[lit-ideas] Re: I shall say this only 5,000 times (allo allo)

From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:54:04 EDT
Amen.  When my children were toddlers I made the choice to take them  to 
Sunday School simply because I wanted them to have some exposure to  God-talk.  
A 
framework of sorts with which to deal with the mysteries which  so overwhelm 
children.  In the years following, they have spent a  significant amount of 
time in a Jewish synagogue, an Evangelical Church, and  (courtesy of friends 
they 
love) a Lutheran Church and Catholic Mass.  There  is now, finally, an Ashram 
in the community.  My husband used to tell me I  was going to confuse them 
horribly.  My take is that they be exposed to as  many versions of Myth as 
possible.  Sorting out what path, if any, they  wish to take.  My younger 
daughter 
is truly a born pantheist.  She  doesn't need any buildings.  Just the 
out-doors and animals, to know what  she needs to know.
 
Julie Krueger

========Original  Message========     Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: I shall say this 
only 5,000 times (allo  allo)  Date: 3/12/2007 3:42:21 P.M. Central Daylight 
Time  From: _Ursula@xxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx)   To: 
_lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)   Sent on:    
Not being religious myself, I didn't send my kids  to Sunday School.  
Years later, I wished I had.   I could  have, of course, provided some 
substitute for the religious stories that  they missed, the myth that 
underlies so much of our cultural heritage (this  is changing even as we 
speak, of course).   They didn't know what  cutting off Sampson's hair 
meant.   They didn't know that Eve's  creation from Adam's rib (as an 
afterthought) lay behind some people's  devaluation of women.  They 
didn't recognize the lines in Moby Dick (I  only am left behind to tell 
the story) came from the heart of the Story of  Job.   All diminutions of 
their ability to get every drop of  promise and imagination out of 
literature.  

It isn't not  believing in Santa Claus that's the problem.  Millions of 
African kids  grow up without Santa and are not harmed.  What's harmful 
is not  participating in and understanding the myths around you.   Not  
having myths is an impoverishment.  When they're older they can  relegate 
the myths to their proper place....as embodiments of what we wish  was 
true, or of what might have been, and so forth.  

Besides  you'd deprive them also of the joy of figuring it out for  
themselves.   I detect more than a little pride in your rendition  of 
being smarter than your parents. 
Ursula

Paul Stone  wrote:
> So I guess my question to the group is: is it deprivation to let  a kid 
> grow up without this childish nonsense? If it is... what exactly  am I 
> depriving him of?
>
> Paul (soon to be Mr.)  Stone
>
>

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[lit-ideas] Re: I shall say this only 5,000 times (allo allo)

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