Now I'm remembering one of my favorite short stories by the great 20th century writer Lu Xun. I'm not remembering the title, but it depicts an evening dramatic performance in a Chinese village. I am sure that this sort of event has been going on for centuries. It would be a mode of instruction for the young people; but it would be an activity that was not happening solely or primarily for that "instructional" purpose. It was for antertainment and socialization for adults, but the "instructional" function would have also been salient, if not necessarily "deliberate."
It seems to me one question here has to do with the degree to which it matters if the activity is conducted specifically for its "instructinal" value.
On Sun, 17 Jan 2010, mike cole wrote:
I think this speculation is correct, Tony and lets hope someone can help us know: "I would bet that they have been used over the centuries as media for transmitting culture orally, through stories told by illiterate grown-ups to children who were not being schooled." Deliberate instruction is clearly not co-incident with literacy and schooling (30+ children to one adult, print mediated). Infants are deliberately (if not-so-effectively) instructed by parents. This is a great example of the belief that to study learning and development one has to study the history of these forms of change at several different scales of time and synchronic scale. Wow. mike
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