Re: Phonics politics- Angel

Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Thu, 09 May 96 21:39:23 EDT

I found Geoff Williams account of the literacy education situation
in Australia, necessarily incomplete as it was, very impressive in
its specific analysis. Thanks, Geoff! I also find it hopeful that
genre-oriented pedagogy seems to be actively learning from its
well-intentioned critics, rather than polarizedly insisting on
the total sufficiency of its initial program. It's a strange-seeming
phenomenon, but one I've often encountered, that just when a
progressive movement becomes self-critical and starts to broaden
its views, that its opponents rush to define it as narrowly as
possible. Of course this is also usually the period when it splits
into various internal factions, or more positively put, when it
gives rise to a more diverse second generation of successor
approaches. Still, there is a lot of useful knowledge in functional
perspectives on language and its uses, and I hope they will
eventually be incorporated even into programs which may trace their
origins to quite different educational philosophies and methods. JAY.

JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
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