[Xmca-l] Re: A Quick Lightning Dive - like a Kingfisher

[David Kellogg]

Great, Vandy--particularly if they are teachers or parents.  But you are a
teacher, and you work in a context not far from us. What did YOU think?

David Kellogg
Macquarie University

On Wed, Nov 9, 2016 at 3:20 PM, Wilkinson <vwilk@inf.shizuoka.ac.jp> wrote:

> David,
> Would you mind if I ask a couple of my more advanced English students
> (adults) if they find the writing conceptually interesting and inviting.
> If OK, I'll enjoy seeing what kind of discussions are generated by your
> writing.
> Vandy
>
> On 2016/11/09 11:02, David Kellogg wrote:
>
>> Tom and Vandy:
>>
>> This is an issue I really have to worry about all the time, because the
>> main readers of our books are elementary school teachers, who really don't
>> have much time for the kind of stuff they had to study up on to pass the
>> civil service examination. At one time I was kind of hoping that Vygotsky
>> would be put on the syllabus, but now I am rather glad he wasn't. One
>> year,
>> just for fun, I bought exam prep books and tried to follow the TV lectures
>> (though I didn't sit the exam itself). It wasn't that much fun.
>>
>> Anyway, this is the first draft for a foreword I wrote last night for the
>> new volume of Vygotsky lectures. If you have a minute, I'd really
>> appreciate hearing what you think. See if you think it's too technical.
>> See
>> if you think it makes the book sound worth reading.
>>
>> David Kellogg
>> Macquarie University
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 9, 2016 at 2:09 AM, Tom Richardson <
>> tom.richardson3@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Thank you Vandy@GST
>>> A delightfully serious read; a breath of mind-clearing oxygen, although
>>> it
>>> isn't clear to me why. Maybe it's just because it is grounded and
>>> graspable.
>>> Technical languages have an essential role, but make xmca postings, no
>>> matter how genuinely mind-opening and conceptually developmental, a
>>> leetle(sic) hard-going at times.
>>> Thanks
>>> (Pity neither Hillary nor Donald  is anything other than dangerous to
>>> global survival, IMO)
>>> Tom Richardson
>>> Middlesbrough UK
>>>
>>>
>>> On 7 November 2016 at 02:35, valerie A. Wilkinson <
>>> vwilk@inf.shizuoka.ac.jp>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Good morning, XMCAers, Vandy@GST here, promoting "requisite variety" as
>>>> the
>>>> true path.
>>>>
>>>> I've spent some hours pondering all that has happened since Mike dropped
>>>> his
>>>> "bombshell": Time for a generational change."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Mike himself put gender and chaining on the table at that time.
>>>>
>>>> Larry, in taking up the themes and honoring Mike for his "middle" role
>>>>
>>>> led to Phillip putting gender and chaining firmly together as
>>>> patriarchal
>>>> and hierarchical, even if unwitting and well intentioned.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The discussion has gone in many directions and I am late for work.  The
>>>>
>>> US
>>>
>>>> election is "tomorrow" and what I wanted to say in an article before the
>>>> decision, in a haiku-like spontaneous effusion of wisdom, learning,
>>>> philosophy, and engaged learning across a lifetime was "bogged down" by
>>>>
>>> APA
>>>
>>>> rules.  In Japan, science writers have to use APA format.  I am a
>>>>
>>> humanist
>>>
>>>> operating in the field of Informatics and even after 20 years on board
>>>> here,
>>>> I do not feel I have a place at the table.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So what I want to say now, as everything hangs in the balance:
>>>>
>>>> My Indonesian and Vietnamese graduate students are women who have
>>>> already
>>>> graduated from the university and are getting married and having babies
>>>>
>>> at
>>>
>>>> the same time that they are students in Informatics.  My Chinese and
>>>> Nepalese women students graduated from universities in their home
>>>> countries,
>>>> but their cultural and language level is almost incalculably higher than
>>>>
>>> my
>>>
>>>> Indonesian and Vietnamese students. My female student from Tunisia is
>>>>
>>> from
>>>
>>>> yet another world. My class of "Professional Presentations in English"
>>>>
>>> is a
>>>
>>>> one credit class and I am not their individual advisor.  All of them owe
>>>> obedience to their own advisor, which I do not have the standing to
>>>>
>>> compete
>>>
>>>> with.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It is my job to be a model of a woman of learning to help them discover
>>>> their calling and talent while working in their lab with their own
>>>> professor.  My own students are at an English level for which writing
>>>> correct English is a challenge and at a cultural level (poverty and
>>>> farmers)
>>>> which makes them like very talented Middle School students.  We have to
>>>> have
>>>> fun, make paper chains, popcorn balls, posters.  We have to enjoy our
>>>>
>>> time
>>>
>>>> and keep our space clean.  Strangely, five years of rehabilitation
>>>>
>>> prepared
>>>
>>>> me well for this.  Sadly, rank has no meaning if the rest of the gang
>>>>
>>> does
>>>
>>>> not recognize it .
>>>>
>>>> I voted.  Now I'm in the "hold my breath" phase of waiting for this
>>>> thing
>>>> to
>>>> pass so we can get on with our lives.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>
>
>