> That captures nicely for me the unit of analysis that I think Dewey
> outlines in Experience in Education, where he criticizes the excesses of
> his more romantic followers who ignored the importance of the historical
> experience embedded in academic disciplines.
>
I would have to aggree and would argue we never truely escape the
diciplines. What does seem to occur from my experience in "whole" classes
is extreme curricular bias. This is seen in many classrooms biased toward
the language arts as "reading through the curriculum". Awhile back I read
a version of NCSS standards that had various essays by reps from its sub
diciplines. Every single one geography, history, etc. argued for social
studies via their established sub dicipline. Maybe a curriculum that
emphasizes specific time in certain diciplines is an issue of equity. My
understanding is social studies itself was based on integrating various
diciplines which is not without its tensions. I am constantly bambarded
recently with radio advertisements to bring geography back into the
curriculum. I whole heartedly admit I have certain curricular biases and
that of course would mean intentionally or unintentionally given some more
credit than others.
Many of the so called electives; music, phys ed., health etc. have deep
concerns about integration because they are usually ignored or subordinated
in an integrated classroom. Gardner's example of the teacher playing music
during a writing activity as attending to the music intelligence serves as
a good example. My concern with some "non curricular approaches" is
knowledge becomes so embedded it is not attainable to the students. I see
this as part of Gee's emphasis on discourse in which one coming from
outside the middleclass cultural toolkit does not recognize the
implicitness of the teachers discourse. This reminds me of a story
Vygotsky told in reference to Thorndike I believe, in which the teacher
demonstated a vocano blowing up via plaster. The next day the children
asked a substitute if he would blow up plaster again because it was cool,
rather than seeing the scientific aspect of the experiment.
Nate
> In my more cynical moments, I think that much teaching and learning in
many
> public schools these days might better be termed "school-board-centered
> learning," or "educational-consulting-firm-centered learning," as the
> primary object and motive lies beyond THE classroom, in satisfying the
> demands of other more powerful stakeholders.
>
> David
>
> David R. Russell
> Professor
> English Department
> Iowa State University
> Ames, IA 50011 USA
> (515) 294-4724
> Fax (515) 294-6814
> drrussel who-is-at iastate.edu
>