Hi Martin--
Your example certainly resonates with the situation in my home
town which is generally affluent and has a high level of educational
certification among adults. But while I spend most of my time int he
community worrying about the kids who do not have much of a chance to
get a high level certificate and a chance to avoid a future behind the
automated stove at MacDonalds, I am more and more preoccupied with the
estranged learning we offer at UCSD-- which considers itself a premier
EDUCATIONAL institution. The problem is both theoretically and practically
acute for me.
A few factoids (e.g. what passes for learning with understanding around
here):
-- A course of 500 taught by a temp who does not require attendance at lectures,
allows for profit note taking, gives multiple choice questions, has no
sections, and where you do not have to remember material before the
midterm on the final (scantroned, of course).
-- A course which I am about to teach with 200 students, no sections,
two TA's who cannot work more than 19 hours per week, students from
two majors many of whom have no background.
--- A standard question I ask graduating seniors in a "senior
seminar" (class size in principle restricted to 25 -- the smallest
they will ever encounter at UCSD) is to list the courses they have
taken in their major (Communication), the name of the instructor,
and a main idea from the course. This questionaire is routinely
answered by a plurality of students with the NUMBER of the course.
They cannot remember the name of the professor or an idea, but they
know the numbers of the courses they need to graduate.
-- The contrast case is our practicum courses which combine theory
and practice, where students write until they drop, where they are
responsibility for the well being of little kids, where they MUST
remember ideas they care about from the get go. In these courses,
which are an endangered species which will almost certainly disappear
in the next few years, if not after the Gov slices up the UC next
month, students are routinely "born again" and find a joy in learning
that they become conscious of and articulate about.
-- The parallell between alienated labor and estranged learning
cuts very deep. It has been said before, but it is said with great
force in the rhetoric of the lave and mcdermott article.
mike
Ps- Lets hope we can keep estangement out of our funky, not for
profit, try to find the right url, damn the modem, international
course! Why else bother trying?
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