Re: pushing metaphors of half bakedness

From: Kathryn Alexander (Kathryn_Alexander@sfu.ca)
Date: Mon Oct 22 2001 - 18:53:58 PDT


>Bill B. responding to Eva scrobe:
>>And don't forget the closely guarded strains of starter dough that gives
>>each
>>baker's bread its uniqueness.
>
> yep! here i am perhaps a bit of a sourdough sponge -
>
> i've just returned from a week in salt lake city - and came home to a
>great many messages to catch up on - and was struck by Martin's comment
>that pointed out that school math ain't mathematicians' math -
>
> and it went through my head that
>
> school poetry ain't poets' poetry
> school history ain't historians' history
> school reading ain't readers' reading
> school writing ain't authors' writing
> school research ain't scholars' research or scientists' research (my
>most favorite statement i heard from a teacher in condemnation of a
>particular hands-on science program was that it wasn't any good because
>you couldn't predict how the experiments would come out, "Sometimes they
>come out all wrong!" she compained.
>
> in short -
>
> school work is for school work
>
> really no different than the rest of the world
>
> IBM's work is for IBM.
>
> The work of General Motors is for General Motors.
>
> etc.
>
Exactly, Phil,

school room genres are for school rooms and there is a strange lacuna
about this - I think good teachers know this, but the literature seems
to confuse the social and situational mediation of classroom genres with
beliefs in ;authentic" gernes.

In my diss I was just beginning to wonder if all of classroom
curriuclum is really meta- gerne instrucitons about the possibility of
genre

 but I really appreciate your comment Phil.

Kathryn

________________________________________________________________________________
"We live with strangers. those we love most, with whom we share a shelter,
a table, a bed, remain mysterious. Wherever lives overlap and flow
together, there are depths of unknowing." Mary Catherine Bateson, 2000,
from Full Circles, Overlapping Lives.

Kathryn Alexander, Ph.D.
Faculty of Education,
Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 Canada

Messages for SFU: (604) 291 - 3395 /SFU FAX (604) 291 - 3203

Personal: email: kalexand@sfu.ca



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