Never mind what’s Sanctifying Grace! That’s none of your business. You are here to learn the catechism and do what you are told. You are not here to be asking questions. Angela’s Ashes
I drove past Eden Park today as the testosterone charged cricket fans were exiting with their territorial flags, banners, air horns and one finger salutes. It reminded me of Graham’s questioning of his questioning of the role of winners and losers in the edublogging awards. There is always this nagging doubt that we are not meant to question in education; there is only an alcohol fuelled certainty of the rightness of challenge in sport. And yet, and yet we know in our hearts that
Once you have learned how to ask relevant and appropriate questions, you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.
Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in "Teaching as a Subversive Activity"
I wonder why when it comes to a physical object like a “ball” we are so content with challenge, a fierce tussle, competition, winners and losers but when it comes to a subjective notion an “idea” we are desperate to avoid confrontation, to the point where in most educational institutions a pervasive culture of niceness compromises all opportunity for new learning.
The most fabulous Michael Leunig captures the culture of confrontation quite well in this exerpt from The Curly Pyjama Letters Viking 2001 ... and helps me maintain a connection with those "invisible ducks"
"Dear Mr Curly,
I'm still a little shaken, having witnessed for the first time, something called a ‘football match’. It was awful. Two opposing teams of men, with great skill and energy, thwarted and violated each other, quite obsessively and shamelessly in full view of a large crowd for more than one and a half hours.
Such greed and desperate snatching I've never seen before. Such injury, sadism, and sabotage perpetuated in the cause of advantage over one's fellows. I saw not the slightest kindness or act of good faith pass between the teams.
Very interestingly, the crowd was utterly approving of it all this trouncing and hurting and deceiving - in fact, it seemed to thrive on it and became radiant when the spectacle was most violent …..….. Anyway, the duck had a terrible day, but as usual, took the spectacle of human madness and sickness in its stride, or should I say, “in its waddle”. As we know, ducks don't stride; nor are they strident!
Good wishes dear friend.
Yours truly and in a waddling spirit,
Vasco Pyjama."
And then The Onion, one of my favourite reads for new insight into the madness of our world, offers this suggestion of where a non competitive learning environment in ICT and education might end up.
New Video Game Designed To Have No Influence On Kids' Behavior
December 14, 2005 | Issue 41•50
NEW YORK— Electronic-entertainment giant Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Grand Theft Auto series creator Rockstar Games, released Stacker Tuesday, a first-person vertical-crate-arranger guaranteed not to influence young people's behavior in any way.
"With Stacker, the player interacts with an environment full of boxes—lightweight, uniformly brown boxes with rounded corners—and uses diligence and repetitive hard work to complete his mission," said Doug Benzies, Stacker's chief developer. "We're confident that the new 'reluctantly interactive' content engine we designed will prevent any excitement or emotional involvement, inappropriate or otherwise, on the part of the player."
To avoid any appearance of suggestive or adult situations, the graphics consist entirely of rectangular polygons rendered in shades of brown against a simulated gray cinderblock wall. The game is free-roaming inside the warehouse environment, meaning that no goals are set for stacking a certain number of boxes, nor is there a time limit for the stacking. The health-level bar remains at a constant peak, and the first-person perspective avoids the problem of players identifying too closely with the main character, whose name is never specified and to whom nothing actually happens.....
A demo version of Stacker was unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in September and garnered praise from parents' groups who lauded its unstimulating visuals, utter lack of storyline, and non-immersive game play. ....... This is exactly what this controversial industry needed to rescue its reputation."
I am waddling off to buy a large brown paper bag to put over my head in an attempt to disguise the questioning in me.
No question about it Art', you're a very smart lady.
http://teachandlearnonline.blogspot.com/2006/01/games-in-mind.html
Posted by: Leigh Blackall | January 15, 2006 at 11:25 PM
I thought the quote from "The Onion" was absolutely hilarious!!!!
Well done there Arti. There are those - you know who you are - that are still adamant that the out-dated, antiquated, archaic and démodé idea of media effects theory should still be the basis of media analysis. The quotidian neuro-psychologist would be most surprised to know that children don't shoot their parents with rocket launchers after playing Doom 3.
Perhaps the most violent media genre we could ever encounter is the Romance novel. In this genre there are constant gyrations, moans, fetish beatings, screams of ecstasy, whips of desire, Sadian penetrations into every orifice of nature, and even the happy ending marriage that may demand an excrutiating fortitude. The Romance novel begins with an inexplicable affectivity that dominates the character's entire senses. The protagonist is unable to eat, sleep, or even converse. The excitability of the body becomes an affliction to the mind. As the novel progresses, the lover goes through one trial after another trial of spirit and ardour; one madness of the body after another and still we are told that love demands such sadomasochism. We are made to be shocked, tortured, and sent into a malaise of wretchedness. And the grand narratives stop when the protagonist dies at the height of her/his ardour. Our hearts sink, our spirits drown and reality demands vengence. This is a most violent genre.
Yet we still read it - and now we watch it. Children are exposed to it now on Neighbours at 6 o'clock. They watch Pride and Prejudice in the movies and every parent applauds their child's Classic taste. Silly, silly parents. If only they knew.
I say let the children be blinded from such horror! I say make all romantic movies and books R18+. Do they not see the convulsions of the body marked by such distasteful media? Perhaps the media effects theorists were right after all. Children are susceptible to romantic ideologies and they could be violently afflicted before they mature to adults. Damn you Anne Caldwell! Damn you RaeAnne Thayne! Damn all of you Romanticists!
I must retire now. The angst and perturbations of this century are hard to bear.
I.F.
Posted by: Insouciantfemme | January 15, 2006 at 11:44 PM
Leunig cartoons being quoted - I'm totally hooked on yur blog now. My favourite which is relevant to this field of edtech is Leunig's father and son joyously watching the sun rise on TV while out the window the real thing is happening.
Posted by: Graham Wegner | January 16, 2006 at 12:06 AM
Dear Insouci, Leigh and Graham,
It has been too long since you commented, and I apologise for my tardiness in reply.
I have taken on board your concerns over my gender identity disorder, furtive predilection for the romantic novel, and helpless affection for extracting great clods of Leunig as an intellectual “blankie” when fighting depression.
I will try to address each of these Artichokean character flaws in turn, and collectively, over the next few months.
I have started with a resolve to burn all the “bodice ripper” fiction stacked high beside my bed. (How did you know this about me Insouci? Was it that failed attempt to blog an erotic novel with Lunaboca that exposed me?), but it is proving to be a long process.
I have to re-read each paragraph of eros
“They laughed and played together till the flush of desire mounted to their brows and the passion in their hearts made them tremble.”
to determine whether it fits Insouci’s criteria for the Most Violent Media Genre: “The Romance Novel” or whether it is something else altogether. Is proving to be a slow process or even a Leunigian plod.
“My journey appears to have developed into a process of steady plodding which I rather like. When you plod, everything seems to take forever and forever is a lovely thing once you
stop being scared of it.” Leunig.
May be a while before there is any burning.
Warm wishes and hot regards
Arti
Posted by: Artichoke | January 19, 2006 at 10:40 AM