Relational Ontologies

In this book, I present the metaphor of a fishing net to represent the epistemological and ontological beliefs that we weave together for our children, to give meaning to their experiences and to help sustain them in their lives. I describe the epistemological threads we use to help us determine what we catch up in our net as the warp threads, and our ontological threads as the weft threads. I ask: what kind of fishing nets are we weaving for our children to help them make sense of their experiences? What weft threads are we including and working to strengthen, and what threads are we removing or leaving out? It is so important to carefully re/examine these most basic ways of catching up what sustains us in our Ocean of infinite experiences, as these threads affect our children's well- being and chances of survival. The threads we weave for our children will determine what they catch up in their nets, until they are old enough to re/weave their own nets. In this book, not only do I describe ontological threads we use to make sense of our lives, and how these shape our schools, I also suggest other values that could lead to a possible reweaving of the USA's fishing net, which will also effect what we catch up in our nets, thus causing a reforming of our schools. I reweave our epistemological/ontological fishing net on a larger scale, turning to indigenous cultures and diverse spiritual beliefs for assistance.