why write? October 22, 2007
Posted by KC in uncategorized.1 comment so far
The Positivity Blog has an interesting post about Why You Should Write Things Down. I like the focus on using writing as a cognitive tool (as opposed to a purely communicative one). I was especially intrigued by this reason for writing things down:
Unloading your mental RAM. When you don´t occupy your mind with having to remember every little thing – like how much milk to get – you become less stressed and it becomes easier to think clearly. This is, in my opinion, one of the most important reasons to write things down. Feeling more calm and relaxed does not only improves your health but also makes life easier.
Reading this reminded me of Plato’s story (in Phaedrus) about King Thamus’ rebuke to Theuth, the Egyptian god who invented writing:
If men learn [writing], it will implant forgetfulness in their souls: they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks; what you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder.
That Plato cracks me up. Where others saw a useful tool, he saw the road to moral turpitude.
a vision of students today October 22, 2007
Posted by KC in education.1 comment so far
Check out this thought-provoking video about undergraduates from cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch:
I’ve been using Rebekah Nathan’s book, My Freshman Year, in my ethnographic writing courses to discuss the experiences of being a college student, but I like the fact the material for Wesch’s video was generated by the students themselves.
no horseshoes today October 22, 2007
Posted by KC in teaching.2 comments
I used to obsesses about the arrangement of furniture in my classrooms. I had a deep and abiding hatred of rows, and I thought that making my students sit in rows was the ultimate expression of hierarchy and institutional authority. On the first day of class, and every day thereafter, I’d make my students pick up their desks and scoot them (noisily) into some other, more “decentered” configuration. I tried circles, semi-circles, concentric circles, horseshoes, and even pods–anything but straight rows. (more…)
like riding a bicycle October 4, 2007
Posted by KC in uncategorized.2 comments
One of my sons recently taught me a lesson about scaffolding. For years now, he’s been riding a bike with training wheels, but this summer we wanted him to learn to ride without them. They’re noisy and cumbersome, and they really slowed him down. So, I encouraged him to ride upright, so that he wasn’t on the training wheels. I was even planning to start raising the wheels, so that he would be less dependent on them. The idea, I guess, was that he’d eventually decide he didn’t need them.
Well, things didn’t work out that way. He kept riding on the training wheels, no matter how much I praised him whenever he wasn’t on them. At around this time, though, I saw a segment on Sesame Street that showed Scandinavian kids (much younger than my son) balancing perfectly well on bicycle-like scooters without pedals. I ran out to the garage, pulled both the training wheels and pedals off his bike, and had him sit-and-scoot up and down the street a few times over the course of a couple of days. After about maybe a total of ten minutes riding this way, I put the pedals back on, and (to my great surprise) he was immediately riding on his own. (more…)
