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RE: [xmca] Project

Martin, i'm thinking that in our discussion regarding goal/object, communities of practice, motive, etc. etc. - that the metaphor of the hunt and the shared goal is first of all far too simplistic, and it doesn't allow for innovation, or invention.  for example, of of the beaters within the hunt could be a slave whose goal during the hunt is to figure out an initial escape route.  certainly all prisoners within a cell block do not share a common goal of rehabilitation or emerge into society a better christian - or those sent off into the soviet gulag certainly didn't have the singular goal of laboring to become the new soviet man, or children within a classroom of any school do not all have the same individual goal as espoused by schooling institutions.  Charles Dickens certainly made that clear in his novels, not to mention Victor Hugo or Marcel Proust.  so this notion of a shared goal within an activity is incorrect.  Secondly, we're forgetting about to remember that we're animals with genetic dispositions - at birth babies clearly begin to scan their environment - any parent knows this - from the time that the infant begins tracking an object, a finger or a face, with her eyes.  we seems to have forgotten that humans are born to recognize and/or construct patterns -  we can't help it, actually.  it can get us into terrible trouble in stereotypes and prejudices, etc.  and just because an infant can't vocalize a goal, there are fortunately surrounded by adults who can construct goals for that child...  the adult can learn to construct patterns from the different infant cries.  and remember, the infant has learned to identify the voice of her mother while still residing in that warm bath of amniotic fluids.  

i hope that what i've written makes some kind of sense.  i feel fairly clear about what i wanted to say and now i'm feeling quite unclear.

phillip


Phillip White, PhD
Urban Community Teacher Education Program
School of Education & Human Development
University of Colorado Denver
phillip.white@ucdenver.edu
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