Judy wrote,
>I wonder if I fully understand what motivated your message...
I just wanted to say that if the mother as the participant of the middle
class Eroupean style communication with her baby accepts description of the
communication based on Vygotsky's obsevant model "AS IF" then I argue the
phenomenon described by Vygotsky would be destroyed together with mother's
comfort of parenting (she may or may not create another comfortable style of
parenting later on. Accepting of observant model by a participant can
destroy the participant model -- that was my point. Anything else was
thinking aloud about ecological and cultural consequences of such
destruction. Sorry, if the incomplete character of my writing was unclear.
Judy wrote also,
> But it does mean that most parents I know can and often do take some
>ironic distance from the nurturing behaviors they engage and delight in.
>They take a double stance, as loving parents and as critics of their own
>cultural practices. In fact, I can hardly imagine taking a stance that
>isn't in some way(s) "doubled".
I think Judy did a very keen observation on, of what I think, another
middle class style of parenting. I like Judy's term "double stance" as
doubtful, "ironic" second thought about whatever you do. It can be
considered as evidence of critical thinking or as destabilization of
traditional cultural patterns (there are so many descriptions of "the right
way" in available in modern middle class culture). Does anybody know a
study on that?
Eugene Matusov
UC Santa Cruz
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Eugene Matusov
UC Santa Cruz