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Re: [xmca] schools kill creativity?

Yes, David. The media here has been very clear that Brasil has always been the ovious choice, for the reasons you mentioned.
This past summer has been marked by whites at rallies they call "Tea Parties," and at "Town Hall" meetings convened by Congress members, wailing "I want my country back!" -- suggesting they think somebody has taken "their" country away from them now that Obama is President. "Tea Party" refers to a pre-revolutionary event that decried "taxation without representation." These people seem to think that the principle of representation has been denied even though large majorities elected the current Congress and the President.
Those who blame Obama for not bringing the Olympics to Chicago might be moaning "I want my planet back." The planet that they feel they're losing is the one reflected in the facts that you recite. I was thinking: If you draw a perimeter around Australia, China, Japan, Russia, Scandanavia, US & Canada, France, Italy, Greece, and back to Australia, I think ALL olympics have been held within that perimeter. That is pretty much the whole world, right?
Not only Sounth America, but also Africa, the Middle East, Western, South, and Southeast Asia are not included. But how much of the world is in those regions?
People who have not been in the USA might not be able to imagine how insular a view of the world is common here.
My own faulty perspective became clear to me on my recent trip to Cape Town. When I booked the ticket, I was surprised to see the scheduled flight times so much longer than from Philadelphia to Finland, and even longer than Philadelphia to Shanghai. I explained my surprise by thinking that I am not accustomed to counting North-South distances in my estimation, since my travel has been mostly East-West.
Another thing that seemed odd to me was that the flight time scheduled for Dakar to Johannesburg was longer than from Wash DC to Dakar. I thought there might be some reason for scheduling that way even though the Dakar to Jo'burg had to be the shorter leg. It was not until after I had actually flown the trip both ways that I realized that Dakar to Jo'burg really is the longer distance.
Only after I got back did I realize: Africa is BIG! and we don't see that partly because of how we do our maps of the world. There's a very widely recognized distortion in the 2-dimensional projections that are used in our familiar maps of the world, on which Africa appears smaller than Greenland.
So there's nothing unusual about my distorted perspective. What makes it more remarkably astonishing, though, is that for fifteen years I have been teaching an undergraduate course on elementary school social studies, and every year I have conducted at least one class session in which we look at globes and the alternative projections, and reflect on the impressions and distortions that result.
So this is something I've been teaching for fifteen years, but it did not sink in to me until I actually lived through those distances, experiencing those distances in hours in the air. 

On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, David Preiss wrote:


Hi colleagues
Just to put the olympics issue in context. The USA has organized 4 editions of the Summer Olympics and 4 editions of the Winter Olympics. None other country in the world has hosted more either SO or WO than the USA. We could also take into consideration Canada, if we want to consider North America, excluding the Latin American games of Mexico in 1968. Canada has organized one of both and the incoming winter olympics are there. Canada is third in the world as host country venue, along other European countries. Europa is over represented too. As everybody knows these are the first OG ever in South America. The reason why Chicago lost are pretty obvious, I think. And I assume Obama knew this. I think he did the right thing going there, still. Of course, the political right is going to use this lost to attack Obama. Not unexpected. But please the whole thing about the olympics decision is not that Chicago lost but that the earth is round. 
Best,
David



On Oct 3, 2009, at 11:11 AM, Ana Paula B. R. Cortez wrote:


Hi, everyone, Cris and Tony!
Thanks for the message. I believe politicians should go back to school and learn with the kids how to work collaboratively. The world will become a much better place by the time everyone learns how to work TOGETHER, instead of thinking about one's own priorities. Chicago not being chosen was not your president's responsibility only (of course part of it is, since he represents the country), but it involves a lot of other individual circumstances. The same applies to Rio: being chosen doesn't reflect our president's work, since the social conditions in Rio (and the rest of Brazil) are far beyond ideal.
Now, Tony, I'm very glad to know you'll host the next conference in Brazil! Why not doing it in São Paulo? Please, send me an off-list message with the details and I can suggest venues for it. 

Warm regards to all,

Ana Paula Barbosa Risério Cortez

English Language and Literature Professor

Faculty of Language and Education

University of Mogi das Cruzes-VL, Brazil

Av. Imperatriz Leopoldina, 550

Vl. Leopoldina, São Paulo, SP - Brazil

05305-000

55 11 3648-5050

apbrcortez@yahoo.com.br

--- Em sáb, 3/10/09, Tony Whitson <twhitson@UDel.Edu> escreveu:

De: Tony Whitson <twhitson@UDel.Edu>
Assunto: Re: [xmca] schools kill creativity?
Para: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Data: Sábado, 3 de Outubro de 2009, 0:57

Thanks, Ana,
At first I was going to send this just to you, off-list, but then I thought I'd send it to the list. 

First, Congratulations!
.. and, I thought others outside the US might be interested in hearing that we in this country are being treated to the spectacle of right-wing USA super-patriots rejoicing (cheering, applauding vigorously, etc.) at the news that Chicago's bid for the Olympics was not successful. They see this as a failure that will disgrace Obama, and they are welcoming any failure for the USA that they think can be treated as a failure by Obama.
I wanted to also mention that at our International Curriculum meeting in South Africa last month, we decided that our next meeting will be in Brazil in 2012. Not sure yet which University will host, or in which city; but it would be great if you would join us -- I will update the list as details emerge.
Finally, points in your message encourage me that maybe the manuscript I'm writing might not be too crazy after all. In one part I am working (maybe overworking) an analogy between meaning and dancing, arguing that just as dancing is what dancers do, meaning is what mean-ers do (speakers, writers, thinkers -- but also words, texts, and signs in general). So "I mean ..." , "she means ..." , "that word means ..." "that text means ..."; with "meaning" as a verb, and not a noun (i.e., not something that could be a "content," or something "conveyed").
Anyway, your message also reminded me of the teacher who said, "Mary, put that book away; it's time for reading now!" (I guess that's not intelligible outside of countries where "reading" is a subject and a class that has been taught using systems and materials that bear little relationship to the reading that people do with books outside of schools and classrooms.)
Again, Congratulations! President Obama offered his congratulations to Rio and to Brazil when he returned, and he also expressed pride in Chicago. "Sometimes you can play a great game and still not be the winner."
To the right wing in our country, any time Obama falls short of what he's trying to do (even on things like reducing unemployment, or finding a way to provide health care for people here -- not just something like the Olympics), they see failure for the USA as a great victory for the American that they are loyal to. 

On Fri, 2 Oct 2009, Ana Paula B. R. Cortez wrote:


Thanks, Mike!
I loved the talk. It makes completely sense. I was teaching PFL (Portuguese as Foreign Language) at the American School of São Paulo this morning and I called one of my student's attention for chatting so much in class. Do you know what she said to me? "Sorry, Ms Cortez, I need to talk in order to think". Well, if a great dancer needs to move in order to put all her creativity into action, who I am to disagree with this student of mine? ;) 
Warm regards to all,

Ana Paula Barbosa Risério Cortez


English Language and Literature Professor



Faculty of Language and Education



University of Mogi das Cruzes-VL, Brazil



Av. Imperatriz Leopoldina, 550



Vl. Leopoldina, São Paulo, SP - Brazil



05305-000



55 11 3648-5050



apbrcortez@yahoo.com.br


--- Em qui, 1/10/09, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> escreveu:

De: mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>
Assunto: [xmca] schools kill creativity?
Para: "eXtended Mind, Culture,Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Data: Quinta-feira, 1 de Outubro de 2009, 21:30

Perhaps of some interest.
mike

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
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Tony Whitson
UD School of Education
NEWARK  DE  19716

twhitson@udel.edu
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"those who fail to reread
are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
                  -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
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David Preiss
ddpreiss@me.com
http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/

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Tony Whitson
UD School of Education
NEWARK  DE  19716

twhitson@udel.edu
_______________________________

"those who fail to reread
 are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
                  -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
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