Eva quoted Jay to refer to me:
Jay wrote:
>>Has anyone on the list advocated modes of education which are
>>intrinsically "without pain or restrictions" for learners?
>
>Jay, I think that Eugene's repeated use of the phrase "painless education"
>in his posting:
>
>>Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 21:27:18 -0700
>>To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu, xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>From: Eugene Matusov <ematusov who-is-at cats.ucsc.edu>
>>Subject: Ideology of painless learning and teaching in institutional
>> contexts
>
>-- may have been what (with or without justification) propelled us into the
>vicinity of the intrinsically painless.
>
>Eva
Yes, I did. Later I corrected that I meant institutional pain, not pain in
general but let me respond to painless education in general (I'd not mix
"pain" and "restrictions", although).
I agree that:
1) Pain and misery in general are unavoidable in life.
2) People learn from their pain and misery.
3) Pain and misery can be become enlightening personal experience.
What I disagree with is:
People should deliberately design pain and misery for other people for
whatever educational reason.
Moreover, I suspect behind a deliberate and/or institutional design of pain
and misery for others there are exploitation, oppression, and alienation.
One of my "favorite" theme is to emphasize that mainstream schools in
Western industrial societies are doing fine because the economy and society
in general does not need that all members to be able in creative endeavors
(someone should work on assembly lines, deliver pizza, and so on).
Disabiling in learning has its own function.
What can we (who we?) do with this "logic of societal necessity?"
People who try to struggle with exploitation, oppression, and alienation can
be seen as naive because it seems that all (?) societies of the past and
present are based (more or less) on exploitation, oppression, and
alienation. Besides, they often can find themselves participating in
exploitation, oppression, and alienation of other people. My personal hope
is not in the result but in the process that makes (my) life meaningful.
Eugene Matusov
UC Santa Cruz
------------------------
Eugene Matusov
UC Santa Cruz