The undeniable truth which concerns us all

This is a heavily sick society and failing civilization, already in deep decline, where it seems nearly impossible to prove you're not an elephant.  

In a more mature society of spiritual people and higher morality, what we did with my child would be an area of study and respect. We would be in an open dialogue with all areas of expertise, all bodies of social structure concerned, about our findings through learning and growing outside the only allowed, failing school system in the country. Our experiences, through research, experimentation and sharing with others world-wide, would be supported and also aided for the good of all. We would all be working together to change the existing, failed educational system, each providing their expertise, knowledge, experiences, findings, which would serve social (true) justice, would enhance and promote (true) civilization, based on higher values that would be child-supportive and learning-enhancing. 

A vision still holding...

Non-caring?

When people who have known the case from the beginning have only just signed the petition or not yet.

When people who care about you have stopped asking you how you’re feeling and how you’re holding on.

When those that it likewise affects have shied away from commenting, discussing that which they too experience in their daily lives and know to be true.

When those who are your friends fear to share on their timelines or pretend they don't know you, to protect their profiles and identities.

To my son

I know that you're worried about that English exam that you're supposed to take. I know that you're meant to "re-examine" yourself, fix yourself, continuously doubt yourself. And so much more than the education system and society teach, subliminally but effectively, succeeding most of the time. 

But I have something different to tell you...these thoughts came to my mind and they belong to you as well as to any young person that stumbles across them.

Memories from the future

Two thousand years later, we are still trying to understand the story of Jesus... and many more stories told and passed down through the ages.

Everyone has a different story to tell, which suits each person's already established opinions, beliefs, egoic needs. Can we even know anything at the time of happening? Is there a way?

It's not easy to look into the eyes of innocence and truth when you've already condemned and convicted a mother and child. So, you don't call them to court, you don't have to know their story, you don't need real witnesses and real events. You can and do convict without them.

Under the surface

The pain is unimaginable, immeasurable.

Finding other things to do doesn’t make it go away. It doesn’t lighten it. There is no way I can be who I was before or what people might expect of me. Physical pain, in any form gives me the impression of being alive, the strength to go on, the reminder that I am here. It’s visible, more manageable, an indication of movement in the stagnancy that has been forced on me.

I am also discovering the misconception we have believed of pain, the body, the heart-mind, ego-mind, truth and so much more, much deeper than linear, surface level... through experience.

To do lists

We still like to separate subjects, issues, topics, thinking that this way we have "everything under control", know more, are more mature and/or more competent in our everyday lives.

But our need for separation comes from a deeper fear that we seldom - if ever - truly recognize: we fear the vastness of our being, the grand visible and invisible reality. We need boundaries, just like our bodies reveal our psychical boundaries.

Even in unschooling/homeschooling circles, this separation is evident as it also reveals itself in conversations, habits, requirements, responses, actions. We are still learning, still exiting the old paradigm.

The following post probably wouldn't remind one of  schooling or education but as I have discovered through unschooling myself and educating my daughter, it is one of the fundamental "subjects" that took up most of our time and learning endeavors.

To do lists

One day, I will choose not to separate my blogs, pages, groups, subjects because they will be understood as one. 

A Mother’s Testimony

From a little seed…It needs time, it needs care, it needs intuition, it needs trust,

it needs attention, it needs guidance, it needs freedom,

it needs natural conditions.

All that we have underestimated but are necessary for it to bloom and flourish.

Unclassified

The only way you can help others is to inspire them. That’s what we truly give. That’s what we truly are!

I remember a teacher, back in my school years, making me so love geometry, that I seriously thought of becoming a mathematician, where my school marks barely scraped the fail base line. But then, when was school the best judge of my true self?

After graduation, I began learning about myself, life and everything that interested me. Which was a lot!

Back to grade one! 

Unprepared! 

Unwarned! 

It took a while to realize that I had dived in the deep end without a life-jacket and with no floor to stand on. There was nothing else to do but swim. 

When those who are meant to protect, abuse

 

We live for a limited time in life; most people tend to forget that. We are also brought up with the belief that the world is the way it is and that we need to accept and live with it. I haven't yet figured out why people accept that belief and then go on to marvel innovators, worship the rebels and the leaders of change. I have never managed to fit in with that model. I didn't want my child to believe it either.

Domestication vs Education

What you ARE, truly, really, is something that derives from deep within you, from the center of your being. It doesn’t have anything to with your accomplishments, education, wealth, status etc etc. In fact, all this may and most often are deceptive.

The world is your stage, to help you see and bring out who you really are. When you have seen who you really are, you fully become/express/reveal your Self, no matter what. Regardless of cost or reward; there is nothing else that you can do! 

In Absentia; legally!

To remove child custody in Absentia; without a fair trial, in absence.

Whatever the reason/crime, in absence cannot be justified. Or we have to accept the Dark Ages and the witch hunt as a modern day reality.

When human rights remain on paper, when the human being is absent, there cannot be a righteous case.

Convicted in absence!Yes, it CAN be done. It has been done!

Greek Stubbornness and exceptional children

Why aren’t free schools formed in Greece like the rest of the world?
Stubborn, conservative and as primitive-like as Greek people seem, they are not easily persuaded, lured into copied practices, habits, novices.

Deep inside their hearts, beneath their cultural and religious programming, they somehow realize that freedom is much more than a few “human rights”, a few laws past, a few changes in customs and habits.

They are seeking their deep ties with life, their past, for a grander individual and collective purpose. They are not easily tempted or as lost as they seem, on a spiritual level.

Our whole history is within us. The whole past makes sense; the deprivation, the humiliation, suppression, ignorance, everything. The collective history doesn’t differ from the individual history.

The words must be recognized individually on a different level: the images, emotions, connections, time travels, the soul’s journeys..

On the other end...

Kids don't have to hate Math

Why do most kids hate math so much and find it difficult?

I always thought that it was just me with numbers; a terrible combination that would never become a harmonic relationship. But then I started noticing the kids around me.

Even those that grew to love math eventually, were good at it after a while, had some difficulties initially; some more, some less. But it goes without saying, that math is a touchy subject for most kids. Why is that so?

Just when I think I'm teaching...

So, what is it REALLY like to raise a free human being? It’s highly inspiring, truly challenging and often uncomfortable. Overall it’s a blessing!

Nothing is ever truly known or straight-forward, there is nothing “usual” or fixed in our lives, although we do try to function – at least to some extent – according to this linear reality.

The habit of WANTING to MAKE children understand, rather than enter their world, almost always falls on its face, as I am reminded again and again that not only does it not work but also that it is a violent act of intrusion without the necessary understanding included in it.

Any time you sit on a pedestal with these children, you must also remain prepared to get thrown right off it, with the easiness of their innocent, internal wisdom. Most of the time, I am reminded - thankfully with willingness -  that I still have a lot to learn.

Naming it "dyslexia"...

Don't have a usual pattern of thought...

My mind has never been totally linear, although I understand the concept...I was born and raised in a linear society/educational system/world.

They call it "dyslexia", although they still don't understand what it means. It's perfectly a natural consequence, when you examine something from within another reality and not really detached from it. That "other" reality will alter/modify what you're looking at, what you want to examine. 

Hacking "normal"

I am "one of the lucky ones"?

NO! I have chosen to sacrifice false security for the love of learning, researching, teaching, waking up at my own biological clock, traveling, seeing the sunset, meeting new people, remaining passionate and in love with life, turning all "obligations" to desires/choices, waking up to a new life each day, breaking all habits when and because I want to, not compromising with "normal", meeting the unknown with child-like enthusiasm.

Sacred Space

Most people are afraid of retreating into themselves, of taking time to BE with themselves. Unless you're meditating, unless you're DOING something that they understand, that they can SEE, and suits there beliefs, it is rejected, feared. Perhaps meditation is something that we are adopted in the West, for this main, subconscious reason; to have a good excuse to escape our social relationships, to withdraw from our social lives.  This is not the case in our home.

There comes a time - many times - when kids tire most parents, as they realize that they need time for themselves that they just don't have, since parenting is a full-time job. But I haven't seen parenting as a job, although socially, legally, financially, it SHOULD be seen as such, as it takes much inner and outer work....continuously!

Why I don't "teach subjects"

In the beginning of our unschooling life, I used to worry about doing the "right thing", doing "enough", doing it at the "right time", since I was new to this. In addition to all this, choosing to unschool in a country where it is illegal plus NO ONE has ever even heard about it, was a risky and daring decision. I found that I was practically alone in my search, my thoughts, all my attempts, my trials and errors.
Gradually, and through the years, a lot has changed...in our lives, not the legal or social status.

Now I realize that teaching specific subjects to a child, the way it's done in text books and in schools is totally boring (for both of us) and is totally useless and unnecessary. Neither our minds nor our lives function that way!

Nothing is sequential and additional, piling carefully, one on top of another. This method of gradual adding/showing/ learning, might be useful for something that you decide to become devoted to and serve, something you want to specify and expertize in, but not to show you the world, its meaning, its complexity. It definitely doesn't work according to a child's mind and needs.

What I want to be (when I grow up)

Strange for the world and strange for my physical mind to accept too, that at 52 I still don't know "what I want to be when I grow up". What a question!

When do we "grow up"? People ask me, "what do you do?" and I still have a problem answering that question. Every time a specific description/name is brought to the table, I want to wipe it off because it disturbs my view. Every time I have tried to characterize or define myself, I feel the weight of words and closed realities caging my being.

Threats losing power...

Finding the  time to write these days/weeks seems totally beyond me, as so many new realities have opened up and I find myself trying to balance within them all.

After the irresponsible (in my opinion) reaction from the prosecutor's office, trying to frighten me, threaten me with removing custody of my daughter "unless I enroll her in a school", without any legal documents or trial, we are still on unknown ground, waiting for the next move.