Anarchist Guide to Raising Kids

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Chuck0 suggested that we start with some real questions. So we created an Anarchist Guide to Raising Kids Q&A Forum. Feel free to post new questions or answer existing ones. This is a work in progress. Anyone wishing to help with this guide please contact Richard at zpub@sirius.com

• Why are schools like prisons? If anarchists say that schools should be abolished, what would replace them?
• What kind of free speech rights do students have?
• Do children have free speech rights? Do parents' "rights" override these rights?
• Why is it important for parents to develop open and trusting relationships with kids?
• Why is it important to teach children critical thinking skills?
• Should "disrespect for authority" be taught to children?
• What responsibilities do anarchist children have?
• Should anarchist kids "respect their elders?"
• Are children harmed by viewing pornography? By seeing extreme violence?
• At what age should children be allowed to drink alcohol? Drive cars?
• What do anarchists think about trying children as adults in the courts?
• Is there ever a good reason for an anarchist parent to spank a child?
• What do anarchists think about developmental psychology?
• What kind of basic human rights to children have? How can parents help bring about these conditions?
• Is taking children away from abusive parents a coercive act?
• How do we guarantee that children can grow up free from physical and sexual abuse?
• Should teenage girls have a right to abortions?
• Should teenagers be banned from working before they turn 18? 20?
• Has anyone had experience with instilling anarchist values in their kid, or trying to?

Resources:

• Anarchy and Kidz - The Fastest Growing Youth Movement Today?
• Taking Children Seriously - an educational philosophy whose most distinctive feature is the idea that it is possible and desirable to bring up children entirely without doing things to them against their will, or making them do things against their will, and that they are entitled to the same rights, respect and control over their lives as adults.
• What methods of child rearing do anarchists advocate? - section from an Anarchy FAQ
• Choice in Education, London based independent monthly publication for home educators
• Brat - a youth and young adult activist zine and organization located in Louisville, Kentucky. ... played key roles in organizing against youth curfews, book bannings, skateboard laws, dress codes, and other ways in which authorities have discriminated against youth.
• the anarchist teapot - "to have free minds, we must have free tea!"

Chandler says, "I `m 14 and for quite awhile believed anarchy was about making bombs. Until I found the Internet newsgroup called anarchy.rules. Now, I was talking this over with the regulars in said newsgroup and have decided to start a book about anarchism in America, so I ask you for help, art work, text files written by yourself or others,etc"

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A Project of the:

Anarchist Action Network
http://www.zpub.com/notes/aadl.html

The a-act post to start this project. [May 10, 1999]