Karen Edmisten has very kindly posted her excellent article on the subject, "Label Me Schizophrenic," which first appeared in Home Education Magazine.
There were some good comments on the subject in yesterday’s post, too, including this from Beth:
What I have found very frustrating over the years, both in daily life
and on the internet, is the divisiveness and judgmental behavior that
are so often created — either deliberately or inadvertently — by
subscribing to specific labels. It is very important, I have found, not
to underestimate a label’s ability to shut people out, while at the
same time locking others in.
Living in a very Christian area the concept of labels often came up at the inception of a new homeschool group in 1999. We formed this group to cradle the diverse families of the area. There was a push in the beginning to state the group as nonsectarian.
So that’s another label, only in reverse of the first, creating the same impression only as a negative of the original photo.
Living where I thought being a Catholic was being a Christian. I soon found outI was wrong. “Christian” has a completely different meaning here, I have yet to understand.
Kay in PA
There’s a reason I haven’t volunteered any political labels/descriptors of myself at Lissa’s new Tidal Homeschooling Yahoo group 🙂
There’s a reason I haven’t volunteered any political labels/descriptors of myself at Lissa’s new Tidal Homeschooling Yahoo group 🙂
There was a really good post in amongst those in the recent Country Fair that worked through how those labels might lead you down completely the wrong path. That the things you have in common might be more important than the things you don’t even when it is the latter that contributes to the particular label. It was this one:
http://ourreportcard.blogspot.com/search?q=We+went+to+the+pool+this+afternoon
Thanks, Lissa. This is such a fascinating topic to me. Labels have always bothered (or haunted) me in one way or another. Labels can certainly help us sift through certain things, but they can also be alienating. So interesting.