Dear Mike and everybody-
Thanks, Mike, for interesting recollection. I'm not surprised to hear that
because Davydov was a universalist and Hegelian (as he declared himself).
For me his support of the school for blind and deaf was not a contradiction
but manifestation of Davydov's universalist approach. Like Hegel, he
believed in universal historical progress. Different cultures express stages
on the universal historical scale that education can and must erase.
What do you think?
Eugene
PS My joy was premature. I was expelled from xmca again. So feel free to add
my email address to the correspondence, please.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Cole [mailto:mcole@weber.ucsd.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 3:48 PM
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: contradictions in Davydov
>
>
> Oh, yes, I am sure there are contradictions in Davydov's ideas,
> Peter. And your suggestion that they might play out differently in
> different sociocultural circumstances seems a very interesting line
> of thought to follow.
>
> Perhaps 20 years ago we were able to get Vasili Vasilievitch to visit
> LCHC. We were a very diverse group, struggling then as now with issues
> of inequality in education. VVD scandalized members of the lab by
asserting
> that there was one correct form of education for all children in the
> USSR or anywhere else and that the culturally different would simply
> have to recognize that fact and get with the program. I believe Esteban
> was there at the time and may contribute his memories. No relativism
> in that talk that I can recall. And yes, he thought that if provided the
> resources, all could find that one best right way.
>
> At roughly the same time I led a developmental psych delegation to
> Moscow where VVD was allowed to participate at a symposium at the
Institute
> of Psychology (Vygotskians worked elsewhere and Zinchenko was
categorically
> denied admission to that institute). He gave a talk that was basically
> Hegelian, such that primitive adults were seen to think like modern
> children. Our delegation, which included Urie Bronfenbrenner and Robert
> Plonim was knocked over when he reiterated these views in the discussion;
>
> These memories were rekindled by Eugene's description of VVD's discussion
> of folk wisdom and the existence of theoretical thinking in both schooled
> and non-schooled thought.
>
> And note. VVD was one of the big supporters of the school for blind-deaf
> kids in Zagorsk and in particular of the view that they should be fully
> educated to lead independent lives. That Alexander Suvorov and others
> got Ph.Ds (candidate degree) at Moscow U and lived with his wife in
> Moscow (also blind deaf) was an existence proof the correctness of the
view
> that human potential is realized in human society -- when and if society
> puts in the requisite effort. That position, when first articulated and
> put into practice was one of the prides of Soviet psychology and stories
> appeared about it in USSR Today, or whatever the counterpart of "America"
> (our propaganda mag) was. But by the early 1980's it was an impractical
> project where adherents were probably dissidents, and certainly shouldn't
> head institutes.
>
> Yep, plenty of contradictions surrounded VVD.
> mike
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