I have not gotten back to Nate's important question:
So, my question is how does a new historical type of activity if its
"learning activity" "after school" or "5th D" expand other historical
activities such as school without being swallowed up in the process. As
Helen Keller once said we've had 2000 years of reform and its been an
absolute failure - it time we gave revolution a try. Or more to the point,
how can we expand the "text producing" activity into something different -
the synthesis Jay invoked.
I think this kind of question is what is bothering eric, helen, and many
others on xmca. Aside from relatively benign research interests in children's
learning and the difficulties of inter-instituitonal collaboration, what
does it mean to try to create new actifivities in various, identifiable,
"third spaces"? I see a tremendous amount of pressure placed on the systems
we work with to get into line with the new found interest in afterschool
activities so that school is moving in on us. And even when it does not,
we are certainly not doing revolutionary work. We are bringing resources
to people who would never otherwise see them and improving the education
of students who participates. But we should be, and many of us are,
asking, "so what?"
On the other hands, new species generally start in obscure niches.
mike
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