Ulrike Haupt

Dear friends

I'm currently reading 'The uses of Enchantment' by Bruno Bettelheim. This is
mainly about fairy tales and how they are the best tools of problem solving
we can give our children. Bettelheim says that children live in a magical
world up to puberty and our grown-up 'face facts of reality' attitude does
not cater to their 'beingness' at all.

How many of us don't listen to our intuition any more because we were taught
not to believe in irrational things?

Oh, and on the subject of death a friend just yesterday told us about a
little girl who came up with a wonderful explanation after the experience of
a funeral. "It is like a bottle of coke. It's bubbly and alive when it is
full. When the contents is gone, it is an empty bottle (the body that is
buried) and not needed any more."

And Alexander was fascinated by the cemetery for a while. So we took some
time and walked around the older and newer parts of our local cemetery. At
some point he mentioned, "But the 'longing' is still there." He used the
German word "Sehnen" which sounds like 'Seele' which means 'soul'. This gave
him full satisfaction about this subject. Our children know what they
want/need to know and how to get the answers that are right for them. Isn't
this what unschooling is all about?

Blessed be
Ulrike