It would be good to hear why those in the top rankings of xmca postings do not
send more email. Any offers?
I appreciate that Mike unpacked a little for us, and yet, while not wanting to
attribute anything to his personal relations, it sometimes appears acceptable
among males to put their wives at cause for this thing or that. A guy can, and
some have, put explanations of the workings and misworkings of the entire
universe onto his "better half", and though I never remember an exact instance
of my doing so, I must truly be guilty myself to some degree greater or lesser
than the norm. Wives are at the boundary of external and internal. External
and necessitating accomodation, changing one's solitary thoughts and habits as
if external to oneself, an element of the environment. Yet, wives are also the
other part of the one, situatedly more or less than "half" if one could
possibly measure such things. One's spouse is one's complement, making up the
'we' in one unitary whole that confronts the economic and ecological reality of
day to day. Wives, therefore, explain nothing and explain everything. Do I
really want a deeper explanation? To request so and be granted is to risk
entering into what is sacred and mysterious and yet perhaps so commonplace. My
very thinking is trepidating on the matter.
By way of skateparks, my interest initially was in the processes of learning to
skateboard. Skateboarding has some special characteristics -- it is not a team
sport, it is mostly, except for special events and the pro's, not competitive.
Parental involvement often does not contribute to the pressures of
performance. The very object of skateboarding for many is often expressed as
one of personal satisfaction, and 'rules' as previously and partially unpacked
are often the subject of transgression. Mediationally, there is the
skateboard, and the topology and structures with and against which one grinds,
ollies, kickflips, heelflips, noseslides, and halfcabs. There is this special
vocabulary too. But yet, there is the skatepark which forms the physical
setting in which one learns and potentially offers big differences, depending
upon design, as Barker reminds me. Culturally and historically, how did
skateparks come to be, and in particular how did this one come to be? This has
become a temporarily central question in the longer term research goal. It is
an special advantage too, that this setting is about 200 yards away.
This emerging study is one to contribute to my larger interest in alternative
settings for learning, which had started with the problems of introducing
scientific inquiry in schooling, but as the bigger picture came into focus, has
now included a bit of xmca, two instances of technological and systemic school
change, and finally skateparks. Except for xmca, my interest continues to be
in the codevelopment of the individual and "surrounds".
BTW, the mayor has been pro-skatepark from the getgo, and has suffered many
'slings and arrows' of outraged citizens, including my neighbors. Without her,
this park would not have happened. For some time now, skateboarders have been
an issue in our little city, especially with the shopkeepers of Inn street,
which has been a popular place to hang out, offering lots of structures that
lend themselves to transgression. The skatepark grew, in part, out of and
despite these tensions. A story, as it turns out, in itself.
=====
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 01 2001 - 01:01:58 PDT