Very pertinent connection, Vygotsky uses Helen quite sparingly in his
Defectology text. I remember reading the text and feeling alot of "oh yeah,
that's right". In general, he was critical of defining children with
"disabilities" by what they can't do, rather than what they can. Although,
it has lost some of its original meaning there is still a lot of wisdom
behind those words. Mike's talk of the Gorilla in Cultural Psychology comes
to mind in that wonderful certain ZPD's happen when we are treated as if
were human.
Nate
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Dillon [mailto:dillonph@northcoast.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 11:11 AM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: a belated answer
Nate,
That "Vygotsky was also very critical of the assumption that to be blind is
to live in darkness" makes perfect sense if we don't draw the distinction
between "darkness" and "light" in terms of the visual sense but as a
condition of being open to the materialized ideality that human practice
creates.
Helen Keller's experience of water and symbols at the same time is beautiful
in this context. Her teacher, Miss Sullivan, described the experience this
way:
"I made Helen hold her mug under the spout while I pumped. As the cold
water gushed forth, filling the mug, I spelled "w-a-t-e-r" into Helen's free
hand. The word coming so close upon the sensation of colder water rushing
over her hand seemed to startle her. She dropped the mug and stood as one
transfixed. A new light came into her face. She spelled 'water' several
times. Then she dropped on the ground and asked for its name and pointed to
the pump and the trellis, and suddenly turning round she asked for my name .
. . In a few hours she had added thirty new words to her vocabulary."
Helen herself described the experience as follows:
"We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of
the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my
teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one
hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowing, then rapidly.
I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motion of her fingers.
[whoa!!!] Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something
forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of
language was revealed to me. I knew then that 'w-a-t-e-r' meant the cool
something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul,
gave it light, hope, joy, set it free."
(taken from Leslie White's essay: "The Symbol: The Origin and Basis of Human
Behavior")
Beautiful no? What is really fascinating to me is that Helen Keller
describes the experience in terms of "remembering" something. This "oh
yeah, that's right" experience of remembering something fits well with the
Vygotsky's notion of internalization.
Paul H. Dillon
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