Jo Isaac

==I'm wondering how old these writings are, and whether they might be out of date now? ==

Some of the writing about food and food choice, at Sandra's site, is recent research - I know this, because I gathered it. http://sandradodd.com/eating/research.html


==There is some really good content being generated now around deschooling food AND weight control. Not unschooling or even kid specific...but really an excellent complement to unschooling==

That doesn't sound like it's about unschooling, or not arbitrarily limiting food, at all - 'weight control' isn't a good goal for anyone.

I've recently been sick, one thing after another...suggesting my immune system isn't doing great - that i'm not particularly healthy right now - shingles, then flu, then shingles came back with the flu.

I've lost weight. I've never been 'big' anyway, but now I fit in what I call my 'teeny pants'. Not because I'm healthy, quite the opposite - because I've been so sick and unable to eat. But still, people will compliment me on 'looking good', and ask me how I did it (I'll tell them the truth!). My husbands family in particular value thinness as a 'healthy ideal' - leading to my husband having eating disorders and body image problems his whole life. It's rife in society, we can't hide our kids from societies idea that thin = good/healthy.

==Rather than what's there now which is, to some extent, deschooling around food as a method to achieve thinness. ==

I'm not finding that content - perhaps the focus is in the eye of the beholder - this page has lots of links about food, and all different aspects of food:

http://sandradodd.com/food.html

==It would be easy for me to speak about his veganism as an unschooling success story. "See? He can choose whatever he wants, and he chooses the healthy lifestyle!" "==

This kind of thing (although in this case used as a bad example) IS a problem in unschooling discussion. Associating any kind of special 'diet' with 'healthy lifestyle' is problematic. Assuming vegans are healthy is a problem. Assuming ditching gluten is healthy is a problem. Assuming 'thin' or even 'thinner' is healthy, is a problem.

My son has cycled through all kinds of ideas - he was mostly vegetarian for years, likely because I don't eat much meat and I do the shopping and cooking. Then he wanted to try all the meats - he's still pretty much in that phase - I buy him meats especially for him.

Last night we got frozen pizza, because I'd been at work, I'm still recovering, and I'd noticed our favourite brand was 1/2 price. I made a little greek salad to go with it. After dinner I said "How was your pizza?" He said "I liked the stuff that went with it". Thursday I got him nuggets and chips from the canteen after soccer training - he complained there was no vegetables...so I made him a corn cob to go with it.

This is not to say 'WOW! Look my unschooled kid loves healthy vegetables!' - some he does, some not so much! The 'goal' I guess, in my mind, is that there is no judgement between foods, no classifying some foods as 'good' or 'bad' in his mind. He likes what he likes and has no guilt about any of his choices. 

"Health' in his mind (and mine - as much as I can shut out societies values) is not associated with food or weight - it's associated with his actual health - Is he happy? Hardly ever sick? Able to be busy and active? Yes - thus I'd say he's healthy - his health can't simply be judged by what he eats, or how big/small his body is. He was healthy when he was mostly vegetarian, he's healthy now he eats a lot of bacon. He was healthy when he didn't really play sport, he's healthy now he plays soccer 3 times a week.

All is a long-winded way of saying, i don't think there is a need to change the past on Sandra's site, I think the pages are as relevant as they always have been,
Jo


Sandra Dodd

Jo Isaac wrote: -=-This is not to say 'WOW! Look my unschooled kid loves healthy vegetables!' - some he does, some not so much! The 'goal' I guess, in my mind, is that there is no judgement between foods, no classifying some foods as 'good' or 'bad' in his mind. He likes what he likes and has no guilt about any of his choices.-=-

I LOVE the stories of kids requesting vegetables or fruit.
I love them not because of anything about weight, or health. I love them because they belie the pervasive narrative, in our culture, that adults "have to" and MUST and should "make" kids eat vegetables, or they never will.  They shine a spotlight on what the real problem is with traditional dietary situations, and that is control.  Kids naturally like sweet things, when they're little.  If that is denied them, it can turn to a need and a craving and a deprivation and a lifelong yearning and resentment.  

If a child of two, or ten, can opt to have, or not have, ice cream or candy, then his choices can be made for considerations other than reward or deprivation or guilt or performance ("being good," making the "right" choice to impress or appease the parents).  When a parent becomes courageous enough to really calmly give a child choices, and then the child asks for plums, or melon, or salad, the glory isn't about the value of plums, melon or salad.  It's about the value of respecting a child as a human, and about the parents learning to be calm and rational, accepting of the world, and reality, and choices and changes.

That's a lot.

Generally, parents and neighbors and friends tend to notice and maybe be impressed by a lot of noise and action and reaction.  I'm happy to have learned, gradually, over the past 32+ years, that moving toward quiet acceptance and observation has more depth and energy and connection than a bunch of correction, direction and commentary, from parents to children.

Sandra