Re: Joining in the request for papers

Ana M. Shane (pshane who-is-at andromeda.rutgers.edu)
Fri, 27 Sep 1996 01:03:24 -0400

Yrj=F6,

I read the paper and I like it very much. Peter H=F8eg is one of my favorite
writers although I have only read "Smila's sense of snow". Now I will have
to read the "Borderliners".
Your questions are very much on target. Development is not always just a
smooth progress but often dramatic restructuring of the life space (K.
Lewin's term). This can be as dramatic and tragic as in Peter H=F8eg's
autobiography (and I don't doubt that for many kids around the world it was
and it is as tragic), but also it can be dramatic in the best of the
cirsumstances. An example (from my collection of ethnographic stories,
happened over 35 years ago):

A boy around five and his mother. The boy had just been in the day care
center for the first time and he came home in tears. His mother asked him
what was the matter and he accused her:
"You lied to me!"
"What, what did I lie to you about?" replied the surprised mother.
"You told me a lie that the babies are born from a womb of a woman. It is a
lie."
The mother was stunned. "Why do you think it is a lie?"
"I have learned today," sad the boy still crying, "that storks bring=
babies."
"Who told you that?" asked the mother
"All the children say so!" replied the boy.
The mother then started to explain to her son that it is a story that many
children learn. It is a folk myth for children, because many parents are
embarrased to tell them the REAL truth about the origin of the babies. She
was patient with her son and very gentle, but firm on the truth of her story
of how the babies are born.
But the boy only cried stronger.
"Why are you still crying?" asked the mother.
"Because, you may be right, but the story about the storks is so much
nicer!" replied the boy.

I think you are touching upon an issue that has been really neglected in
cognitive developmental theories. And that is the issue of emotional
engagement, or just plainly "engagement" with the world, which is not just
an accompaniment to the cognitive aspects but an inherent component of
development. Interaction (both with objects and with people: they are
inseparable) is never mechanical, emotionless. We learn the best when the
subject-matter we are engaged with is significant to us, when it is
important, when it is something that "matters". The social relationship is
always about something and things/phenomena of the world are always a part
of a social relationship.=20
As I understand your idea about "horizontal" development (as opposed to the
"vertical" one most developmental theoried deal with, including Vygotsky's),
it is a development of the circles of social engagement. Different
relationships enable us to even glimpse different corners of the world we
live in. Things can be right in front of our nose, but if there is no social
significance to them (either in the interpersonal micro relationship or in
the relationship with the culture) they have no shape, no visibility, they
are transparent and invisible or at best distant and incomrehensible. But
the complexity of different social engagements may be, and probably is full
of conflicts. Peter H=F8eg's story illustrates it on a tragic level, the
little story above on a much lighter note, but the issue is the same: it is
not just a cognitive dissonance that drives the construction of meaning and
developemnt, and it is not just appropriation of the cognitive tools, it is
also a drama of conflicting social realtionships.

Is that in part what you meant?

Ana

_________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Ana Marjanovic-Shane =20

151 W. Tulpehocken St. Office of Mental Health and=20
Philadelphia, PA 19144 Mental Retardation
(215) 843-2909 [voice] 1101 Market St. 7th Floor
(215) 843-2288 [fax] Philadelphia, PA 19107
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(215) 685-5581 [fax]

pshane who-is-at andromeda.rutgers.edu
anchi who-is-at geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com./Athens/2253/index.html
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