What I’ll Be Doing Over Winter Break
I’ve always liked the phrase “Winter break” even though I long ago realized that it is simply a kindly old euphemism for “not really a break at all, plus it’s cold outside.” Winter break always includes some great time with my kids and family, my daughter’s birthday, Solstice, Christmas, delicious food, and maybe a day or two of rest if I’m clever about it. But it also means squeezing in as much work time as possible around the edges of all those holy days and holidays.
This year I have a very big task on the work table, one that looks daunting from the outside but will no doubt become manageable once I dive in. I’ll be getting ready to teach my first class as a faculty member at Cherry Hill Seminary.
I’ve known about Cherry Hill for a long time and have recommended it to many Pagans looking for advanced training in public ministry and pastoral counseling. I’ve even hoped to take a few courses myself when I had the time. The faculty is great and the school fills a gaping hole in U.S. Pagan culture. So I was very honored to be asked to take over teaching their course “Children in Contemporary Paganism” this Spring semester.
The course was developed by Brighde Indigo, who brought together some incredible resources and created such a good outline for the course that I couldn’t think of anything to add or change about it at all. But while the syllabus is intact, that still leaves me the work of reviewing all the readings and developing lecture materials for each class.
My winter work is also shaping up to be a deja vu experience. The main class text is one I co-authored about ten years ago, when I had a small house filled with five bright, charming, demanding children on the cusp of young adulthood. Now, with most of those kids safely through their teen years and only one still left at home, I have an entirely different perspective on raising children, Pagan or no, and on what it means to have a community which supports their journeys to adulthood. (I’m also way more relaxed in general.)
So in the weeks ahead I will be a student of my own book, remembering not only the material itself but who I was when I participated in creating it. As I write the class lectures I will once again be mining my own life experience for what may be of use to others in helping raise Pagan children. This process of self-reflection and summation, of zooming back and forth from the big picture to situational specifics, finding the seeds of wisdom in a complex narrative, is thrilling to me. I expect to learn just as much from this teaching gig as anyone who enrolls in the course.
I love teaching, and I find teaching adults particularly rewarding. This position at Cherry Hill is a wonderful way to combine my decades of devotion to childraising in the Pagan community with my love of telling other people what to do. I mean, supporting people in making informed, intelligent decisions in their communities. Yes, I’m sure that’s what I mean. And if you know of anyone who would like to join me in this grand project, registration is now open!
December 5th, 2007 at 10:10 am
You know, there is, as far as I can tell, zero information out there on grandparenting a child, while Pagan. It’s such an odd negotiation, between the ‘rents and the g/rents anyway, and throw Paganism into the mix, and, wow. I sing Goddess chants to put g/Son to sleep. I tell him feminist versions of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. I do protection spells when I knit sweaters for him and reiki on his boo-boos. But I’m not sure how I’m going to handle the inevitable questions that will come as he grows older. Already, he’s v. interested in my ritual room.
This religion will be so different in a few generations. It’s just here, now, on the cusp that it’s all so “interesting” to figure out.
December 6th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Will you be surveying the various Pagan child-reading books — Ashleen O’Gaea’s, etc.?
December 6th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Why Chas, how surprising for you to ask a seemingly innocent question loaded with subtext! The short answer: some but not all. In fact, many of the readings for the course come from sources outside the standard Pagan parenting bookshelf. That’s one reason I’m so excited about the coursework.
Somewhere in the archives of the Reclaiming Newsletter is a review I wrote of all the existing Pagan parenting books before Circle Round was published. I include O’Gaea’s text in that review.
Hecate, I am surprised there is not a blog, website, or e-list for Pagan grandparents helping raise the next generation. That seems an obvious need.