Dichotomy -everday life
Francoise Herrmann (fherrmann who-is-at igc.apc.org)
Tue, 8 Sep 1998 20:26:52 -0700 (PDT)
Hi everyone, Since some discussion is up on dichotomies
(self/society, mind/culture? etc..) here is one arising in
practice. For a few years now we have been doing a
program/contest? for the PTA in the SFUSD (San Francisco Unified
School District) called "Reflections". This is a National PTA
(Parent, Teacher and Student Association) program with 1/2 million
kids participating and we do our "Reflections" in San Francisco. A
theme is chosen each year by children. And this theme can be
interpreted in one of four differnt media categories: music,
visual arts, literature and photography. Kids K-12 participate.
WE show the work in exhibits in the city and publish an anthology
of the written interpretations. Now the dichotomy, familiar I am
sure to many as reflected in the hyphenated descriptor
"program/contest". There are two really strong and opposing
forces that drive participation, process and product, and this is
voiced strongly. Parents and teachers want to particiapte in
Reflections for the opportunity to be a part of an event that
celebrates the arts, some like-minded (practiced, believing)
people refuse to particiapte in Reflections because it is also a
contest, with juried works that are sent on the State for further
rounds of competition. On the other side there are parents and
teachers who want to particiapte in Relfections because it is an
opportunity to showcase the future artists of America, and some
like-minded (practiced, believing parents) refuse to aprticiapte
in Reflections because jurying only takes place professionally at
the District level, and because all of the kids that participate
get their work exhibited and published. There are countless other
issues. But here is a good example, perhaps of divergent
orientations, beliefs, minds, practices and their actualization in
a specific context.
Francoise Francoise Herrmann fherrmann who-is-at igc.apc.org
http://www.wenet.net/~herrmann
Does anyone know of journals that would be interested
in PTA activity?