tools
SMAGOR who-is-at aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu
Sun, 08 Oct 1995 16:11:45 -0500 (CDT)
Francoise, I'm sure we're all biased on these things...part of
my own bias comes from a set of case studies I did of kids
interpreting literature through art, dance, drama, and music.
One of the case study kids had a severe hearing impairment as
a child which delayed his speech by many years--when young
he would communicate primarily by drawing things he wanted
(e.g., a cereal box). As he went through school he failed
most subjects but got A's in art. He was 16 when he
participated in our study and produced a remarkable graphic
interpretation of the story he read, which I write about
(with John Coppock) in "Cultural Tools and the Classroom
Context: An Exploration of an Artistic Response to Literature"
Written Communication, Vol. 11, #3.
>From a cultural perspective, not all groups have historically
relied on the same mediational means as Westerners, as many
studies of Native American societies have suggested (also
my discussions with many Indian students and colleagues in
Oklahoma).
I also recall our discussion on xlchc of Buddhism (vows of
silence, the use of mantras--literally "mind tools"--to
move toward a state of void) suggesting that in some
cultures language is not the primary means of mediation.
My knowledge of this (like of everything else) is sketchy.
Anyone else better grounded in these issues?
Peter Smagorinsky smagor who-is-at aardvark.ucs.uoknor.edu