Re: [xmca] Purposes and processes of education

[mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>]

Very helpful, tony.

As part of background, "deliberate instruction" is one of the standing
differentia between chimps and humans. But, for example, Bruner claims that
there is no evidence of deliberate instruction among "Kung San Bushmen" (in
quotes because the names given to these people is highly disputed).

In asking about China and India I was trying to get beyond history of
European evidence. I have collected some information from ethnographic
literature in addition to what I collected some years ago.

Getting a global, deep historical picture is both fascinating and, I believe
very informative re issues of longstanding interest to xmca members. The
links to forms of work are also a key part of the picture as well, but its
hard to grok everything at once!
mike


> n ancient China and India?
>>
>> Are there any examples of deliberate instructional practices that do not
>> involve reading/writing?
>>
>
> Mike's original question asks about
>
>  relation of
>
>> schooling practices
>> to society in ancient China and India?
>>
> and
>
>  deliberate instructional practices that do not
>> involve reading/writing?
>>
>
> This depends, I guess, on what counts as "instructional," and whether you
> are really interested in practices only that are in school.
>
> In China, there are practices for practical arts ("shu", including "wushu,"
> the military arts like "kung-fu" that have deliberate instructional
> practices, as well as the practices for training Taoist and Buddhist monks.
>
> For broader education, outside of particular arts or disciplines or sects,
> there's actually a substantial emphasis on this, although "schooling"
> practices are very much involved with reading and writing.
>
> A central theme in the Confucian classics (e.g., Da Xue, Li Ji) is the
> education of all people into harmonious social relations. The literate are
> taught that from the Emperor down to the father in a family, the superiors
> are to model virtuous relations as a way of teaching those who will learn
> from their example. The literate elites will be informed by classic
> literature, but the illiterate masses will learn from the example of their
> superiors.
>
> The Li Ji teaches rites or rituals as forms of behavior that embody social
> norms that will be internalized through practice.
>
> Aside from his teaching and scholarship, Zhu Xi was also a civil
> administrator; and he considered the civic activity conducted under his
> administration to be a mode of education for the general populace.
>
> It's hardly too much to say that Chinese literary cultrue is all about
> education, not limited to schooling or to literacy.
>
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