Communities #193
Winter 2021
Note: You can order a copy of this issue here.
Issue, #193, “Children in Community,” shares the voices of both “children of community” and of the adults who care about them. Some authors grew up in intentional community, others are parents who have raised children in community, others fit into both categories, and some fit into neither (including “non-biological parents” who take important roles in the lives of community children). What makes a childhood in community different from a mainstream upbringing? What makes parenting in community unique? The issue also explores creating new communities, dealing with difficult behaviors in a group, historical utopian experiments, and more.
CHILDEN IN COMMUNITY
Letters: Sociocracy: Not How It Works By Diana Leafe Christian
Hidden agendas, covert plans, holding onto unearned power and privilege, flouting of legal obligations, refusal to address concerns, targeting, and bullying have no place in sociocracy.
Views from Our Partners: A Context for Hope By Paul Freundlich
Is there a path that can guide today’s children to reach a future worth navigating?
Sandhill Farm’s Children* Remember Stan *and moms By Jo Sandhill, Ceilee Sandhill, Ann Shrader, Renay Friendshuh, Emma Allen-Landwehr, Jay Allen, and Gigi (Root) Wahba
Stan’s caring, gentleness, dedication to his values and to his community, and love helped create a foundation, in these children and others, that will live on long beyond his passing.
Fifty Years of Children in Communities
Parenting in Los Angeles Eco-Village By Jessica Ruvalcaba
At LAEV, parents enrich each other’s lives by sharing in the act of raising children, while the children have a whole village of adults who love them and look after them.
Children at Kibbutz Mishol By Anton Marks
A large urban community undergoes transformation once members start to have children, with new questions, challenges, and rewards from making the choice to prioritize the next generation
Growing Up at Heart-Culture Farm Community By Myriad Huntermoon
A 17-year-old appreciates her upbringing, surrounded by the love of her immediate and extended community families, and granted the freedom to be her own person.
Raising Kids in a Forming Community: Myriad’s Mom Responds By Kara Huntermoon
Creating community to help raise her child, a mother discovers she has helped form a much-needed place of safety, stability, and connection not only for her daughter, but also for herself.
Work and Play at Camphill Copake By Emilie Papas
How to balance commitments to children, to marriage, to community? Joy, laughter, and mutual support in creating beautiful, thriving homes for people with special needs help address one communitarian’s doubts.
Those Who Sow Together Grow Together By Kim Hunter
Engaging young children in tasks that need doing is both educational and supports them to engage in communal work where their capacities to love their work are enhanced, nourished, and appreciated.
Intergenerational Ecoliteracy in the 21st Century By Cara Judea Alhadeff, PhD
Ecoliteracy begins at home; it begins with parenting; in every room of the house; in the classroom, in the media. An ecoliterate mindset inspires us to draw connections as we make sense of our everyday lives.
“Being a Commune Kid”: Children at the Brotherhood of the Spirit/Renaissance Community By Daniel A. Brown
A charismatic leader’s offhand comment during a full-group meeting—“Gee, wouldn’t it be nice to have a couple of kids around here?”—creates a “Baby Boom” that lasts for years and changes the fabric of the community.
Children and Polyamory: The Kids Are Alright By Art
Children can add a lot of complexity in communal households and polyamorous relationships, but they also add meaning and opportunities to create new “stories” for ourselves and future generations.
“Come Play on Our Lawn”: Seniors-Only Communities and the Generation Gap By Alan O’Hashi
Even seniors who seek out age-segregated living arrangements, and communities whose population trends older for economic reasons, can benefit from the presence of younger visitors, and often do.
Intergenerational Community: A Bruderhof Perspective By Maureen Swinger
A parent recounts her childhood in the Bruderhof, raised among numerous “grandparents” who taught, guided, and loved her, and wishes the same for her own children.
A Culture of Song: Children and Music in Community By Esther Keiderling
Communal singing is one way to integrate the smallest children in a community into worship. Singing is fun and can help illustrate important truths and imprint them onto children’s memories.
Pioneering Community By Chant Thomas
Four decades ago, Trillium Farm Community helped spawn a whole network of community activity and social change in southwest Oregon’s Applegate Valley. Its cofounder shares stories, lessons, and encouragement for new pioneers.
Working Effectively with Especially Challenging Behaviors, Part One By Diana Leafe Christian
People living in community can be especially vulnerable to the effects of an individual’s narcissistic attitudes and behaviors; developing the ability to recognize these can be the first step to a group’s “waking up” and learning to protect itself.
● Empowering with Information, NOT Labeling or Diagnosing
Review: People in Common: Coates’ Tales By Bill Metcalf
While falling short of their aspirations, the communitarians portrayed in Chris Coates’ A Life in Common still achieved a great deal—and had a lot of fun in doing so.
Review: Practical Utopianism By Tim Miller
In The Utopians: Six Attempts to Build the Perfect Society, Anna Neima shares stories of experimental new societies that still have relevance a century later.
REACH
New Back Issue Sets and More
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