Re: in/formal or non/coercive?

Donna Phillips (philld2 who-is-at rpi.edu)
Sat, 30 Jan 1999 10:36:17 -0500

Diane,

Your comment...

teacher-education needs to be more liberal arts than
"pedagogical" - in
short, less management and more inquiry. I sound like a
sick Noam Chomsky
parrot eh?

reminded me of the scene early in "The Miracle Worker"
in which Annie Sullivan muses that Helen must first
learn discipline (management?). Only then will language
(inquiry?) open up wider worlds for her. Perhaps I'm
playing fast and loose in comparing your concepts to
Annie's, and in suggesting that management may need to
assume an initial and primary role. The challenge seems
to be in striking a tolerable balance between the two
as expeditiously as possible. How DO we avoid fighting
ideological wars and encourage negotiations instead?
Solving that conundrum should keep us busy for a few
dozen academic careers.

Donna Phillips
RPI