New Look At Schools

Daniel Greenberg book: A New Look At Schools ISBN:1-888-94703-9

An attempt to design Education around a philosophy of Culture.

Notes (not complete)

• meta: written 1990
• Culture and Value System-s
  • Culture = ShareValues system of group of people, and its manifestations
  • Value Concept and Value System thinking comes from Max Kadushin
    • Key to understanding interactions between meeting Culture-s
• Cultural Pluralism and the US
  • Cultural Pluralism is a new Value Concept
    • more typical: dominance or co-existence (Austro Hungary)
  • CP involves embedding multiple distinct cultures (SubCulture) under a Unifying Culture having a limited/incomplete number of Value Concept-s
    • like a Minimal Compact?
    • like Separation Of Church And State
  • The embedded cultures adjust to be consistent with (yet fuller than) the Unifying Culture
  • Consequences
    • Resurgence of religion and mysticism
      • No distinct US culture "which of and by itself is a complete Way Of Life
      • people seeking to fill gaps in Unifying Culture
    • Embedded cultures become cut off from their roots
      • hence alienation of 2nd-gen immigrants
• US Value System
  • what are the Value Concept-s besides Cultural Pluralism?
  • Socio-political democracy (Liberal Democracy)
  • Proprietorship - non-global ownership of fruits of labor
    • can be individual or sub-group (e.g. CoOp) ownership
  • Innovation, Creativity
• Learning in the Context of Culture
  • Humans are naturally curious
  • The most pervasive form of learning is self-motivated
  • Learning through instruction is much less effective
    • Because minds cannot meld.
    • The most effective version of this is ApprenticeShip
  • Most-important form is "creating meaningful structures for handling data"
    • Using a structure is called Problem Solving
    • The overall mental construct of a person can be called their World View
    • The mind is always updating the World View.
    • Creating a structure is called Model Building.
    • Model Building is the primary form of learning that takes place in every health mind.
  • The process of maturation of one's World View is culturally determined
    • Your Culture defines maturity/adulthood.
    • To see differences in this across cultures, it's convenient to categorize cultures
      • Categories
        • PreIndustrial
        • Industrial (Industrial Age)
        • PostIndustrial
      • on fundamental aspects of the "style of living" (Life Style?)
• 3 Culture-s
  • PreIndustrial
    • characteristics
      • communication is person-to-person without automation (i.e. Pre Gutenberg)
        • so few get to experience it (books)
      • transportation depends on animal (including human) power
        • so few get to travel far
      • economy is focused on survival-essentials (food, clothing, shelter)
        • few have the Leisure time to spend on other things
      • high value on experience
        • respect for elders
    • results
      • small, focused, intense communities
      • inherent harmony with its local environment
      • childhood is like being in extended family
      • Lifelong Learning is normal; no institutions (schools)
        • (except specialized schools for a very few people)
  • Industrial (Industrial Age)
  • PostIndustrial