I guess mainly I saw the possibility for "the softer side of the ideal"
(sorry sears). I have had some experience through manuscripts and videos to
look at the Russian preschool programs and have really liked them. I have
tried reflecting on these programs with an assumption of the ideal playing a
role. Others included taking two year olds out to the woods with a
professional artist to draw a tree the see. Reflection seems theoretically
pertinent here. Number free math was another interesting approach worth
mentioning.
My reaction to these programs was "unity" unity of culture and individual,
unity of nature and child etc. Now, as one professor told me about
statistics - make sure you take the Russian - they are could at connecting
theory to life. What he was most likely referring to, as with Davydov's
approach to science, was the practical implementation of "ascending to the
concrete".
I think what is happening in this debate in particular is discussing a
concept like ideal without any content of its own (abstraction) and what is
left is adding our own. Andy's piece on Hegel is great in this regard it is
all explained in the context of a concrete struggle. My sense abstraction -
how Marx used them are a tool and they are dead things when not ascended to
the concrete.
Funny thing about this is last semester we read a research report on a
comparison between a Davydov school in Russia and a school in the U.K. Us
Americans blasted it because the research was badly designed, the assertions
did not add up etc etc. It turns out it was a classic piece - highly
referenced - mainly because the theoretical argument was strong. Now both
the Russian and American would most likely make the claim for objectivity
and truth but what qualifies as much is not necessarily the same.
Nate
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul H.Dillon [mailto:illonph@pacbell.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2000 12:28 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: ideal-golden key
Nate,
I found the piece you posted quite delightful. You didn't comment so I can
only guess at the way in which you might be seeing it as an example of how
"the ideal would fit into an early childhood setting" but I do see that the
orientation of immediate educational practice to the union of sensuously
given and historical-ideal forms of temporality structure a chain of ZPDs .
Is this the direction you were thinking? Can you expand on your own
inspiration/understanding?
One could well imagine that such a structure would provide for a very wide
utilization of the different domains of human practice ranging from
measuring where the sun is on the horizon to poetry and dance.
Paul H. Dillon
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