mike writes:
>Unless-- does it count that with the kids you get into interactions where
>they are talking with an adult, engaging in joint activity that requires
>effort, where they are making real contributions, and the wholel thing
>feels like a peer interaction? They seem literally different people at
>such times, and their subsequent behavior often has them taking on more
>adult responsibilities. no one tells them to changein this way. Its
>not just a new habit is it? or is it?
i think that one way to answer this kind of question is observation over
time.
i have had the experience of being the adult in this kind of interaction
and finding myself so easily assuming that the kids are working with me as
peers---
until---
someone shoves someone or insults someone or prevents someone from
speaking or participating (or, or - you get the idea)
then i speak in that teacher voice, that adult voice,
and all the social relations re-orient to the structure of the power
hierarchy
like filings when an elecromagnet is turned on.
do iron filings become habituated to magnetism?
do iron filings act?
i am thinking with my fingers, here,
but as the kids work their identities into the activity with the adult who
acts as if they are adults, over time this kind of identity gets stronger,
holds steadier, can carry into other contexts and activities,
although perhaps not without some kind of supportive interaction in the
new context
although perhaps with a strong enough sense of oneself as adult (or
competent, or expert) one would be able to act that way in most contexts
even without obvious external support.
so, it might be easier to observe this in one's own children because of
the time scale . . .
kathie
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Words are the thunders of the mind.
Words are the refinement of the flesh.
Words are the responses to the thousand curvaceous moments---
we just manage it---
sweet and electric, words flow from the brain
and out the gate of the mouth.
We make books of them, out of hesitations and grammar.
We are slow, and choosy.
This is the world.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mary Oliver - The Leaf and the
Cloud
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Katherine_Goff@ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~katherine_goff/index.html
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