RE: [xmca] Interests and tendency during adolescence

["Peg Griffin" <Peg.Griffin@att.net>]

Not adolescents, but latency age - third-4th graders.
We fiddled with tendency and growing interests a few decades ago. Some kids
took the occasion we created to sneak behind our backs and steal the final
paragraph of a (slightly revised) current newspaper story.  We had read the
first two parts collaboratively with them in small groups then "forced" them
to take a break from reading (5th dimension activities or outdoor play with
each other and big sibling undergrads).  Some texts were narratives of
news-worthy events (a boy accidentally hung himself) others were expository
about contemporary science or technology development.  Most of the children
had a history of not-reading - either at all or just copy-matching review
questions instead of active engagement with comprehension.  We left
print-outs of the full three paragraph texts stacked with other stuff we
brought to the site each day.  We chased the kids away from the text.  Some
thievery succeeded, others showed interest in interrupting other activities
to come back and read the full three part texts.
Tendency to interest with impetus (like the forbidden toy studies)? 

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Andy Blunden
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 8:47 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [xmca] Interests and tendency during adolescence

Is there anyone who has looked into this idea of "interest" in the
development of the adolescent? I have started reading Volume 5 of the LSV CW
and the first chapter is very interesting. I have not come across exactly
this idea before. He says: "a transformation of tendency into interest is
the true key to the problem of the transitional age." His argumentation
leading to this conclusion rings very true, to my ears. Is there anyone on
the list who has worked further with this idea of "interest." So much of
this chapter is quotation of other authors, it is not 100% clear which ideas
Vygotsky embraces. But it seems that upbringing shapes a person according to
tendency (with habits etc.) but then the adolescent appropriates from their
environment interests which form the basis of their adult personality, not
extinguishing the tendency acquired by upbringing, but distinct from it.

Andy

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