Current policies of the Federal Govt. are indeed an issue (not only
regarding the realization of aims of democracy in education), but among the
most valuable aspects of CHAT is the range of issues and of scale it unites
into a single theoretical-practical paradigm. In the US local authorities,
State Govt., Town and County School boards, and so on have a much more
direct role in the funding and formulation of educational policy than is
found in most countries, and it appears to me that these local governing
agencies are important addresses for practical research on many important
issues in education. For example, much of the recent controversy concerning
the introduction of creationist theory into the science curriculum is being
fought at local levels; in State and County school boards and even in
individual schools. Then too, some of the most critical problems in modern
education may be found at the most local level of the educational system,
from the management of community and neighborhood educational systems to the
interaction between teacher and pupil, between pupils and between teachers.
The areas in in education which CHAT can contribute fruitful research and
development is vast.
In light of my commentary on the dangers of politicisation (in the
sense of party politics) for the effectiveness of CHAT in attaining unity in
diversity, I would hope that the practical aims and organization of CHAT
(not of course that of individual theorists) be kept sufficiently
democratic, broad, and open to perpetuate the kind of useful exchange of
ideas and practices that has characterised it till now.
Victor Friedlander-Rakocz
victor@kfar-hanassi.org.il
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Packer" <packer@duq.edu>
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 21:44
Subject: Re: [xmca] Ilyenkov in A Stetsenko's articles
Then here in the US it is clear what the current task of theory should be:
the critical review of the (many) failures of the current administration in
realizing the aims of democracy (in education, for example) and the
development of means to correct them.
On 11/4/05 2:16 AM, "Victor" <victor@kfar-hanassi.org.il> wrote:
> A reading of his two major works; Dialectical Logic (1974) and Dialectics
> of
> the Abstract and the Concrete in Marx¹s Capital (1960) show Ilyenkov as
> severely critical of ³contemplationist² theory and a firm, consistent
> partisan
> of theory as a function of practice and of practice as the test of theory.
> Ilyenkov is hardly reticent in declaring his own objectives; paragraphs in
> Chapter 8 of Dialectical Logic and his articles ³Activity and Knowledge²
> (1974) and ³From the Marxist Point of View² (1967) clearly indicate of
> what he
> thought the current task of theory should be; the critical review of the
> failures of the Soviet bureaucracy in realizing the aims of socialism and
> the
> development of means to correct them.
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