This post serves as a general stomping ground for comments and lingering thoughts about the latest Beyond Pedagogy text, Inventing Kindergarten.
Though our meeting had a slightly smaller turnout than previous ones, the dialogue was all the more engaging. That being said, Mark was kind enough to offer his notes from the meeting. Below are his unedited, running notes throughout the exchange – the excessive question mark use is all his! (??????)
And yes, this blog post’s title is an homage to one of my favorite books about one of my favorite places.
Mark’s Notes:
PAULA’S comments and ideas:
teachers undervalue the importance of media design (how the book was designed) EXPOUND – ??????
Walt Whitman (leaves of grass… book making – a lost art)
a little whitewashed… how did these kindergarten ideas affect other cultures…
was it really “creative” “abstract” – tolerating ambiguity
reminiscent of scientific behavioralism…
embodied literacy – not so cerebral…
infantilizing high school students – thru rules
OCTAVIO’S comments and ideas:
has to finish his dissertation
were Vygotsky and Froebel contemporaries
how education is compartmentalized…. the need for Interdisciplinary approach (connections)
experience is important…
play as a form of inquiry… (theatre as play)
???Where do video games fit into this????
basic skills fit into the larger context (LIFE) need to align experience with literacy
part of it has to be by design – what if life is the design????
ANTERO’S comments and ideas:
universal connectivity… Glass Bead Game (interconnectivity)
student of everything (LIFE) – Renaissance person…
lost in high school is a sense of play…
???Adult over play??? magic is lost, pedagogy is hidden for the kids ???? How do you balance transparency of pedagogy with sense of magic or wonderment…?????
consumerism destroying the purity…
intellectual play
I am so sorry I missed this meeting! I actually tho’t it was this week (even tho’ Andy’s email was very clear…). I was battling bronchitis and not thinking very clearly.
Be that as it may… I really loved this book. As much for what it suggests as for what it says…
In that way reminds of one my favorite books “Signs of Diaspora/Diaspora of Signs” (http://books.google.com/books?id=t3–xZmtC9wC&dq=signs+of+diaspora+diaspora+of+signs&pg=PP1&ots=BBpK3IorTq&sig=s-xrGbb08CPYdW2V52Kxq927ASo&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26rlz%3D%26q%3Dsigns%2Bof%2Bdiaspora%2Bdiaspora%2Bof%2Bsigns%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail)
although Gundaker does a much much finer grained analysis, both books affirm the value of speculation and wondering and meandering around a bit in intellectual inquiry– over the more “scientistic” values that are imposed, especially in education, these days etc.
By extension, I think they affirm the value of dawdling and staring into space– unstructured think time– in teaching/learning.
I totally appreciate Andy’s comments (or Mark’s notes about Andy’s comments) on the importance of play. Which is completely important in kindergarten but remains important into high school and, so far as I can see, well into middle age at least.
Also, I like the idea of pattern-setting and pattern-seeking from an early age. Vygotsky (more El Lissitsky’s and Kandinsky’s contemporary, I think, than Froebel’s– hmmm, did Vygotsky go to Kindergarten??), of course, would say that the children were not really capable of abstract, or “scientific” thinking. But did their experience influence them to prefer or make them susceptible to similar patterns later?
Great images too– I like the design of the book. And the design comments remind me of a favorite article that folks may already be familiar with: “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures” by the New London Group. (http://wwwstatic.kern.org/filer/blogWrite44ManilaWebsite/paul/articles/A_Pedagogy_of_Multiliteracies_Designing_Social_Futures.htm)
i totally meant to structure those notes to be helpful…
jill it looks like the link to the article on multiliteracies is not working….
other than that i appreciate your comments on our discussion and also look forward to the next meeting