The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Beverly's Homeschooling Blog at About.com.
Make sure you read Ragamuffin Studies post on Just Thinking about Inclusion and Ideology. It's exactly what I've been thinking lately and relates to my feelings on the afrocentric school mentioned in my last post though I didn't really go into detail.
The other must read is WWWDD? at Just Enough, and Nothing More. Tammy deals with cherry picking in a post about liking some of what Wayne Dyer has to say, despite thinking he's a jerk.
It occurs to me that the posts are related. I think the idea that kids should be shuttled into the same classrooms to learn the same things from the same textbooks is possibly the process that promotes all or nothing thinking, or rather, doesn't allow kids to exercise the critical thought that cherry picking promotes. However, if I'm talking to, say, a Christian fundamentalist mom and want to make that conversation meaningful and enriching then I have to cherry pick. Dismiss some views or comments, move on and see the value in other views she holds.
It's not giving everyone the same experience that makes for enriching diversity. It's allowing them to be deeply different and then making the effort to bridge that in discussion. Does that sounds like a bit of a synthesis of the posts?
Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm just starting to think about this and my thoughts aren't clear. If anyone has read both posts and thinks they know what I'm saying but can do a better job, please do, either in my comments or own your own blog.
2 comments:
Hi, Dawn, and thanks for the link.
I have lurked your blog now and then, but have not commented. Or at least not in a long time--I may not remember if it was long, long ago.
I think your point is well taken--different experiences = different lives and that's what makes people fascinating, interesting, and fun.
Or as they used to say in my hometown in the midwest:
"It takes all kinds to make a world." The meaning was something like: "I'm not sure about that person, but hey, it takes all kinds..."
Agreed- it is entirely possible for people to be deeply different and yet still peacefully coexist, and even enjoy it. :D However, one must be able to not take differences personally, which is IMO where the conflict comes in. "Only by pride cometh contention".
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