I think that this topic will be controversial to say the least, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that perhaps one approach to raising children in our current world without turning them into civilization-zombies is to take culture that already exists and use it for our own purposes.
I’ll give an example, I recently read an interview with donMiguel Ruiz’s son who described how his father opened him up to an animist/magical world view. They basically went on a walk to some sacred mountains, that their dad said was “The Real Disneyworld”. Along the way, he used characters that his kids were familiar with, especially from Disney and opened his kids eyes to the magic and beauty all around them.
I’ve also read and seen that organizations like TrackersNW and Wilderness Awareness School actively encourage their instructors to use stories and ideas that their students are already familiar with (like Lord of the Rings, for example) as a tool to get kids excited about the woods and learning ancient skills.
Finally, to top everything off, I’ll go way out on a limb and say that being a part-time stay at home Dad, one of the truly powerful sets of cultural icons that I believe have a lot to offer in rewilding our children are Dora and Diego. These two are full of inanimate objects that are alive and are friends, deep relationships with animals, learning about mapping and songlining, learning about animals and journaling, and even harvesting of wild foods. There’s even a healthy does of magic in many of the episodes.
Does this mean that I buy into everything having Diego and Dora on them and joining into mass consumption of their items? No! But, I am excited that my two-year old daughter loves to have a backpack and map with her when she goes outside and thinks that they can talk to her and help her?
Any thoughts?