Philip, I guess childhood is always a kind of "antechamber" to the adult
world. And I guess it would be a truism to say that childhood is spent
acquiring the skills, knowledge and values fitted for a role, hitherto
often pre-destined, in that adult world. Even play is a kind of rehearsal,
isn't it?
But the money relation is an incredibly "impersonal" one. We doubtless
don't regret the demise of the form of domestic servitude known as
marriage, but every other sort of solidarity is also under threat. And the
further one's work gets away from meeting real human needs, the more money
you earn. Must be hard to motivate kids for a world like this one, eh? How
do you do it?
Andy
At 07:32 AM 12/01/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
>
> Andy scrobe:
>
> i found what you wrote terrifically interesting - for me a multiple
>series of "ahahs" - thank you.
>>
>>
>>
>>In short, in childhood, the money relation exists on the periphery of her
>>world, but it is the periphery that leads to the real world, the world
>>outside of family and teachers, the world into which she will one day
>>"grow
>>up".
>
> this comment about the 'real world' or money relationships being on a
>child's periphery struck me so directly - like the obverse of Lave &
>Wenger's notion that one is on the periphery of an activity, moving more
>into greater and greater participation - yet the way you've described it
>from the participant's - the individual's - perception, it is the
>activity that is peripheral - i like this - especially as a classroom
>teacher - it also for me reflect's on a batesonian notion of context
>being so critically important in perception and activity.
>>
>>
>> It is ironically mostly among
>>poor kids that this kind of street education is found; kids from well-off
>>households don't have to do odd jobs, swap trinkets for cash and so, and
>>approach the conception of value by a different route.
>
> this interests me too - mostly because while the research i've read
>supports this position that it's street kids who get 'hands on education'
>(forgive the jargon), yet there is something about, again, cultural
>context since the kids in my classroom while poor don't actually have very
>much experience with money at all - and this may be that they're not poor
>enough, they don't have to work on the streets - instead they're at
>school.
>>
>>
>>: money is the symbol through which she may make sense of
>>the world beyond.
>
> my kids are beginning to make sense of this as third graders - one
>student revealed that last october on halloween when she went
>trick-or-treating that she and her family drove to another neighborhood
>labeled "snob-hill" because the treats there were of a higher quality and
>when the inhabitants ran out of candy to give one then they produced money.
>>
>>
> somewhere you asserted that the poor students can learn to do well with
>math if the teacher is able to incorporate the child's knowledge about
>street education & money.
>
> this is of course true in the teaching of any subject regardless of the
>child's economic status.
>>
>>Does this make sense?
>>
>>
> well, for me, Andy, it all made lots of sense.
>
>phillip
>
>
>* * * * * * * *
>* *
>
>The English noun "identity" comes, ultimately, from the
>Latin adverb "identidem", which means "repeatedly."
>The Latin has exactly the same rhythm as the English,
>buh-BUM-buh-BUM - a simple iamb, repeated; and
>"identidem" is, in fact, nothing more than a
>reduplication of the word "idem", "the same":
>"idem(et)idem". "Same(and) same". The same,
>repeated. It is a word that does exactly what
>it means.
>
> from "The Elusive Embrace" by Daniel
>Mendelsohn.
>
>phillip white
>third grade teacher
>doctoral student http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~hacms_lab/index.htm
>scrambling a dissertation
>denver, colorado
>phillip_white@ceo.cudenver.edu
>
>
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| - Andy Blunden - Home Page - http://home.mira.net/~andy/index.htm - |
| "It has been said that the very essence of civilisation consists of |
| purposely building monuments so as not to forget". L S Vygotsky 1930 |
~ Spirit, Money & Modernity, Melbourne Uni Summer School 23/24 Feb '01 ~
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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