Ana's comments on the horizontal
=?iso-8859-1?Q?Yrj=F6?= =?iso-8859-1?Q?_?= (engestro who-is-at helsinki.fi)
Sat, 28 Sep 1996 13:42:47 +0200
At 1:03 9/27/96, Ana M. Shane wrote:
>Yrj=F6,
>
>I read the paper and I like it very much. Peter H=F8eg is one of my favorit=
e
>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 stor=
y
>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.
>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 socia=
l
>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
>
>
>151 W. Tulpehocken St. Office of Mental Health and
>Philadelphia, PA 19144 Mental Retardation
>(215) 843-2909 [voice] 1101 Market St. 7th Floor
>(215) 843-2288 [fax] Philadelphia, PA 19107
> (215) 685-4767 [v]
> (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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