[Xmca-l] Re: The Highlander Center in Tennessee

Sat Aug 30 14:27:57 PDT 2014

Hi Robert and Andy,
Taking a biographical perspective on a smaller scale, it's interesting that an Australian Vygotskian/Hegellian/dialectic scholar would find so interesting the civil rights work of a courageous Black woman, that a white professor who gets impetus for writing while in movement (as he explains in his letter to Vera) would have a thorough knowledge of her work, and that a Black scholar (Lisa Delpit), should be associated with the "dark side" in literacy for minorities. How pun-ishingly ironic, maybe at the heart of the dialectic? Does it make sense to see such "entanglements" as consonant with a fractal model of history and culture, fractal formations at any scale being "self similar" and complex. Surely dialect thinking and fractal thinking are blendable, just as science and art are blendable. I am thinking about Fauconnier and Turner (on blending), Cantor (on fractals) and articles by Andy on metaphor and narrative, romantic science and the interaction of conceptual and pre-conceptual thinking. One more personal anecdote ties in. Two weekends ago my wife and I had lunch with Vera and Ruben in Santa Fe. She talked about the creative "leap". In her 1985 Notebooks of the Mind, Vera talks about "the joining of rapid bursts of thought with a regime of disciplined work". And finally, Anna Stetsenko in the the letters to Vera (Constructing a Community of Thought), argues that "Creativity…is an ineluctable feature of all and every person in their even utmost mundane activities and pursuits of everyday life." Vera and Vygotsky bring us creativity at all scales. Typically, "going to scale" means growth. Cancer is a growth. Destructive. Creativity is generative, nurturing. In all of this I find hope, which was got me into the xmca dialog in the first place. 
Henry

On Aug 29, 2014, at 7:43 AM, Robert Lake <boblake@georgiasouthern.edu> wrote:

> Hi 
> Andy,
> I am so glad you are intrigued by Septima's role in the formation of SNCC .
> She was often overlooked in the chauvinist culture of the times (both white
> and black) and that is why began researching her life. Most people see
> recognize Rosa Parks and Ella Baker's role and later those who were
> credited for the "Freedom School curriculum
> ". If you look at Clark's life and the manner and content of what she
> taught on John's Island and other parts of South Carolina, 
> you can easily recognize that her work was seminal in the formation of the
> Freedom School Curriculum.
> 
> I have tried to get permission to reprint Septima's autobiography from her
> family, but I have been unsuccessful. The book by Cynthia Brown  *Ready
> from Within *has a lot of  primary source interviews. Catherine Mellon
> Charon's book,  *Septima Clark: Freedom's Teacher *is richly detailed with
> many interviews of her friends  and documents from primary sources from the
> University of Wisconsin Highlander collection.
> 
> Here is a link to a recorded interview with Septima that may be useful to
> you. I enjoyed hearing her voice at least.
> 
> http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0017/menu.html
> 
> *Robert*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Aug 29, 2014 5:05 AM, "Andy Blunden" <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
> 
>> So you are placing Septima Clark right up there in importance, Robert.
>> I am part way through a "chronicle" of Highlander, called "Highlander. No
>> Ordinary school, 1932-1962". It is very useful for me, so I can get
>> everything in sequence. So here I discovered that Septima Clark was in
>> charge of the discussions with the students who later joined SNCC. So she
>> is coming into focus for me. I have just ordered two books on her,
>> including the one you recommended. Unfortuantely, an autobiography she
>> wrote in 1962 seems to be out of print and entirely unavailable now.
>> 
>> Andy
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *Andy Blunden*
>> http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>> 
>> 
>> Robert Lake wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi Andy,
>>> Yes I do. Start with this .
>>> http://highlandercenter.org/about-us/history/
>>> 
>>> And this biography of Myles Horton
>>> 
>>> http://www.amazon.com/The-Long-Haul-An-Autobiography/dp/0807737003
>>> and the biography of Septima Clark.
>>> 
>>> http://www.amazon.com/Freedoms-Teacher-Life-Septima-
>>> Clark/dp/0807872229/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=
>>> 1408889271&sr=1-2&keywords=septima+clark <http://www.amazon.com/
>>> Freedoms-Teacher-Life-Septima-Clark/dp/0807872229/ref=sr_1_
>>> 2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408889271&sr=1-2&keywords=septima+clark>
>>> 
>>> I have written a piece on her as well and will send it this afternoon.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I think the book We Make the Road by Walking: A dialogue between Myles
>>> Horton and Paulo Freire
>>> is one of the best books on both these leaders.
>>> 
>>> More Later,
>>> Robert Lake
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I will send more this afternoon.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Aug 24, 2014 at 9:31 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:
>>> ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>    Does anyone on this list know about the Highlander Center, what
>>>    used to be called the Highlander Folk School?
>>>    The people there are very helpful, but they're also rushed off
>>>    their feet (like everyone, I guess) and if there were any other
>>>    sources of information about it, that would be helpful. I'm
>>>    particularly interested if anyone is familiar with what they were
>>>    doing in the 1950s and 60s.
>>> 
>>>    Andy
>>>    --     ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ------------
>>>    *Andy Blunden*
>>>    http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>>>    <http://home.pacific.net.au/%7Eandy/>
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> *Robert Lake  Ed.D.
>>> *Associate Professor
>>> Social Foundations of Education
>>> Dept. of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading
>>> Georgia Southern University
>>> Secretary/Treasurer-AERA- Paulo Freire Special Interest Group
>>> P. O. Box 8144
>>> Phone: (912) 478-0355
>>> Fax: (912) 478-5382
>>> Statesboro, GA  30460
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 