parenting

I have been aware of this important documentary for some time. Now you can view the entire film free for a short period of time.

The Greater Good "weaves together the stories of families whose lives have been forever changed by vaccination," and shows how modern medicine, especially when driven by politics and big business, can rob you of some of your most basic rights. The results of such politically- and financially-driven policies can be devastating and one movie reviewer, who saw the groundbreaking documentary, commented:

 "What's being said is staggering, especially if you don't know too much about the science of, and politics behind, vaccines." - LA Weekly

You can support THE GREATER GOOD's Community Engagement Campaign by purchasing a Limited Edition DVD for only $10! Click HERE to purchase a copy to show your support!

Landmark California Law now Bypasses Parent Consent
Recall our newsletter warning that corporate government is stripping away parent informed consent rights. It was signed into law. Seventh graders can now be vaccinated without parents’ knowledge or permission.

Dr Tim O'Shea was the first to introduce me to the vaccine controversy with his book Vaccination Is Not Immunization.

Tim recently published a review of the new California Law and the MONEY, not health of our kids behind it.

Vaccine marketers scored a landmark victory in California in October 2011 when Jerry Brown fetched the stick and signed into law a new bill allowing schools to vaccinate 12 year olds without informing their parents.

You may have noticed the recent media flood of hysteria regarding the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine and new laws about 12 year olds. Most of the articles talk about how lucky 7th graders are now that we have a vaccine that will protect them from STDs. Like cancer of the cervix. The vaccine has been on the Schedule for the last 4 years, but the claim of STD protection is brand new. In order to pull it off, they had to re-categorize cancer as an STD. Which it isn’t.

Less difficult than stating a scientific error like that was getting parents to accept it without a second thought. But that’s not really the bad news. As of last month in California 7th graders are now allowed to be herded into a room, shown a video on sexually transmitted diseases, told they can be protected by a vaccine, and then taken into another room and immediately get the shot, en masse. With no parental knowledge or permission.

Several fictions have to be maintained however, in order to support the whole ruse scientifically. These facts must be ignored:
- HPV virus has never been proven as the cause of any disease
- HPV virus has never been proven as the cause of cancer of the cervix
- HPV vaccine has never been proven to have the slightest effect on any cancer at all
- By no stretch of the imagination can cancer of the cervix be regarded as an STD
By your silence you may be consigning your 12 year old to a very dangerous new area of biological experimentation through vaccines. That is no exaggeration.

Please read Tim’s full article on this landmark new law.

Michael Mendizza

For my sons, Memorial Day 2011

God Bless America blared from the flag waving Harley as boy scouts, soon to be men, marched between white lines. Memorial Day, a national glance inward to mourn the lives mangled and lost ‘serving’ freedom and civic liberty. I almost wept, not out of patriotic duty and honor but for the deep feeling of shame and betrayal that this and past pageants endure.

While I honor the ultimate sacrifice brothers and sisters have made through the ages, some urgent, some heroic and necessary, so many lives, however, have been mangled for reasons – that had they known – they would have wept too.

After viewing our interview with Jean Liedloff a parent said, ‘Jean talks about the effects of over protective parenting. I am so guilty of this. My son is much more capable when he is on his own than when he knows I am looking. I am wondering how I could undo this?

Great question, join the club.

As Jean pointed out in the swimming pool example, when the child does not know the parent was looking, the child demonstrated their true capacity. When the child feels a parent is watching – they express the adult’s helpless expectations. And this pattern is established very early. It becomes a reflex.

The guiding principal is to ‘assume competence’ from the beginning. Then the child’s innate capacity and the adult’s expectation are in sync instead of being in conflict. Imaging what this means lifelong!

The child turns to the adult moment to moment to ‘read’ their relationship to whatever is happening – assuming that the adult’s behavior is intelligent and appropriate. Big assumption here but what else is the child to do?
The adult serves as the child’s compass in uncharted territory. As the child develops the compass must adapt to the needs of what remains unknown to the child. The adult must fine tune his or her emphasis to match the developmental needs of each child. One shoe definitely does not fit all.

A compass is not a ‘teacher.’ Modeling is not ‘teaching’ nor is it ‘instruction.’ 90% or more of what a child learns lifelong is through modeling. 5% of lifelong learning is through instruction.

Your challenge is to ‘assume competence’ and model it in your relationship with the child, guiding them with very brief moments of mostly nonverbal encouragement and facilitation only when asked for or needed. Avoid doing for the child things they can do for themselves. Facilitate when appropriate their wonder and experimentation. Leave praise on the shelf. Of course they produce excellent results. That is what nature expects by design.
As always, the change that is needed must come from you.

Don’t worry. Celebrate every moment of your life and so will your child.

Michael Mendizza

Hi Lisa…
Interesting and common challenge.
Mentoring a real man in today's world.
 
Every young man is unique. One shoe definitely does not fit all.

I do not know of a rite of passage group that might fit the need.

What does it mean to be a man in today’s world?

I think we need to know where we are pointing before drawing a map.

What are the skills, wisdom and capacities needed to be such a thing?

The Way of the Superior Man : A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire by David Didea
And
Fire in the Belly by Sam Keen
Would be good reading for you and your partner to help you formulate your own views.

How can you draw a map if you don’t know where you are going?

I think it is interesting that the same principles that apply to home and un-schooling for the early child seem to fall of the radar with teens and young adults.

1. Taking our cues from the young person

2. The model imperative, that is, each stage of development and the unique capacities that unfold at each stage are model dependent. No model – no development.

3. Experience is not the best teacher, it is the only teacher.

The same core principles that apply to the two year old apply to the twenty year old.

The question is, are you up to the challenge? If not – then this is another perfect opportunity to grow and expand your capacities, and by doing that you meet the challenge.

What are the unique interests that your son is? What experiences will help him develop the skills, insights and optimal behaviors that add up to being a man in today’s world? Who has these abilities and can serve as a mentor? Count the skills, add up the experiences and reach out and connect to the appropriate mentor. Connect the dots.

The first step, soul searching and personal exploration about what is a man in today’s world is the most challenging. Do a good job with this and the other steps are a cake-walk. Turn to formulas, stereotypes, tradition, what films and sports model and you are asking for trouble.

Yes others can help, after you know where you are going.

First things first!

Michael Mendizza

From Lisa...

Hi Michael,


I have seen you twice and read some of your books. I love your presentations and ideas!

My son just turned 13 (Jan 12th). He has had a pretty "easy" white boy life. He homeschools and pretty much gets to delve into the things he is interested in (welding, skiing, BMX racing, video games, etc).

I am looking for ideas on how to move him on the journey to manhood with challenges, rites of passage or other. Do you have any ideas or recommendations for books, programs, websites, etc?

Thanks.

With love,
Lisa

In the spring of 2010 a small group, including the editor of Joe’s latest book and David B. Chamberlain, PhD, a leader in the field of prenatal intelligence and memory, gathered in Ojai California to explore with Joseph Chilton Pearce his Collected Works.

Throughout his life Joe shunned speaking about himself. For the first time, with this close group, Joe explored what was happening in his life and life around him as he wrote each of his major publications beginning with Crack in the Cosmic Egg.

Rachel wrote:
I have a question around bonding/brain/skin-to-skin.  I have a 7 week old, that I am attachment parenting...carrying in arms, co sleeping etc.  I spent a lot of the first 4- days with skin to skin, however since then hardly any skin to skin (as it is winter and I have two other children so it's not convenient.)  Can you give me some information around whether the skin to skin I did for the majority of the first 4-5 days was sufficient for optimal brain development/bonding or whether I should still be doing this?  Thank you. LOVE the website and the work you are all doing - it's the best thing for the world!

The First International Symposia On Circumcision in 1989 unanimously declared that the genital mutilation of children is torture. David Levy in a published study in 1945 titled “Psychic Trauma of Operations in Children” described suicidal and homicidal behaviors in a six- year old child consequent to circumcision when he declared: “I wish I were dead” and “played numerous killing games, in which his father was the principal victim”.

Federal Law established Female Genital Mutilation as a crime (PL 104-208), March 30,1997) where the 14th Amendment states “nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”, which extends the criminal sanctions under PL 104-208 to male children, yet to be recognized by the Congress.

Dr. Judith Palfrey, M.D., President, American Academy of Pediatrics was compelled to renounce the AAP Bioethics Committee’s policy statement on Ritual Cutting of Female Minors with the following statement: ”The AAP does not endorse the practice of offering a "clitoral nick”. This minimal pinprick is forbidden under federal law and the AAP does not recommend it to its members. The AAP is steadfast in its goal of protecting all young girls from the harms of FGC.” (April 26, 2010). A plea was made to Dr. Palfrey to provide equal protection of male children from these sexual assaults.

A Petition was circulated at The 11th International Symposium on Circumcision, Genital Integrity, and Human Rights held at Berkeley CA 29-31 July 2010 that called upon Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman Senate Judiciary Committee to enforce the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which the Obama Administration has failed to enforce, that would provide equal protection for male children given to female children under PL 104-208.

Dr. Francis S. Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health, has not been responsive to pleas to provide protection for male children subjected to this perinatal-brain trauma of genital mutilation, yet to be evaluated by the NIH. (Letter of 1 October 2009 ,below).

The Genital Integrity Community is encouraged to write Senator Leahy in support of this Petition.

Supporting documents are found HERE.

James W. Prescott, Ph.D.
Director, Institute of Humanistic Science
27 August 2010

A long time colleague, Kali Woodward, Director at American Youth Literacy Foundation, sent a link to a New York Times article - The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers. The article describes a Harvard study following 12,000 kindergartners for twenty five years and confirms, as many other studies do the long-term impact of early experiences, in this case the value of good a Kindergarten teacher.

The first rung on the ladder holds up the rest. The very early stages of human development provide the foundation for all that follow. As is our habit and social conditioning the research paper focused on Kindergarten Teachers and concluded that the impact of a ‘good one’ translated into lifelong learning and earning potential (in children and therefore long term economic impact) valued at $320,000/year.