>is a challenge of developing a language of the psychosocial
>that starts more globally, more inclusively
>than with "mind" and "mental" (masculine)
>
>I think that the Leontiev alphabet
>of "activity", "action", "operation"
>can be taken as the starting point for a spelling out of this language
>
I suppose my perspective is more materialist when it comes to
language; language is reality, all that extremism, words are
weapons/gifts/tools/etc;
and certainly it's no secret that my understandings
of social organisms, (macro- or micro- ); or telescoping, or
microscoping, or kaleidescoping, whatever-o;
is that most (most = the norm) "activity" is
taking place in largely dysfunctional contexts, amongst folks
with varying degrees of dysfunctionalities due to their life-worlds'
experiences -
[having spent the last two years talking almost exclusively with people
outside the university
in my day-to-days, I notice a curious consensus that the world we
live in is "sick" "depraved" "fucked-up" "twisted" "impossibly diseased"
...and so on.
THe metaphors of biological illness are no coincidence.]
again, hello, it seems to me that in these late 1990s, theory which
attempts to describe "children" must essentially
be considering something so "literal" and crucial as the
chemistry of the brain, and the ways our culture interacts with this
chemistry through
Ritalin/antidepressants/drugs - kids take drugs, lots of kids are taking
drugs, all kinds of kids are taking drugs/not eating properly/ again -
hello - eating disorders:
girls today are in the midst of an utter plague of eating disorders -
how can we talk about learning without talking
about these material relations of children in/with/as
this culture?
I repeat this because it really does matter, participation
with narcotics & this includes fitness buffs who need the endorphin rush;
workaholics, and so on - and so on - ; as well as alcoholics who need to
suppress their serotonin levels,
others who "need" an
overproduction of dopamine; these have very real effects on "learning"
behaviours, "knowing" performances,
given these dramatic changes in
the way people participate with others (i.e., we are all participating in
some way with abuse & addictions, through social relations, across the
board, across the borders, the only thing we share is this relationship
with addictions/obsessions/chemicals - our
parents/friends/colleagues/employers/students/professors/teachers/children/.
..)
and what about violence? how do we begin to account for the difference
relations to violence that children have today?
relying on child development theory from the 1930s strikes me as romantic,
if one only philosophizes
beyond the many material contradictions of that work -
\
but in the applications of these ideas today, surely there needs to be
an explicit accounting of the historical-material existence of children in
the world...?
starving?homeless?abused?neglected?malnourished?impoverished?ADD? diabetic?
FAS? crack-babies? "gang-bitch" babies? - the disappearance of the
"father?"
I'm sure we need to understand children in the contexts
of these social relations; again, this is why I am not clear on how the
notions discussed here (which are fascinating in-themselves; but in terms
of historical practicality, I suppose I am ...yes. I'm still at a loss...)
I find many fascinating perspectives described in Martin's writings; but
again I am not sure what can be realized about "learning" if there is no
inclusion
of ...well, the grit'n'shit that is really really out there.
diane
>
>Meanwhile
>I see the "need" that puts Diane at a loss
>in the dynamic selfperpetuation of the societal structures of today.
>(to be crossed only at a price)
>
>Not least the structures of educational systems
>the compartments of selectively preparing for
>a today written forward into tomorrow
>and the day after next
>*demand* a culture of individual minds,
>exchanges in the currency of "mental operations"
>
>which makes the persistent invention of counterlanguage all the more urgent
>
>Eva
"Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right." Ani Difranco
*********************************************
diane celia hodges
faculty of education, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction,
university of british columbia
vancouver, bc canada
snailmail: 3519 Hull Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada V5N 4R8