My Writing

By Wendy Priesnitz

For the past 50+ years, I have played with the idea of writing as activism, a way to help create change in the aspects of life about which I care the most. My output over more than 45 years includes newspaper and magazine articles and columns, essays, poems, blogs, and websites, as well as thirteen books that I have written directly and many more to which I've contributed. In addition to the posts on my blog (see link above), here are links to some of those pieces of writing.

Writing About Education

• When We Make Children Struggle
  
• Because It Was the Right Thing to Do
  
• It's Hard to Lose Learning
  
• Living and Learning at the Edges
  
• Education Inspired by Nature
  
• Ready for a Changing World
  
• The Words We Use: Living As If School Doesn’t Exist
  
• Learning in the Real World
  
• Learning is Not Something That’s Done to You
  
• The Benefits of Boredom
  
• Learning from John Holt
  
• How Unschoolers Learn: The Principle of Productive Failure
  
• Taking Risks and Breaking Rules
  
• Power to Control
  
• Protecting the Spark of Curiosity
  
• What Education Means
  
• No Such Thing As Unschooling Failure
  
• The Whole World is a Learning Community
  
• Unschooling Lets Kids Control Their Own Minds and Environment
  
• Curiosity: Honoring, Encouraging, and Satisfying It
  
• The Principle of Productive Failure
  
• Motivation for Learning – and What Science Says
  
• Knowledge & the Cult of Experts
  
• Freedom or Control: Who Decides?
  
• Rules in a Life Learning Family
  
• Learning From a Mentor
  
• Make It & Mend It: Real Life Learning Opportunities
  
• A Life of Learning: Empowering and Trusting Children
  
• Understanding Life Learning / Unschooling
  
• Life Learning is About Process Over Content
  
• Taking Possession of Our Lives and Learning
  
• Willing to Try: Living Without Fear or Shame
  
• Parenting Digital Natives
  
• Don’t Let Your Children Learn!
  
• Guidance, Not Control
  
• It’s Not Important What School Reformers Think About Homeschooling
  
• Nurturing Creativity
  
• Life Learning Science
  
• Place-Based Education
  
• The Art of Inspiration: The Role Parents Play in Life Learning
  
• Risking to Learn
  
• What Fear Does
  
• How Do They Know That? (and why do they need to know?)
  
• Not Just for Children: Reframing Unschooling to Include Adults
  
• Defeating Adultism
  
• After the Pause - The Effects of Coercion
  
• Challenging Assumptions in Education (book excerpt)
  
• Slow Learning
  
• Instinct to Learn
  
• The Dark Side of Competition
  
• Doing Our Best (When We Want To)
  
• Lazy Learning
  
• What is Socialization and What Kind Do We Want Our Life Learning Kids to Have?
  
• Finding Success – Life Learning Children Can Define it on Their Own
  
• Life Learning Changes Our View of Success
  
• Challenging Assumptions: Learning is Not Something That’s Done to You
  
• Exploring the Assumptions About Kids and Electronic Media
  
• A Sense of Wonder
  
• A Life Worth Living and a Job Worth Doing: Pat Farenga on John Holt
  
• The Life Learning Journey: Grown-Up Unschoolers
  
• Mindful Learning and Parenting
  
• Anarchy in Education? Life Learners Creating Change
  
• Scaling Up Life Learning
  
• A Space for Learning?
  
• Experiential Learning is Children's Work
  
• The Benefits of Self-Directed Time
  
• Coercion, Compulsory Attendance, and Adultism
  
• Compulsory Self-Directed Learning?
  
• Pushing Back Against What They Don't Understand
  
• Learning and the Power of Storytelling
  
• The Power of Authority
  
• Journaling: Writing to Learn and Learning to Write
  
• A Short History of the Home Education Movement in Canada
  

Writing about Green, Healthy Living

• Biomimicry: Inspiration From Nature to Solve the Problems People Have Created
  
• Counting Our Food Miles
  
• Learning Difficulties, Health, and the Environment
  
• The Real Dirt on Sewage Sludge
  
• Better Safe Than Sorry: The Precautionary Principle
  
• Seeking Nature-Inspired Solutions to Climate Change
  
• Air Fresheners or Air Pollutants?
  
• What’s Wrong With Peat Moss?
  
• Should We Eliminate Plastic?
  
• Are Wind Turbines Dangerous?
  
• What’s Wrong With Fabric Softener?
  
• Skin Deep: Are Cosmetics Safe?
  
• How Dangerous is Antibacterial Soap?
  
• How Green is My Diet?
  
• How Healthy and Safe are Soy Foods?
  
• Is Fluoride in Our Water Bad for Our Health?
  
• What’s the Dirt on Household Cleaners?
  
• What is Nanotechnology and Should We Be Concerned About it?
  
• Do Cellphones and Other Electronic Gadgets Affect Our Health?
  
• Can We Save Money by Going Solar?
  
• Shedding Light on Lightbulbs
  
• Soapnuts – An Inexpensive and Eco-Friendly Laundry Alternative
  
• Rewilding Ourselves and the Planet
  
• The Wonderful World of Trees and Treehugging
  
• Downsizing Your Home, Decluttering Your Life
  
• Taming the Power of Possessions
  
• Save Energy and Money While Living Sustainably and Healthily
  
• The Cooking Pot Dilemma
  
• Cooking with Deep Greens – Kale and Swiss Chard
  
• Seven Ways to Green Up Your Grocery Shopping
  
• Back to Basics Food Storage
  
• How to Reduce Kitchen Waste
  
• Living Without Single-Use Plastic
  
• Bicycle Culture: A New Cycling Revolution Takes Hold
  
• A Composting Primer
  
• Laugh and Be Well With Laughter Yoga
  
• Toxic Art & Art Making
  
• Candles: A Burning Indoor Air Quality Issue
  
• Stop That Noise! A Guide to Noise Pollution
  
• Eat Well & Protect Your Eyes
  
• Health in Your Eye - Understanding Iridology
  
• Spraying Yourself With Toxic Chemicals is Not Sexy
  
• Are You Dying to Lose Weight?
  
• It's Never Too Late to Be Fit
  
• Try a Raw Foods Diet
  
• Why We Should Soak Nuts, Grains, and Seeds
  
• The Seeds of Health
  
• Natural Dental Care
  
• What is Dental Floss Made Of?
  
• Avoiding Flu? Boost Your Immune System by Taking Good Care of Yourself
  
• Five Nasty Things They’re Doing to Our Food and Five Things We Can Do About It
  
• Sensitive to Sulfites
  
• Pollen Allergies: Are Unisex Trees Making Us Sick?
  
• What’s the Problem With GMOs?
  
• Earth Day: Ten Ways to Celebrate With Your Family
  
• Celebrate the Winter Solstice
  
• Five Ways to Simplify the Christmas Holidays
  
• Nature Offers Relief for Holiday Stress
  
• Making Your Life Simpler: Ten Tips for Making and Keeping Minimalist Resolutions
  
• Have a Green, Socially Responsible Valentine's Day
  
• How to Create Edible Landscaping for your Home
  
• A Straw-Clay House That’s Inspired by Nature
  
• Learning Straw-Clay Building
  
• A Sense of Place: Sustainability is More Than Solar Panels
  
• Zero Energy Homes
  
• Tiny Urban House Gets Net-Zero Reno
  
• Do You Know Where Your Wood Pallett Has Been?
  
• Interview with a Community Activist, Cob Builder, and Unschooling Mom
  
• Interview: Sustainable Country Living in an Earthship
  
• Interview: Living and Working Off-Grid
  
• Interview: A Woman Straw Bale Construction Pioneer
  
• Small Houses are Good for the Planet
  
• Tiny Houses, Tiny Neighborhoods
  
• Beyond the VW Van: the New Nomadics
  
• Yurts: Housing in the Round
  
• An Affordable, Sustainable House
  
• A Cold Climate Net-Zero Condo Duplex
  
• Wild Sage Cohousing Sets a Sustainability Standard
  
• Communal Food: The Community Kitchen Movement
  
• Cleaning Up a Moldy Home
  
• Breathing Lessons: How to Make Your Home a Clean-Air Haven
  
• Radon in Your Home
  
• Eight Ways to Create a Greener, Healthier Home
  
• Organic Pest Control for Your House and Garden
  
• Feng Shui Your Way to a Simpler Home
  
• Ten Steps to a Serene Bedroom
  
• Microfibers: How Your Clothes Could be Polluting the Oceans
  
• Organic Fibers: Dress Yourself and Your Home in Style with a Conscience
  
• Questioning Carbon Currency
  
• Companion Planting: Working Together in the Garden
  
• Creating a Wildflower Garden
  
• The Buzz About Backyard Bees
  
• Keep Your Pet Healthy the Natural Way
  
• The Problems With Leaf Blowers
  
• What's Wrong With Natural Living?
  
• Excerpt from Natural Life Magazine's Green and Healthy Homes
  
• Have a Sustainable, Healthy Summer
  
• Planning Your Green Vacation
  
• The Staycation: A Stress-Free, Green Family Vacation at Home
  
• Doing Good While Traveling? The Pros and Cons of Voluntourism
  
• The Power of Fun
  
• Dirty Cruises: Cleaning Up a Polluting Industry
  
• Respectful Whale Watching
  
• Catching a Green Wave: Geening Human-Powered Action Sports
  
• Letting It All Hang Out: Clotheslines Save Energy
  
• Natural Burials: The Ultimate in Recycling
  
• Parenting Our Parents: Finding Progressive End-of-Life Solutions
  
• Your Garden: The Planning Before the Planting
  
• Small is Beautiful...and Local, Sustainable, and Planet-Saving
  
• The Times They Are A-Changin'
  
• We All Have Green Work To Do
  
• The Glow is Coming Off Glitter
  
• The Toxic Consequences of Fireworks
  
• What Goes Up Must Come Down: The Problem With Balloons
  
• Stop Stacking Stones
  

Writing About Media and Media Literacy

• Corporate Spin is Harming Us
  
• Spin: How We Are Influenced
  
• Media Madness
  
• Follow the Money
  
• Greenwashing: When the green is just veneer
  
• Helping Kids Manage Their Media
  
• Exploring the Assumptions About Kids and Electronic Media
  
• Protecting our Kids from Commercialism
  

Writing About Play

• Playing in the Real World
  
• Do you Know What Your Child is Playing on?
  
• Playing Together: Cooperation, not Competition
  
• Where Does Spontaneity Go?
  
• Baby Couch Potatoes
  
• Skipping Rope – A Revived Street Game for all Ages
  
• The Value of Spontaneous Play
  

Writing about Conscious Parenting

• Keeping Ultrasound in its Place
  
• Eight Reasons Not to Swaddle Your Infant
  
• Baby-Led Weaning
  
• Good Nights: Bedtime Doesn’t Have to be Stressful
  
• Natural Play: Ditching Fancy Toys for Sticks and Mud
  
• Your [Dangerously] Wired Child
  
• When Clean Isn’t Always So Clean: The Case Against Antibacterial Soap
  
• Please Leave Your Shoes by the Door
  
• Baby Steps to a Green, Healthy Home
  
• Greening the Ghosts and the Ghoulies at Halloween
  
• Greening the Easter Bunny
  
• How to Have a Merry, Non-Commercial Christmas
  
• The Damage Spanking Does
  
• Learning to Trust and Love
  
• Traumatized Children, Traumatized World
  
• Kids in Community
  

Writing about Social Change

• The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Rocks the Boat
  
• Be Like a Butterfly
  
• On Pandemics as Portals to a New Way of Living
  
• It's Not About Growth: Alternative Economic Indicators
  
• Shop Small
  
• Embracing Slow
  
• Knitting for a Change
  
• Fair Trade is Shopping With a Conscience
  
• Buycotts and Boycotts - Can Ethical Consumerism Change Society?
  
• The Problem With Cheap Fashion
  
• A Fruitful Harvest - The Public Food Movement
  
• Cohousing – Creating a Sustainable Housing Solution
  
• Cohousing Comes to Canada
  
• Connections are the Solutions to Life and Learning
  
• A Time of Opportunity or One of Crisis?
  
• Grassroots Change - From the Ground Up
  
• Change Begins With the Children
  
• Instead of Efficiency
  
• The Clichés Might Have it Right
  
• Words Have Power
  
• Being Part of the Solution
  
• The Big Picture Looks Good
  
• Enough, Already
  
• OK Boomer
  
• Interview with Rolf Priesnitz, Publisher of Life Media
  

Writing about Business and Work

• Work: How We are Redefining it (and everything else in life)
  
• Start a Business and Change the World
  
• Mastering Home Office Spillover
  
• Unjobbing: A New Paradigm of Work and Life
  
• The Benefits of Coworking Spaces
  
• How to Handle Work-at-Home Isolation
  
• Starting a New Business During Hard Times
  

Personal and Memoir Writing

• A Potholder Hug
  
• Learning From the Robins
  
• Remembering the Ancestors
  
• More Than the Absence of School
  
• Providing Support While Letting Growth Happen
  
• Challenging Assumptions in Education and Pandemics
  
• A Life of Learning: Empowering and Entrusting Children
  
• Talking About Life Learning: An Interview
  
• Remembering What's Important
  
• When Activist Icons Undermine Their Causes
  
• Microchimerism
  
• Companionship: Thriving Plants and Thriving People
  
• Acceptance speech for leadership of Green Party of Canada
  
• Resignation letter from leadership of Green Party of Canada
  

Poetry

• Selected poems
  

Quotes

• Selected quotes from books and articles
  

Books

For a limited time, free PDF downloads of these books are available at this link.

• Beyond School: Living As If School Doesn’t Exist
• Natural Life Magazine’s Green & Healthy Homes
• Life Learning: Lessons From The Educational Frontier
• Challenging Assumptions in Education: From Institutionalized Education to a Learning Society

These books are now out of print:

• It Hasn't Shut Me Up - a memoir (2013)
• Bringing it Home: A Home Business Start-Up Guide for You and Your Family (1996)
• School Free: The Homeschooling Handbook (1987)
• Summer Love, Winter Fires (1976);
• North York – Realizing the Dream (1988);
• Markham: A Contemporary Portrait (1990);
• The Natural Life Cookbook (1992, with Heidi Priesnitz);
• A Kid’s Guide to Starting a Business at Home (1994);
• The House Where I Grew Up (1999)

These are some of the books I’ve contributed to:

• Recommendations for Action on Pollution and Education in Toronto for the Board of Education for the City of Toronto, with Bruce Small (1985);
• Metropolitan Toronto: Working Toward the Future, with R. White (1990);
• The Homeschooling Book of Answers, with Linda Dobson (1998);
• “Nurturing Self-directed Learning” in The Unofficial Guide to Unschooling, by Kathy Ishizuka (2000);
• “Education Can Lead the Way to a Sustainable Society” in Creating Learning Communities – Models, Resources, and New Ways of Thinking About Teaching and Learning, with Ron Miller (2000);
• “New Study Links Monsanto’s Roundup to Cancer” in Strategic Management, by Hanson et al. (2004);
• A Parent’s Guide to Home Schooling, with Tamra B. Orr (2002);
• “A Life of Learning: Empowering, Respecting, Trusting, Unschooling Children” in Turning Points: 27 Visionaries in Education Tell Their Own Stories, with Jerry Mintz & Carlo Ricci (2009);
• “There is Art in That Trash” in Global Viewpoints: Garbage and Recycling (2010);
• “Rooftop Power” in Leap Advanced, with Julia Williams (2013);
• The Legacy of John Holt, with Patrick Farenga (2013);
• A Path of their Own: Helping Children to Educate Themselves by Lael Whitehead (2014);
• Natural Born Learners: Unschooling and Autonomy in Education, with Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko (2014)

Wendy Priesnitz was the founding editor of Natural Life Magazine, Life Learning Magazine, Natural Child Magazine and Child’s Play Magazine; is the owner of Life Media, which publishes all four of these now free online magazines; has been a journalist for over fifty years; written thirteen books; contributed to many other books; was the national leader of the Green Party of Canada in the 1990s and has two life learning adult daughters.