Re: Word culture
Ellice A Forman (ellice+ who-is-at pitt.edu)
Sun, 15 Oct 1995 19:42:19 -0400 (EDT)
Vera, Jay, Francoise, and others,
I want to bring up two further contrasts to our emphasis on verbal
expression in educational contexts. First, we seem to assume (in many of
our recent messages at least) that there is "one" mode of verbal
communication in contrast to other nonverbal modes (painting, music, ASL,
etc.). Of course, many of us would want to disagree with that
characterization. In particular, I suggest that the Cazden chapter in
Contexts for Learning is useful in thinking about some of the issues that
we and Delpit have raised about verbal expression. She argues (using
Hymes and Bakhtin) for the existence of difference "voices" in the
classroom and for the relationship between voice and identity especially
for some minority group members. Perhaps we can discuss the review of
that chapter soon.
Second, I would like to mention a realization I had several years ago
when one of my students in a graduate seminar made me very aware of her
silencies in addition to her talk. She came from an academic family of
Quakers--so I presume that she learned the importance of silence at
Quaker Meeting. I found I needed to pay close attention to what she said
and to what she didn't say. Her silences did not necessarily indicate
anger, shyness or hostility (feelings I often associate with silence in
seminar classes) but seemed to indicate something such as "the time is
not yet right for me to speak". She wasn't being arrogant--just very
aware of the importance of silence and speech. That memory reminds me of
a comment by a painter friend of mine who said that Matisse's genius as a
painter lies as much in what he left out of his paintings as in what he
put in.
Ellice Forman