Unitarian Universalist Community Schools Campaign

The Unitarian Universalist Community Schools Campaign seeks to create inspiring communities of service and spirit for high school aged youth. From the website:

At the heart of these schools are our seven principles which call us to affirm and promote:

• 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 schools;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our schools 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.

Check out the UUCSC presentation here and visit the UUCSC website at http://www.uucommunityschools.org
to sign up for their newsletter  and to connect via Facebook and other social networking resources. 

Earth Hour 2011 - Saturday, March 26, 8:30 PM

Tips for Teaching Mindfulness to Children, from Greater Good

The Greater Good Science Center, at the University of California Berkley, has a great set of articles this month on "teaching Mindfulness", much of it based on the work of the Oakland-based Mindful Schools program. The Mindful Schools program teaches children in public and private elementary, middle, and high schools" how to be more mindful of their thoughts and actions."  As of the fall of 2009, Mindful Schools has brought in-class mindfulness training to over 7,000 children in 26 schools, 22 of which serve low-income children.

Mindful Schools tips for teaching mindfulness to children include:

• Making mindfulness practice routine and consistent;
• Creating a good mindfulness practice environment;
• Make students an active part of their own mindfulness experiences;
• Model and share your own experiences of mindfulness with children, and encourage them to share their experiences with one another;
• Practice mindfulness every day.

Visit http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/tips_for_teaching_mindfulness_to_kids/ to see the complete article and related materials.

Namaste!

A Message for 2010 - From the Lost Generation

This video was actually made in 2007, but seems to speak nicely to a new decade. Happy New Year!

Enjoy a Symphony of Science

Visit http://www.symphonyofscience.com/ for more information, and more joy!

Foundation Beyond Belief - A Resource for Humanistic Generosity

Introducing: Foundation Beyond Belief:

From the home page:

Foundation Beyond Belief is a new non-profit charitable and educational foundation created (1) to focus, encourage and demonstrate humanistic generosity, and (2) to support a nationwide education and support program for nontheistic parents.

The Foundation will highlight ten charitable organizations per quarter--one in each of ten categories. Members join the Foundation by signing up for a monthly automatic donation in the amount of their choice, then set up personal profiles to indicate how they would like their contribution distributed among the ten categories. Maybe you'd like to give 25 percent each to human rights, poverty, education, and the environment. We'll distribute it accordingly.By year's end, you will have helped support a dozen organizations in the areas you care most about.

The centerpiece of the Foundation will be a lively online community. Active members can join a social network and discussion forums centered on the ten categories of giving, upload videos, recruit new members, advocate for causes and help us choose the new beneficiaries each quarter. We'll also create and host a multi-author blog of world-class contributors focused on the cause areas, as well as humanism, philanthropy, and the intersection of the two.

Visit http://www.foundationbeyondbelief.org  for more information.

The Homeschool Liberation League

Milton Gaither ponders the lack of "religious dimension", by which he appears to mean Christianity, in a review of the new book by Lucy Frank called "The Homeschool LIberation League" in his blog, Homeschooling Research Notes.

Gaither gives the book a favorable review, noting, "Of all the recent children’s books I’ve read involving homeschooled characters, Frank’s goes furthest in making homeschooling itself central to the plot.," and adding, "This is not, in the end, a book about homeschooling. It’s a book about a 13-year-old girl trying to overcome the faux identity foisted on her by the school context, searching out a self and a voice she can believe in. Homeschooling is just the tool she uses to get there."

He notes the inclusion of realistic characters like one girl's "lesbian professional parents", a "stage father" and "independent-minded but reluctant working class parents, and observes that it's "not "implausible (they) wouldn’t have much contact with religious conservatives."

Lucy Frank actually addresses Gaither's questions on his site, "I want to make clear that I wasn’t under any pressure to stay away from the “religious dimension” in homeschooling. Nor was I motivated by worry about alienating readers (except possibly school principals, with my extremely unflattering portrayal of Katya’s dreaded Mr. Westenburg). Rather ... it’s too big a topic just to mention in passing. At one point early on I tried bringing in characters representing different sides of the homeschooling world, but the book started to feel like “a book about homeschooling,” instead of the story of one girl’s determination not to let school squash her enthusiasm for learning and mold her into someone she doesn’t want to be, and the effect that has on everyone in her life."

On the basis of that description alone, it sounds like a young adult novel well worth looking into, and one that UU homeschoolers and their public school friends might be able to enjoy together. It's a nice opportunity to celebrate and support a rational incorporation of homeschooling in mainstream young adult literature.