F E L I X !!!

F: Felix planted a seed
E: Ethical Earthlings agreed
L: Lifting life up through deed
I:  Stands for Ideals, not creed
X: Marks the spot where we meet,
       to grow this Ethical seed, 
       planted so long ago.

At Ethical Culture
We gather today
To grow the tree of ethics 
In our very own way!

F:  We're Felix' family of friendship
E: Ethical Earthlings unite!
L: We're lifting life up with love
I:   Each individual matters
X:  This letter's out friend.
        It stretches out in every direction
        That's what I do with my energy!

High peace to YOU and ME!

American Ethical Union!
Hooo Rah!!!!

Spring -- join us -- blossom ethically!

TEAM ETHICAL!

The spring season of Ethics For Children will focus on team-work and collaboration.  

We'll be building our social skills toward collective action and interactive support.  

We'll take on our projects -- all with this spirit of 

TEAM ETHICAL!

April
Join "ETHICAL EARTHLINGS" TEAM for the Compassion Games
at www.compassiongames.org

April 24th No Session, due to Spring Break

.

May 1 -- REUNITE!  NEW AND OLD FRIENDS!

May 8 -- Nurture Fest

May 15 -- Founder's Day
"F.E.L.I.X. Helix TEAM" for 140th Anniversary of American Ethical Union

May 22
Getting to know Ethical History and Heroes

May 29
Compassionate Pen

June 5, 12
June 19 -- Nurture Day #2.

June 26
Reflections and Hopes

All ages work together and collaborate.

Parents are invited to attend the Morning Meeting simultaneously, 

Budding Green

Dear Earth Friends of ALL sorts, everywhere, all ages,
Please join our "Ethical Earthlings" Team!!!!
ETHICAL EARTHLINGS, one and all unite!!!!
to "play" the Compassion Games COOPetition for:
Earth Day,

       Earth Week, 

             Earth Month, 

                    Earth Season.
                            Earth Time.....

Earth Time is ALL the time, as we all do know, but Spring really does speak vividly to inspire our Earth passions.  It's a great time to dive your hands into the soil, and to indulge in some direct Earth Care. 

If you have read this... Then you are officially invited to join the Ethical Earthlings Team for the Compassion Games' COOPETITION which is called:  LOVE THIS PLACE!

How to play:
Do a good deed for the earth and its beings..
Visit www.compassiongames.org
Read about how to PLAY by creating service projects and acts of kindness toward Earth and her beings at www.compassiongames.org/play/

"Report" the story of your DEED, a reflection upon its values, and a picture to represent it on a world map called the Compassion Report Map.
Sign in either as a "guest" (i.e. "continue as guest") or via your social media identity.
Indicate that your TEAM is the "Ethical Earthlings"
Feel free to sign up to be a Secret Agent of Compassion to get daily emails during Earth Week.

Feel free to drop us a note at EthicsForChildren@NYSEC.org if you'd like us to know about you being a member of the team, Ethical Earthlings.

Friendly Familial February

What does NORMAL mean to you? When do you use that word in relation to children? Sometimes it is used to coach parents in seeing whether their child lines up with the expectations our culture has for kids of a certain age.  It helps problems become identified, at best, to be helped.   But, the myth of A NORM often oppresses people -- including children--  invisibly and pervasively. It supports notions of uniformity that defy a value of the wide diversity of human expression and developmental pathways.  It often, unintentionally perhaps, communicates a false deservedness and superiority, everywhere from the workplace to the playground. It makes people hold themselves and one another in comparison to some external standard, that is usually rife with cultural biases.  It reifies prejudices and stereotypes by upholding singular values, and culling ideals around individual embodiment -- everything weight, height, skin color, accents, clothing... etc.

Individually, the internalizing of norms can propagate self-objectification and internalized oppression.  On the playground, norms can create dynamics of popularity and conformity.  Educationally, the negative repercussions of these normatizing pressures, may be addressed in anti-bully curriculums and skill building about mutual wonder, curiosity and individuality.

At NYSEC we are addressing the question of FAMILY from a norm-defying perspective.  Together we are exploring what diverse processes and choices contribute to creating groups who consider themselves family? Children are learning about one another, and about the range of choices their families have made.  They are asking their parents about decisions that formed their families.  Families are sharing books to usher an understanding around their individual family formation.  The conversation has ensued with an open and deep dialogue among children and families.  This exploration in this day and age is an exciting one.  The diversity of family structure is vast, and full of diverse choices.

Parents are welcome to attend in these upcoming weeks if they wish to. Please talk together at home to decide about your own familial sharing.  We are compiling a range of books to support this exploration.

Nan's Donut Dilemma 

by Mary E. Ryan (Author)

This book opened up dialogue about the experience faced by a child of a "single parent by choice."  It makes children question "who parents a child" vs. "who contributes to the conception" of a child. 

A call for Less Device Time!!! A call for Fairness and Attention!

Ethical Device-Use

"Dear Families, We are asking you to put away your phones.  Please limit your time on your devices. You're using them too much.  Please pay more attention to the outside world -- including children.  Thank you."

Discuss this request, Families!  Take seriously children's challenge to adults for "less device time."   Let it support your child to embrace LESS device time themselves with greater ease.  

Here is the story behind this request:
The Ethics For Children group at NYSEC met to honor Dr. King's birthday.  In doing so, each child (ages 2-10), took "the Ethical Pulpit" to share their hopes for a fair future. From this sharing, a surprising and noteworthy development took place:  

Remember, Fairness was the theme.  Some children expressed indignant feelings at having to limit their time on "devices," while looking up to adults who never put down their devices.   Expanding upon that, they expressed how overwhelming it was to be around adults who are constantly using devices.  From under  a mad complaint about wanting more video game time, emerged a yearning for something unexpected.  A yearning for fairness, and attention.  Some children can't pull themselves away from video games, and even when the machine is not there, they can't unlock their minds from video games.  Others are already reeling with the device-over-dosing of their generation.  Some are able to identify a kind of cultural peer pressure around device use, that is either deeply compelling or deeply uncomfortable to them.  With help transcribing, and the prompt of "What request would you like to make of your families,"  they each chimed in to create the letter above.

It is poignant that this young generation is expressing gut-level fairness issues in the realm of  technology.   Fathers asked their computer-loving sons, "Are you being silly or serious?!"  The boys stamped their feet and said, "We mean it!" 

Children expressed so clearly the value of an age-old adage: that we teach by example.  So, Let's. Limit Device Use!  Make device-free commitments in your family's time together. 

Winter Season 2016

ETHICS FOR CHILDREN: LOOKING FORWARD 2016

www.YoungEthicalExplorers.blogspot.com

Free Family Festivals for ALL.  

and Gatherings each Sunday for all ages.

Festivals include: 

January 10th, 11am THE JUSTICE JAM!

February 7th, 11am,  HELPFUL HEARTS FESTIVAL!

March 27th, 11am, A MARCH OF MINDFUL MADNESS! 

Enroll in Winter Season of Ethics For Children:  

Jan. 10 through March 27, 2016 

RSVP:  EthicsForChildren@NYSEC.org

THE PLAN FOR 2016:  

Genuine Justice January

 invites children 

to explore fairness 

to learn about equality in humanity

to learn about diversity of culture 

to stand up for a fair world

to learn justice songs from the civil rights movement

Friendly Familial February

 invites children 

to explore familial diversity and familial choice

to appreciate the role of one's family in a larger vision of the human family

Moving Mindful March

invites children into yogic fun

to learn about going inside ourselves

to learn about sharing outside of ourselves

to find values, and practices that support 

individual and communal wellbeing

to fuel actions of goodness from outrages of injustice.

Free Festivals and suggested offering of: 

$100 per family for seasonal enrollment.

Free for Ethical Member Families

All ages work together and collaborate.

Parents are invited to attend the Morning Meeting simultaneously, 

(yet are welcome to stay and participate helpfully by request). 

Sundays that fall on 3 day weekends will depend on RSVP, for planning of the group.

SOLSTICE STORY -- SOLSTICE CELEBRATION

NYSEC Winter Solstice!!!! 

Intergenerational Celebration

Sun, Dec. 18, 11am

NYSEC, 4th Floor

Free, all ages, participatory!

Optional extensions:  

Lunch afterwards.  

and Prep-session before it at 10:30 on 5th floor.

Link to the ANCIENT JAPANESE SOLSTICE STORY story we will be enacting.
You may enjoy reading it before and/or after the event at home! You may enjoy making a picture from this story, or from your experience of the Solstice event at NYSEC.

If you make a picture for this story, please send a picture of your picture to
EthicsForChildren@NYSEC.org and it will get published inside of the story, on this blog.