of school. The January/February 1994 issue of the Unitarian Universalist Association publication WORLD featured an article about the important work of sex education. In response, on February 23, 1994, I wrote to Linda Beyer, the editor of WORLD, and Debra Haffner, a UU and the Director of the Sex Information and Education Council (SIECUS), the following: This paper is an attempt to give voice to ways the Unitarian Universalist faith, specifically as it is the heart of our liberal democratic tradition, inspires UU unschoolers to educate their children in a new/old way. A number of Unitarian Universalists - young people and parents - are quoted throughout, from conversations with them on the phone, on America-On-Line, or in person during the winter of 1995.I am writing concerning the article "Fighting the Right on Sexuality Education"... I support completely the need for coalition building to address the threats coming from the Right to limit or eliminate sexuality education in our schools. And as a UU DRE I have always been proud of the AYS course we offer on a regular schedule to youth from both our own church as well as interested youth from the community. I want to make a remark concerning the quote...from Debra Haffner that "[the Right's] goal is to Christianize the public schools. These are the same people who support home schooling, school prayer, and the teaching of creationism..." Homeschooling is not automatically connected to the religious right. The movement, in fact, began in force in the Left, under the leadership of radical educators like Ivan Illich and John Holt. "Growing Without Schooling," the major clearing house publication of the unschool movement, was founded by John Holt in 1976 and its editorial offices are located very close to the UUA - physically in Boston, and philosophically in respect for diversity and the open search for truth. A significant number of homeschoolers are also Unitarian Universalists. I myself have unschooled all three of my children (my daughter is now a National Merit scholar receiving bids from major colleges). In my church's R.E. program there are six children who are homeschooling. And in the JPD, I know there are others. Recently, an article was featured in the national "Growing Without Schooling" magazine that was written by a homeschooler from Columbia, MD, who credited meeting other UU homeschooling youth at a JPD Youth Conference with her decision to stay out of school. The point I want to make is that it is a mistake to assume those who choose to say "no, thank you" to schools are on the right of political or religious spectra. Many of us are those who believe deeply that children learn best when they are encouraged to think for themselves, when their self-esteem is built up, when they are integrated into a society of all ages and types of people and not segregated by school administrators. We are liberals who do want our children to learn about sexuality and politics and art and the world villages we live in. And we find UU communities to be supportive and loving groups to assist us and reaffirm for our children that each person is of worth. I share SIECUS' concern over the large numbers of those who are trying to control their children's access to information. But please be careful about stereotyping. There is another face to homeschooling, one that UUs can honor and in fact build alliance with! I can in no way attempt to address all the arguments, pro and con, that the homeschool movement has created. That is an ongoing, extensive debate, and is beyond the scope of this paper. This paper will not attempt to defend or justify homeschooling in the face of many criticisms; nor can it address the very real and troubling implications raised about the state of public education in the United States today. Rather, I will focus on the beliefs and values affirmed by Unitarian Universalist homeschoolers both in their religious affiliation and in their living practice. Unitarian Universalists are people who have joined in a long and honorable parade of generations of people engaged in trying to make religion a meaningful and valid part of their lives, to seek truth and to learn how to serve others in a way that keeps the "living tradition" alive in the here and now. Over the years, it has become apparent that the Living Tradition comes from many more sources than just one scripture, one culture. The Unitarian Universalist Association covenant statement affirms: The living tradition we share draws from many sources: Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life; Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love; Wisdom from the world's religions which inspire us in our ethical and spiritual life; Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves; Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit. Among Unitarian Universalist homeschoolers, there is a sense of conviction that they are indeed heirs, stewards, and participants in the living tradition. They choose to be actively engaged in drawing on the many sources listed above (and many also draw on the earth-based traditions now being debated to be a part of the sources included in the UUA covenant statement). The wisdom of the world that UU homeschoolers treasure and want to hand on to their children includes the wideness of the universe, the depth of history, the diversity of many cultures, the vision of thoughtful people, the creativity of scientists and artists, the mystery of personal inspiration, and the richness of human experience. Unitarian Universalist homeschoolers feel the thrill and awe of being engaged in the living tradition, and want to nurture their children's enthusiasm for ideas and learning and wonder. There are seven principles which have become widely accepted among members of the Unitarian Universalist Association. When UU homeschoolers talk about why they have felt compelled to keep their children out of school, many of their reasons correspond to these principles. Frequently, UU homeschoolers begin by explaining their reasons in secular terms - psychological, educational, philosophical. But eventually they confess that underlying their actions is the impetus to live authentically, to put into practice those UU priciples which they "covenant to affirm and promote": 1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person.The inherent worth and dignity of every person; Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations; Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations; A free and responsible search for truth and meaning; The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large; The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all; Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. When I talked with Carol, a mother of a 7-year-old boy who attends our church's religious education program and who has been homeschooled for two years, she spoke eloquently of the desire that her son be valued and respected. Like so many other homeschoolers, Carol believes that children are individuals who deserve to be treated in ways that affirm their worth and dignity. Carol's belief is based in an ethical, moral understanding of the nature of a human being. The fact that her belief is also confirmed by the positive results of treating people with respect (better self esteem, improved methods for learning, fewer discipline problems) is a secondary benefit. Miles, a 16-year-old Unitarian Universalist friend who has been both homeschooled and schooled in Philadelphia, points out that this principle goes both ways. He has seen from his own experience that homeschooled children not only are treated with worth and dignity, but they also understand better than many of their schooled friends how to value other people. "In schools," Miles observes, "there's not much respect. There's age segregation and agism. The UU idea is to honor diversity and knowing other people of different ages and types. Schooled kids see adults as enemies, not as people to relate to. Homeschooling gives a kid maturity and helps develop skills for relating to all kinds of people." This thought is echoed by many homeschoolers. Dawn, who was an active leader in her local and district YRUU (Young Religious Unitarian Universalists), is now a freshman at St. John's College in Annapolis after ten years of homeschooling. For her, "homeschooling and Unitarian Universalism are intricately connected." Homeschooling allowed her the freedom to spend time working in YRUU and understanding more deeply the ethics and theology underlying UUism. At the same time, her experience as a homeschooler influenced what she brought to the YRUU leadership. "I had a different attitude about adults. Worth and dignity works in the other direction. Schooled YRUUers often mistrust adults. A homeschooled YRUUer begins with the assumption that adults are reasonable and trying to do their best. Every person is worth approaching." John Dewey had a sincere faith in the worth and capacity of all individuals. As he developed his theories of education - of how children really learn, and of the "hidden" curriculum (what we teach children by how we teach them) - Dewey's respect for people was primary. He saw in each child both potential and resources which needed to be nurtured appropriately, beginning with the child where he or she was. Dewey also had great faith in the teacher, the adult who could "be capable of seeing the world as both a child and an adult saw it."3 John Dewey's ideas, formulated a century ago, have had difficulty in being realized in the public school institution as he had dreamed. Various private and "alternative" schools around the country have claimed to use Dewey's educational philosophy. But it is in the philosophy and practice of Unitarian Universalist religious education that we can most clearly see some of his ideas come to life. Sophia Lyon Fahs was a major force in shaping Unitarian and Universalist philosophy of religious education during the rich era of her work in the nineteen-forties, -fifties, and -sixties. She wrote, "The ability to grant [religious] freedom requires in the educator a respect for children's ability to think and a trust in the power of truth." She believed that "one of the tragic ironies of history is that such original and creative geniuses as Buddha and Jesus have been extolled as perfect patterns for all to emulate. In the very struggle to be like someone else rather than to be one's own true self, or to do one's own best in one's own environment, a child is in danger of losing the pearl that is really beyond price - the integrity of his (or her)own soul."4 2. Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. This principle is closely related to the first principle addressing worth and dignity of persons and to the one following, concerning mutual acceptance and encouragement. When UU homeschooling parents talk about their commitment to the ideals of justice, equity, and compassion, they usually speak in active terms - in the ways they have chosen to live and behave, in the groups with which they affiliate, in the ways they choose to spend their time and money, and in how they treat members of their family and their wider community. They oftentimes see the careers they choose, their involvement in a Unitarian Universalist congregation, their decision to homeschool, their interest in social justice and environmental issues, and their politics as all integrated, part of a whole. The UU young adults I've talked with who were homeschooled also speak of understanding qualities like justice, equity, and compassion to be part of their whole world view. Katie, a student at Smith College, remembers that in the public school environment, which she describes as "artificial", it was hard to see how these ideals, central to a democratic society and to her UU faith community, were carried out, either in the administration of the school or even among schooled individuals. "Homeschooling, however," she remembers, "encourages community building. The years I wasn't in school, I was involved in the local community and in the church community, in real groups of people working on real issues." It was through her involvement in what James Luther Adams calls voluntary associations that Katie learned to value and to work to achieve justice, equity, and compassion. Dawn credits homeschooling in a Unitarian Universalist community with helping her to learn about these qualities. "Now that I'm at college," she realizes, "the things I miss include my church and my homeschooling. UUism supports the idea of a strong community and having a strong family. Because I was homeschooling I got to know each member of my family really, and we learned how to co-exist." She confirms that those things she learned modeled in her family, she now carries out into larger community circles. As she reflects on her years as a UU homeschooler, she realizes how her experience was "profoundly educational and profoundly religious." Like Katie, she credits her commitment to justice and compassion to the opportunity she had to spend time in groups that valued and lived out those ideals. Abstract ideals become real for human beings when they are woven into our experience. Douglas Sturm has explored how the concept of "justice" can been understood in different ways depending upon one's political slant. In our society, liberals will stress justice means liberty; reformers stress equality; socialists stress community; and conservatives value shared wisdom. Sturm believes that these sometimes conflicting views can be connected in the understanding of our human experience. We come to understand injustice when we relate it to how sense of being, when justice becomes a "primary virtue of human character." Sturm suggests we translate the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, community, wisdom, to "attributes of character. ...These attributes - creativity, respect, empathy, humility - the attributes of civility, compose a way of being and acting in the world."5 Unitarian Universalists who choose to homeschool their children are deeply motiviated by the desire to create this quality of civility - in themselves and their children, and in how they interact with the world. This motivation compels them to choose leaving the schools which neither provide experience of the attributes of civility nor the time to engage in family and voluntary associations which do. 3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. Bob, a homeschooling father in the Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church in Virginia, believes that religious liberals have a lot to offer the homeschooling community, not only because of the value placed on the worth and dignity of every person, but also because of our insights gained from covenanting within our UU congregations to accept one another and encourage spiritual growth. He attended the annual conference of the National Homeschooling Association in 1994, and was impressed by the wide diversity of philosophies and methods among people who are homeschooling. He points out, "Homeschoolers are a minority and need to be respectful of each other's ways of homeschooling. It is important to the existence of homeschooling to tolerate diversity among homeschoolers. Unitarian Universalists can help...build coalition and work together." In our congregations, UUs work hard to be able to live out the often difficult promise to accept one another and encourage spiritual growth. We have found how important it is to try to realize this in all types of groups in our local, national, and world community. UU homeschoolers have also taken on the task of working within the family to live out the affirmation of mutual acceptance and support. John Holt was an educator who worked throughout the 1960s and early '70s to encourage teachers, parents, and administrators to work to make schools serve children better. He finally came to the belief that the institution of the school as it had become in the twentieth century could not be changed. He began to encourage parents to believe in themselves and their children, and offered help for those who chose to homeschool. To parents who wondered if they could be able to manage the task of teaching and growing with their children, Holt responded, "You may expect too much of yourself. Your children's learning is not all going to come from you, but from them, and their interaction with the world around them, which of course includes you. You do not have to know everything they want to know, or be interested in everything they are interested in. As for patience, maybe you won't have enough at first; like many home-teaching parents, you may start by trying to do too much, know too much, control too much. But like the rest, you will learn from experience - mostly, to trust your children."6 Unitarian Universalist homeschoolers can find a lot of encouragement in their efforts to accept each other, their own children, and people in their community they hope to use as resources. The writings of Universalist religious education professor Angus McLean and of Sophia Lyon Fahs give support for the instinct to expect and honor diversity of learning patterns and faith journeys. Sophia Lyon Fahs pointed out, "If one thinks of religion primarily in terms of something created by each individual, the first question to be asked is not: What has religion to give child? It is rather: How may a child contribute to his (or her) own religious growth?...How is it possible for a child to build his (or her) own religion?" And she wrote, "We believe in taking the young child's own questions, at their own true and deep worth. Who am I? What is everything about? We recognize children's questions as their real childhood prayers - put into the language they know how to speak."7 4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Debi is a life-long Unitarian Universalist who has homeschooled three children and is a leader of the homeschooler movement in Pennsylvania. She comments that "it would never hold up in a court of law that I'm homeschooling for religious reasons. But for me it has always been a religious motivation" that caused her to make the choices she has. She adds, "People joke about the old line that UU's can believe anything they want. But actually, at some level, it's true. We are following our own conscience, and that can be difficult." For Debi, being a UU homeschooler means accepting both the freedom and the responsibility of believing in the importance of searching for truth and meaning in life. Katie, the UU homeschooler now at Smith College, affirms that "homeschooling provides ultimate freedom for learning and exploring. UUism liberates a person to explore in all ways. Homeschooling encourages the learner to be active, not passive, in the search. I directed my learning; it wasn't dictated to me. Now, I'm not dependent on anyone or on being told what to do. I like receiving other people's ideas and imput, but I do not need to rely on any authority but my own." Sophia Lyon Fahs wrote: John Holt writes: Unitarian Universalist homeschoolers have the deep belief that it is their responsibility to make their own and their children's lives meaningful. And through experience, common sense, and educational and psychological insight, they are also convinced that the search for what is true and meaningful is a search that must be allowed to occur as freely as possible. Anyone who has watched how eagerly a little one learns to walk, to manipulate things with little hands, to discover language, marvels at the inner drive to explore that is born within the child. "It is, in fact," Albert Einstein wrote, "nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty." 10No doubt to teach one's own children...takes special qualities. But these are qualities that many people have, or with a little help, can get. ...The home- schooling movement is full of such people, "ordinary" people doing things that they never would have thought they could do - learning the law, questioning the experts, holding their ground against arrogant and threatening authoritiues, defending themselves and their convictions... . Seeing them, other ordinary people think they can do the same, and soon they do. This is why it may be a little misleading to speak of the homeschooling "movement." Most people think of a movement as something like an army, a few generals and a great many buck privates. In the movement for homeschooling, everyone is a general. 9 Inspired by this affirmation of the religious nature of each person's quest to find truth, UU homeschoolers also seek to understand how it is that they can cut through the spiritual materialism of being consumers of ideas and culture, rather than creators and meaning-makers. Vaclav Havel contends that even the most powerless can find power when they discover their ability to cut through illusion to see truth, when they no longer have any vested interest in believing in lies. UUism, by honoring the individual's search for truth, offers support to the parent or child who is troubled by the system of education which the culture offers. As Vaclav sees it, the struggle to find a way to "live within the truth" is the hope of both our own individual salvation and our community's future. In making a new decision, such as keeping his child out of school, a person "steps out of living within the lie. He rejects the ritual and breaks the rules of the game. He discovers once more his suppressed identity and dignity. He gives his freedom a concrete significance. His revolt is an attempt to live within the truth." 11 5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. In my experience working in volunteer or cooperative organizations in the past twenty years, I have been struck by the notion that many people live their lives as if they don't understand democracy. Too often, people act as if they are passive consumers in the world. For them, the world and the organizations running it offer services and products. The consumer thinks living in a democracy means he can buy a product or not, but has no real relationship to it. The consumer is entitled to complain if he isn't served as he'd like - it's a free country, after all, and he's entitled. This consumer attitude of the world is antithetical to how a homeschooler views education and to how the Unitarian Universalist Association views religious community. The democratic process means each person has the right to speak and be heard. It also means each person has the responsibility to help shape the experience and the organization. John Dewey, philosopher and educator, believed that democracy had to be at the center of all of society, in how we interact in all our human institutions. His dream of "the good society was, like the good self, a diverse yet harmonious, growing yet unified whole, a fully participatory democracy in which the powers and capacities of the individuals that comprised it were harmonized by their cooperative activities into a community that permitted the full and free expression of individuality."12 Dewey challenged us to see that democracy is a creative force, and needs to be made a part of our very lives, of how we learn and work, and talk to our families and friends, and how we think of ourselves. It is a democratic ideal that all children can be educated, but not that the education be mandated or prescribed. Each child has different needs, and responds to different kinds of nurturing. Dr. Patricia Lines, a researcher for the U.S. Department of Education, refutes those who charge reformers like John Holt with turning their backs on the democratic ideal of education for all. Holt was anti- Federalist, but Dr. Lines locates him squarely in the democratic tradition.13 Unitarian Universalists who have decided to homeschool their children are doing so as a way of living out an ideal of democracy which includes protecting rights of the vulnerable and actively assuming responsibility. It is lived out in their own families, as a process followed to honor each member's conscience and participation. And it is lived out in the larger community as they take upon themselves the responsibility to be active in improving the quality of life for themselves, their children, and their community. One UU homeschooling parent told me, "I could not in good conscience allow my children to be incarcerated by the schools." She was following one of the earliest guiding principles of our faith tradition. William Ellery Channing, the formative Unitarian theolgian of the early ninteenth century, wrote: Unitarian Universalist homeschoolers are motivated out of the deepest trust in conscience, and the strong conviction that it is the individual's right and duty to actively follow one's conscience. In so doing, they not only provide their children with an atmosphere that they believe is advantageous for learning, but they model for their children what it means to participate in a democracy, and to value own's inner authority. Anna Garland Spencer, Unitarian minister and Social Ethicist, wrote over seventy years ago:Conscience, the sense of right, the power of perceiving moral distinctions, the power of discerning between justice and injustice, excellence and baseness, is the highest faculty given us by God, the whole foundation of our responsibility, and our sole capacity for religion. ...God, in giving us conscience, has implanted a principle within us which forbids us to prostrate ourselves before mere power, or to offer praise where we do not discover worth. 14 In talking to me about his experiences in and out of school, a young UU teen mused about how he had come to his views. When asked about what he could say about his learnings that could be called Unitarian Universalist, he said, "My UU faith is to be responsible ethically, morally, socially." He found that to be reinforced by his years not in school. "Homeschooling," he observed, "encourages kids to take action on their own. Educating themselves means putting an effort into making something of their lives."The family must be democratized in that sense in which each individual within its bond shall be sustained in seeking and in maintaining the conditions of personality. No one human being to live solely for other's service..., but all to seek the utmost perfection of individual life as a contribution to the common life; this is the democratic ideal. There seems to be no other inherited institution in which this spiritual essence of democracy can be so clearly and so well realized as it may be and today often is in the private monogamic family.15 Cathy, a homeschooling mother of twins and a UU Sunday school teacher, told me that "when kids can choose what to learn and how long to study something, they are really motivated to be engaged. They come up with their own ideas of activities. They have the freedom to read at their own pace and go into great depth. And they are learning to think for themselves." 6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. Unitarian Universalist homeschoolers have as their goal not only living out their ideals in the present, but helping ensure that their children have the best chance possible to grow to be happy, caring, and contributing members of the world in the future. Debi, the homeschooling mother who is also a life-long UU, believes that "homeschooling is for the common good and will benefit society. In fact, society could be so much better if people could be homeschooled," or experience freedom from the negative, spirit-defeating influences found in far too many segments of our culture. Agreeing with the sentiments of Vaclav Havel, who wrote that powerlessness comes from being trapped within an ideology that keeps a person from seeing the truth, Debi worries that a schooled child "doesn't know what is missing, what choices really are. A true democracy would try to be empowering for minorities and victims of oppression. It's good to empower children to make real choices to affect their lives. The lack of control over their lives, the lack of experience in making choices, affects kids when they reach adulthood and are expected to be a part of society." Debi's view that public schools restrain and control children, rather than empowering them is a serious concern shared by others. Paulo Freire saw clearly in his work in Brazil, but also in trends in the U.S. towards conformity in education, the power of institutions to reinforce opppression through controlling education. "any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiring is one of violence. ...To alienate men from their own decision-making is to change them into objects."16 Homeschoolers, whether they are liberal or conservative politically, doubt the ability of an institutional school system to truly meet the needs of the individual child. This American individualism takes a new twist when we try to apply it to Unitarian Universalists who are backing away from schools and moving towards living out their faith in their principles of honoring the individual and the community. They feel compelled to help the world by changing those things they can change. Like Havel considering life in a totalitarian state, or John Holt giving up on schools after two decades of trying to improve them, UU homeschoolers sense that "only by creating a better life can a better system be developed."17 Inspired the instruction of their inner conscience, and sharing the values of their Unitarian Universalist faith, they work and live with their children in a way which they hope will communicate to their children what it really means to live in a world community that has peace, justice, and liberty. And they communicate their motivations about homeschooling quietly and with tolerance for others' opinions. Like Sidney Mead, the Unitarian historian who proposed that "the divine agency in the world...is persuasion and not coercion," 18 UU homeschoolers have chosen not to preach the dogma of their beliefs to their children or their neighbors. They hope rather to work for true community through persuasion and the sharing of qualities of civility. The respect that they show their children is not limited to their children. The same deep reverence for the growing life force they nurture in their children, is what influences how Unitarian Universalist homeschoolers see the world. Whether or not they have ever heard Channing's charge, it is carried in their hearts: Worship God by reverencing the human soul as [God's] chosen sanctuary. Revere it in yourselves, revere it in others, and labor to carry it forward. ...Go forth to respect the rights, and seek the true, enduring welfare of all within your influence. Carry with you the conviction that to trample on a human being, of whatever color, clime, rank, condition, is to trample on God's child. ...Go forth to do good with every power which God bestows, to make every place you enter happier by your presence, to espouse all human interests, to throw your whole weight into the scale of human freedom and improvement, to withstand all wrong, to uphold all right, and especially to give light, life, strength to the immortal soul. 19 7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Unitarian Universalist minister David E. Bumbaugh notes, "It's interesting, in light of Emerson's warning that faith cannot be created but must grow, that the seventh principle, which affirms our reverence for the interdependent web of all existence, was the one part of the purposes and principles that wasn't debated across the continent, that wasn't hammered out in a long and exhaustive process. I am told it came to the floor late in the Columbus, Ohio, General Assembly and it was unanimously accepted virtually without debate." 20 It's interesting, that after a long discussion about all the ways her reasons for homeschooling tie in with worth and dignity, democracy, free and open search for truth, a homeschooling mother in the Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church finally said, "I homeschool mostly because I believe that it's important to live out the affirmation that we are part of the interdependent web." All of her other reasons contribute to the seventh principle in her mind. She wants her sons to see how their lives are in relationship - with many kinds of people who do many different things; with the earth and the weather and growing things and animals; with their own minds and with creativity; and with the inventions of technology and society. She believes that her boys will learn this best by being engaged with the world as much as she can facilitate and they are curious about. For her, that happens by freeing up their time and space to allow them to move in and out of many environments. When UUs talk about living in relationship, and understanding all of creation as an interdependent web, they are drawing on ancient wisdom and insight that was the basis of religous thought long before there were dogmas invented to define and control peoples. They also seek to affirm the principles of the "Earth Charter," including: Sophia Lyon Fahs wrote about nurturing a way of thinking about the everyday world in a "deep way" to help them learn how they are connected religiously with everything in this world and in their lives. She wrote, "The religious way is the deep way, the way that sees what physical eyes alone fail to see, the intangibles of the heart of every phenomenon. The religious way is the way that touches universal relationships; that goes high, wide and deep, that expands the feelings of kinship."22The Earth is an interdependent community of life. All parts of this system are interconnected and essential to the functioning of the whole. Life is sacred. Each of the diverse forms of life has its own intrinsic value. The beauty of the Earth is food for the human spirit. It inspires human consciousness with wonder, joy, and creativity. Human beings are not outside or above the community of life. We have not woven the web of life; we are but a strand within it. We depend upon the whole for our very existence.21 * * * * * Unitarian Universalists who have chosen to unschool their children, are doing so in accordance with a deep understanding of and commitment to the ethics and tradition of a liberal democratic faith. Their living out of their faith brings to mind the "Five Smooth Stones" of liberal religion that James Luther Adams described:23 Revelation is continuous: we can trust in our own inner wisdom and in the nature and potential of our children; what is right and true can be discovered anew in each of us if we honor and nurture our capacity to learn. Free mutual consent: as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms, each person has the right to decide how to educate their children; and UU unschoolers believe that their children have the right to participate in the choices about their own education. Establishment of a just and loving community: UU unschoolers have a deep faith that by raising loving, ethical, and caring people, they are contributing to a just and loving community, in the same way as their involvement in UU congregations work toward that goal. Social incarnation of faith: the choice of UU homeschoolers to raise their children away from institutional schools is a genuine act of living out their covenant to promote the seven UU Principles in the best way they can. An Ultimate Optimism: UU unschoolers have faith that they can connect with the resources that are available for a meaningful contribution to the child's welfare and that of the whole society. They are in accord with the beacon of hope sent out by Vaclav Havel, an insight that is resonant with the revelations of other religious thinkers, such as the Buddha and Jesus. The truth is here; perhaps, "it has been here for a long time already, and only our own blindness and weakness has prevented us from seeing it around us and within us, and kept us from developing it."24 ENDNOTES 1. Lines, Patricia, "Home Instruction: The Size and Growth of the Movement," in Home Schooling: Political, Historical, and Pedagogical Perspectives, Jane Van Galen and Mary Anne Pittman, eds. (Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1991) p. 34. [Dr. Lines, a senior research associate in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, widely considered the foremost authority on the subject of numbers of homeschoolers, estimated in 1989 that there were 250,000 to 360,000 children homeschooling. She calculated a yearly increase of 20%; Pat Farenga, President of Holt Associates, the publisher of Growing Without Schooling, cited the current best guess (during a phone call in February 1995) is now close to 500,000 children. He notes that conservative homeschool organizations claim even higher numbers.] 2. Ibid., pp. 17-50. 3. Westbrook, Robert B., John Dewey and American Democracy (Ithaca:Cornell University Pres, 1991)p. 101. 4. Fahs, Sophia Lyon, Today's Children and Yesterday's Heritage (1952), quoted in Cornerstones of Religious Education:Sophia Lyon Fahs Speaks, Rosemarie C. Smurzynski, ed.(Boston:UUA, 1985)p.6. 5. Sturm, Douglas, "On Meanings of Justice," in Community and Alienation (Notre Dame,IN:University of Notre Dame Press, 1988) pp. 108-109. 6. Holt, John, Teach Your Own (New York:Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1981) pp. 62-63. 7. Fahs, p. 10. 8. Fahs, "A New Ministry to Children," quoted in Cornerstones, p.7. 9. Holt, pp. 68-69. 10. Gorder, Cheryl, Home Schools: An Alternative (Tempe, AZ: Blue Bird Publishing, 1990)p.79. 11. Havel, Vaclav, "The Power of the Powerless," in Living in Truth (Boston:Faber and Faber,1990)p.55. 12. Westbrook, p.164. 13. Lines, Patricia, "Homeschooling:Private Choices, Public Obligations," Home School Researcher (Vol. X, no. 3, 1994) pp.9-26. 14. Channing, William Ellery, "The Moral Argument Against Calvinism,"(1809) from The Works of William E. Channing, D.D. (Boston:American Unitarian Association, 1898), quoted in William Ellery Channing Speaks, Mark Harris, ed.(Boston:UUA, 1985), p. 5. 15. Spencer, Anna Garland, The Family and Its Members (Philadelphia:J.B.Lippincott Co., 1923). 16. Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York:Continuum,1992, 1970)p. 73. 17. Havel, p. 71. 18. Mead, Sidney E., The Old Religion in the Brave New World: Reflections on the Relation between Christendom and the Republic (Berkeley:University of California Press, 1977)p.7. 19. Channing, "Christian Worship" (1836), in William Ellery Channing Speaks, pp.12-13. 20. Bumbaugh, David E., "The Heart of a Faith for the 21st Century," World (Vol. IX, no. 2, March/April 1995)p.27. 21. "An Earth Charter," in Marcus Braybrooke, Stepping Stones to a Global Ethic (xerox copy)p. 139. 22. Fahs, Today's Children and Yesterday's Heritage, from Cornerstones, p.5. 23. Adams, James Luther, "Five Smooth Stones of Religious Lilberalism," On Being Human-Religiously, Max Stackhouse, ed.(Boston:Beacon Press, 1976), pp.12-19. 24.Havel, p. 122. SOURCES Adams, James Luther, On Being Human - Religiously, Max Stackhouse, ed.(Boston:Beacon Press,1976). Bumbaugh, David E., "The Heart of a Faith for the 21st Century," World (Vol. IX, no.2, March/April, 1995). Channing, William Ellery, William Ellery Channing Speaks, Mark Harris, ed.(Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 1985). "An Earth Charter," in Marcus Braybrooke, Stepping Stones to a Global Ethic (1991). Fahs, Sophia Lyon, Cornerstones of Religious Education: Sophia Lyon Fahs Speaks, Rosemarie C. Smurzynski, ed. (Boston:Unitarian Universalist Association, 1985). Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York:Continuum Publishing Co., 1992, 1970). Gorder, Cheryl, Home Schools: An Alternative (Tempe, AZ:Blue Bird Publishing, 1990). Growing Without Schooling (Cambridge, MA:Holt Associates), Issues 1 - 103. Guterson, David, Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense (New York:Harcourt Brace Jovanich,Publishers, 1992). Havel, Vaclav, "The Power of the Powerless," Living in Truth (Boston:Faber and Faber, 1990). Holt, John, Teach Your Own (New York:Delacourte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1981). Lines, Patricia, "Home Instruction:The Size and Growth of the Movement," in Home Schooling: Political, Historical, and Pedagogical Perspectives, Jane Van Galen and Mary Anne Pittman, eds. (Norwood, NJ:Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1991). _______________, "Homeschooling: Private Choices, Public Obligations," Home School Researcher (Salem, OR: National Home Education Research Institute, Vol. X, no. 3, 1994). Mead, Sidney E., The Old Religion in the Brave New World: Reflections on the Relation between Christendom and the Republic (Berkeley:University of California Press, 1977). Singing the Living Tradition (Boston:Beacon Press, 1994). Spencer, Anna Garland, The Family and Its Members (Philadelphia:J.B. Lippincott Co., 1923). Sturm, Douglas, "On Meanings of Justice," Community and Alienation (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988). "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights," in Marcus Braybrooke, Stepping Stones to a Global Ethic (1991). Wallace, Nancy, Better Than School: One Family's Declaration of Independence (Burdett, NY: Larson Publications, Inc., 1983). Westbrook, Robert B., John Dewey and American Democracy (Ithaca:Cornell University Press, 1991). |
