Saturday, I spent hours riveted to my computer browsing xmca posts and
threads since 1995. I was awestruck. I can't help but write a little bit
about my reaction.
Reading over selections of these posts allowed me to witness the
development of some people I am just now getting to know as inspiring
writers and thinkers. I read many of their interesting writings but I
also saw something deeper.
I saw bits and pieces of how they have been living their ideas. I saw
glimpses of their professional lives rewinding and fast forwarding before
my eyes. Some told stories about their lives as students, teachers,
writers, scholars and scientists going back to the sixties and seventies
and eighties. Stories that included some very hard, amazing experiences
.... the hard work getting books published ... the vivid stories about the
difficulties doing scientific work in the USSR ... problems with the INS
... the struggle to stay in school ... the heroic stories of Vygotsky's
daughter Ghita and her mother (going back to the 30's) ... and many more.
The work and experiences of decades and lifetimes unfold in these archives.
And then there was the occasional misunderstanding or other conflict, and
the exemplary way members of the list handled themselves. And so many
fascinating and fun topics to browse. Skateboarding. Emergence and
emergentism. Classroom experiences. Artifacts and Tools. Dialectics.
Reports from conferences. Clear boundaries about inappropriate jokes on
the list. Deep discussions about Leontiev's ideas. Many hundreds of
discussions and sub-discussions, with many led by people that have
published many fine papers and books on these ideas.
For me, what distinguishes xmca - and the trends it flows from - is its
deeply conscious sense of scientific methodology and humanist conviction.
I see this deeply conscious sense of the world and of people at every level
- in how it constantly checks and compares its theories to ideas about
science, philosophy and society in general, how it constantly looks for
real experiences to explore and explain its ideas, how steadfastly humanist
and democratic its core beliefs are, how it is thoroughly historical and
internationalist in its approach, how it looks objectively and
compassionately at scientific differences, how it looks objectively and
honestly at itself. Most striking of all, at the people level, xmca
represents a loose scientific community of remarkable individuals that have
each in their own way absorbed these methodologies and beliefs not only
into their scholarly and scientific work but also into how they conduct
themselves every day as individual people - evidenced in their maturity,
focus, compassion, dedication - and humor.
This is the thing that kept revealing itself over and over to me as I took
a peak through each month. This list is not just hundreds of students and
professors all discussing Vygotsky and other common heroes, but a growing
network of individuals that are seriously respectful of and attracted to
one another - to how they each think, how they each conduct themselves, how
they each react to new ideas and developments. It is a thriving
international collective of associated scientific sub-communities and
community-minded individuals. There are as many interesting and different
ideas as there are people in this incredibly intelligent milieu - including
many ideas about methodology - but there is something special everyone
seems to have in common about how they think about people and about how
they believe conscious science-based methodology can help people. And the
most evident form this seems to me to take is how each individual uses
these conscious thoughts to live a deeply meaningful life themselves,
discovering - and sharing - a little more about how to do that every day.
And through this process of each in their own way internalizing this
Vygotskian outlook and practice while creating externalized collective gems
like this xmca discussion list, in daily steps, and in occasional milestone
leaps, history is being made. History that will make a difference. That
is making a difference. That has made a difference. I got a huge sense of
awe yesterday from my little spot survey of old posts. It was a little
glimpse into how a new science is being coconstructed. This xmca list and
the people on and around it truly are remarkable.
Thank you.
- Steve Gabosch
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