RE: It takes a classroom to raise a village?

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Thu Mar 20 2003 - 18:55:13 MST

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    Michael writes

    > I've done some thinking..., one idea being providing web
    > access (allowing for individual blogs) to some hungry
    > third world village which would then be 'adopted' by a
    > classroom in the U.S. The villagers could blog details
    > of their environment, plus things like mailing soil
    > samples for analysis, etc, and the challenge to the
    > classroom is how much they can improve [sic] villager
    > life via all or mostly information.

    That's a great idea! I can't think of anything to teach
    humility to the American students as quickly as that!

    > Basically, the individual villagers blog their individual
    > needs and desires into blogs which are aggregated by the class.

    Aggregate need! Wonderful. Someone should tell Paul
    Samuelson so that he can incorporate this new concept
    into his worthless books. (sorry for the sarcasm in
    this paragraph)

    > I could see even elementary classrooms participating
    > in this, perhaps interacting with the villager kids,
    > or data entry.

    What they would learn is one of life's most important
    lessons, to wit, ***Eternal Truth Number One***:

         Nothing is Simple

    What sounds easier than the students applying their
    Western wisdom to the down-trodden in the poorer areas
    of the world? What sounds simpler? They would, of
    course, discover that it's not so simple, and that
    the "natives" have a vastly better understanding of
    their own situation and what can be done that do the
    ignorant foreign students.

    I mean, if helping the poorer countries has escaped the
    best minds in the IMF and World Bank, and their trillions,
    for decade after decade after decade, I hate to break it
    to you, but the students are going to find that there is
    absolutely nothing they can do. It would be a miracle if
    they came to understand the "natives" situation one tenth
    as well as those benighted souls.

    > There are significant barriers here, especially language, and
    > probably most conversation would be mediated by automated
    > translation systems. Villagers might be hesitant to discuss
    > personal needs and desires and that would perhaps take
    > significant time and repeated friendly (and non-judgmental)
    > interaction to overcome.

    The villagers might also be reluctant to disabuse the American
    children of their fantasies. A non-public remark of one villager
    to another might be, "I understand that we are putting up with
    this silliness because somebody over there might send some
    money, but shouldn't we be honest with the poor kids?"

    > The kids would get some benefit of being like consultants,

    That's what American kids need these days! More self-esteem!

    > outside the politics and social structures of the villagers
    > and thereby build trust to offer objective advice.

    This wouldn't be at all dangerous; the wise villagers would
    know exactly what to do with the children's advice.

    > Whatever the benefits to the village, the benefits to the class could be
    > enormous. All education would be geared toward solving real-world goals
    > in real-time.

    Sorry, but it's really difficult to believe that you
    are being serious here.

    > Perhaps some social science subjects would be shifted to
    > lower grades, as they might, for example, research history
    > to prepare summaries for the higher grades who turn these
    > into direct recommendations.

    Humor.

    > An example might be 'find ways similar tribal conflicts
    > have been resolved before' etc.

    Yes! And with the skills the kids develop, they can
    man the hotlines to resolve domestic disturbances,
    intractable corporate mergers, and any number of
    conflicts that periodically arise between groups
    and individuals. (Why isn't there an emoticon for
    sarcasm?)

    Why, they could even intercede on the Extropians list
    to soothe troubles arising between groups calling
    each other "trolls" and other names, and troubles
    that arise from certain overly cynical and sarcastic
    persons sticking it occasionally to other posters.

    Lee



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