NOD - Youth vs. Adult Courses

[Amethyst]

I recently registered for a free account with the New Order of Druids. I might like to look into OBOD or ADF in the future, but I'm not really in a place to spend money right now and wanted to take advantage of NOD's free basic courses.

Which leads me to my questions. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with NOD lessons and could speak to either the Youth level or Adult level courses. I have looked at the previews for both but still can't decide which to apply for - I know very little about anything, which draws me to the Youth level, but the Youth courses seem very simplistic and something I could Google. Is one level clearly superior to the other? Would it be beneficial to do both, either at once or separately, or would that be too overwhelming and repetitive?

Also, I have a related question: how do the NOD lessons fit in with ADF or the OBOD? Are there extreme overlaps and repeats, or are they all very dissimilar?

Any answers to any of my questions would be greatly appreciated!

[RandallS]

Which leads me to my questions. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with NOD lessons and could speak to either the Youth level or Adult level courses.

No experience, but if you think the Youth level seem too simple perhaps the Adult is more for you.

[SunflowerP]

No experience, but if you think the Youth level seem too simple perhaps the Adult is more for you.

 
Nor do I, but I get wary when things of this sort are divided by age in that way - all too often, the underlying assumption is that the youngens need to have language and concepts super-simplified.  There's something to that if pre-teens or younger are part of the target group, but that's rarely the case with pagan stuff.

There are other possible reasons for dividing into "adult" and "youth" sections (the life circumstances most teens exist under can have a strong effect on when and how they can study/practice, f'ex, and there's a lot to be said for taking that into account), but for me it's always cause to scrutinize to see if they're genuinely accommodating real issues and counteracting the marginalization that young folks experience, or are perpetuating the adultist assumptions on which that marginalization is based.

If it's possible (and if you're so inclined) for you to do both, and perhaps write up a comparative review to post here, I think that might be quite interesting and useful for people.

Sunflower

[Chatelaine]

Is one level clearly superior to the other? Would it be beneficial to do both, either at once or separately, or would that be too overwhelming and repetitive?

Curious outsider's view: The youth courses seem like either an advertising gimmick, or a kind of primer for children of Druid parents - probably a bit of both. Having all three degrees in youth version would mean the first degree is geared towards 14-year-olds at best. Not to mention that an underage Druid sounds like a concept of questionable sanity.

I assume you're over 18, so go with the adult versions. Learning should at least involve some challenge.

[Amethyst]

No experience, but if you think the Youth level seem too simple perhaps the Adult is more for you.

Curious outsider's view: The youth courses seem like either an advertising gimmick, or a kind of primer for children of Druid parents - probably a bit of both. Having all three degrees in youth version would mean the first degree is geared towards 14-year-olds at best. Not to mention that an underage Druid sounds like a concept of questionable sanity.

I assume you're over 18, so go with the adult versions. Learning should at least involve some challenge.

Besides their website, the only references I found to the youth course were of Pagan or Druid parents whose kids were in Catholic school and were allowed to take an alternate religion course.

I ended up signing up for both. My initial impressions are that the youth assignments are much more arts-and-crafts based (ex: make a wheel of the year) with some essays on personal experiences in meditation and why Druidry, etc. There is also a final project that takes at least a year to do properly. For the adult, it seems like every assignment is a 3-5 page essay (much more my style, haha), with no final project, and a 6 month minimum.

I think I'll do the first few assignments of both and see how they go.
 

If it's possible (and if you're so inclined) for you to do both, and perhaps write up a comparative review to post here, I think that might be quite interesting and useful for people.

 
I would love to do that! It may take me a little while to get around to it, and to have enough of each done to write a quality comparison, but I think it would be a useful resource. If I have time I will definitely do that.

[bluewave193]

Besides their website, the only references I found to the youth course were of Pagan or Druid parents whose kids were in Catholic school and were allowed to take an alternate religion course.

I ended up signing up for both. My initial impressions are that the youth assignments are much more arts-and-crafts based (ex: make a wheel of the year) with some essays on personal experiences in meditation and why Druidry, etc. There is also a final project that takes at least a year to do properly. For the adult, it seems like every assignment is a 3-5 page essay (much more my style, haha), with no final project, and a 6 month minimum.

I think I'll do the first few assignments of both and see how they go.
 

 
I would love to do that! It may take me a little while to get around to it, and to have enough of each done to write a quality comparison, but I think it would be a useful resource. If I have time I will definitely do that.

 

I just signed up for the youth course. I'm having trouble understanding some of the adult material (i.e Myth Work I) and hope to gain a better foundation with the youth course.

[Amethyst]

I just signed up for the youth course. I'm having trouble understanding some of the adult material (i.e Myth Work I) and hope to gain a better foundation with the youth course.

 
I'm having a similar problem. I think I understand the reading on the adult course, but then I go look at the assignment - and I have no idea.