Nancy-- Thanks so much for giving people a starting point for discussion
of Kris et al's paper. You provide a lot of differernt entering points
for people with different interests and I am certain you are right in saying
that the implications go well beyond schools (and children) to encompass
a wide variety domains of human activity.
One thing I would like to see, perhaps it exists, is a cataloguing of a large
number of agreed-upon third spaces with respect to their permanence. Sometimes
watching tapes of classroom's that Kris works in where there are 3rd spaces
in play, they seem to require some daring and (dare i say it?) trust and
they are likely to be ephemeral.
My own belief is that such experiences are very important in education, but
how would you convince those who go by SAT scores alone? (In principle, I
realize the practicalilties would be horrendous- but clear in principle
examples might just help people find opportunities to recognize an
implementable one). For that matter, how would you convince many of the
parents, who could see such times as "the teacher losing control" or "talking
inappropriately" with the kids?
These are very self interested questions. I work with a different kind of
third space (I think) and I would like to have a better understanding of
the different ways in which the term is used.
mike
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