xmca-folk,
reading mike and martin's exchanges about the after-school programs and
thinking about the interinstitutional linkages that are developing between
educational levels that have usually been treated as discrete , I began to
imagine an holistic/social educational system in which the relations between
levels were truly fluid-- university students and professors present, as a
regular part of their activities, in multiply-layered ZPDs extending out to
middle schools and maybe even farther--this is implicit in 5th d. But the
entire process ramified through the educational system so that the
teacher-student rules are fully transitive: 4th graders helping 1st graders
in reading activities. Anyone who has taught knows that you really need to
know the material to teach (another level of mastery). At a certain point
age would be irrelevant. There have been and always will be 10 year olds
who could teach me chess. Such people would float to the level of their
competence in the "field" for which they have innate predispositions and/or
abilities. (like "Ender's Game" for those of you who read sci fi).
However, since the entire system of systems is fluid people would stay in
activity systems corresponding to their ZPD as they needed, with no disgrace
about being "behind".
to each according to their need, from each according to their ability.
Paul H. Dillon
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