Laurie's son displays his Occupy Education post

Talk of “education reform” is viral all over the internet. Despite multiple failed attempts at “reform” over the past decades, society refuses to think outside the “box” of schooling and consider a radical return to how children learned for millennia- By playing, living and doing! Teachers and others in the field of education continue to propose that the oppressive, prison-like institution where children are forced to stay seated in a building all day pumping out paperwork can and should be reformed! When democratic schooling, homeschooling and unschooling advocates attempt to join the conversation and offer models that are successful and truly radical, they are often met by educators and their supporters who dismiss these models as idealistic and not “realistic” for “everyone”. Additionally, people seem not to be aware of the fact that despite talks of reform, the needs, voices and leadership of the people who are the most adversely affected by public schooling- youth- are left out of the conversation. [...]

In the womb, babies are blanketed in a blissful neurological expectation that when they finally are born into the world, their needs in every manner will be responded to lovingly and met immediately. There is an inborn agreement with nature that because nature intended it to be so, it will be. In many peaceful indigenous tribal societies, this will be the life for most babies that come into the tribe: Love, affection, joy, play, freedom and happiness.

In our industrialized, disconnected culture, we are born into something very different. We are born into a world-view in which nature’s agreement has expired, is disrespected and long forgotten by the majority of the culture. We are born into the firmly established expectations of wounded parents and families who survived their own malnourished childhoods, and of a society that has one motivation in mind: Money. Despite all of the carefree childhood myths, before we even scream our first screams into the world of being born, our entire childhood has been decided for us- It is a preparation for “success”: Productivity, the workforce, a money-making machine. [...]

The quality of how physically affectionate and nurturing mothers and fathers are affects children holistically. Intense, constant and warm physical affection nurtures the parent-child attachment and ensures that it is secure. The parent-child attachment is the blueprint of a child’s entire holistic developmental make up: Physically, emotionally, cognitively, creatively, socially, sexually, spiritually and genetically. Yes, the “nature vs. nurture” debate can rest upon the neurological research that shows that nurture affects genetics more than genetics affect nurturing behaviors. In other words, we shape our children’s entire developmental make up, even their genetic expression, depending on the amount of and quality of the physical and emotional affection and nurturing that we share with them.

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So the “historical” health care “overhaul” was passed in the House in recent weeks:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35977921/ns/politics-health_care_reform/?gt1=43001


This is more of the same old propaganda: Co-pays, ridiculous prices, high deductibles, medical bills and of course, mediocre treat-the-body-as-machine primary care docs. A real overhaul would be free care for all, plus a medical system that treated the causes rather than the symptoms; a medical system that stopped sleeping with the big financial goldmine giants (Big Pharma, Medical supply cos, etc.). How about looking at how our American diet of refined sugar and wheat kills people? How our Western lifestyle of children and adults sedentary all day in schools, work places and then in front of screens all night leads to depression, apathy, Type II diabetes, obesity and heart disease? How the way we deny the body its basic needs all day in schools and at work ruins the organs and causes disorders? How child trauma and poor parent-child attachments lead to high levels of Cortisol chronically pumping through the body, leading to an erosion of the immune system and the body systems? How about how the drug companies kill thousands every year because its cheaper to pay off lawsuits than to lose money on allowing people to heal naturally both emotionally and physically? How about how the Government is fighting to have all vitamins and natural supplements labeled as “drugs” so that they will be considered “controlled substances” so no one can cure themselves? How about (besides vital emergency care), the medical field is all about symptom suppression rather than healing and curing? (Who the hell wants to “manage” their asthma as a recent medical insurance pamphlet sent to me suggests! “Manage”? I want a goddamned cure!) [...]

With every decade that passes, new legal and civil rights have been fought for and won for every group of adults in Westernized cultures. The fight continues around the globe in order to share those legal protections with oppressed populations in other cultures. With each passing decade, there have been landmark victories won that validate the journey for adults to assert their basic human rights- In the 00′s, gay marriage was the fight that finally found victory in the United States.

However, children seem to exist in a surreal incubator; a sterile laboratory in which they are viewed and treated as if they are human beings-in-the-making, like objects waiting to be assembled, or feelingless, spiritless bodies waiting for someone to bestow humanity onto them. Decade after decade passes, and yet an industrialized child’s world always looks the same, with little more than trite hope of obtaining any real victories beyond the superficial “right” to be intoxicated consumers and technology automatons. [...]