The study of the intertwining of cultural and natural lines in the USSR
in the 1930-90 was about as safe as the study of the political-economic
contexts of individual development. Luria's boss in the twin work was
shot for the former. How many were shot for the latter is a little
difficult to determine. But lots of interesting ideas about how to think
about such matters are to be found in the work of those who struggled
through those times.
Judy-- I was trying to say in my note that in thinking about individual
differences, we need to think of every individual as a unique thread
in the ties that bind us as a species; our qualities as individuals are
the emergent quality of the blending of the threads, all the threads.
I continue to wrestle with the issue of how to make diversity recognized
and experienced as the good news, when so often the forms that it takes
lead to pain and worse.
mike
PS-- Two additional references. Most any of Vivian Paley's work serves
as a great way to think about individuality in the classroom, but the
recent ones have a special bit in this regard, a least for me. Second,
David's Bakhurst's book on Soviet philosophy and Ilyenkov (sorry I
do not recall the exact title), has a lot to do with accounting for
variability and thinking about the nature/nurture issue in one the final
chapters.