One year ago on Round and Square (28 June 2012)—Primary Sources: I Make A Boat
Two years ago on Round and Square (28 June 2011)—Flowers Bloom: Letter From Chicago
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| [a] Badgerswirl RF |
"But wait," says a literalist in the audience. "Aren't there fifty of those things?"
Such petty, worldly things matter not to the cosmologist. Fifty. That is mere counting. We have much bigger fiche to fry here. We are not talking about something that any fourth grader could do—more on that in a moment. We're talkin' concepts here. We're talkin' seventh grade and beyond.
Huh? I thought this was about state capitals (I hear you cry).
The explanation goes something like this. While standing in the old Barnes & Noble store in Evanston, Illinois about twenty years ago, I chanced upon a book on education, management, and innovations in thought. I spent about ten minutes with it, and one thing in particular caught my eye—a treatment of the French thinker Jean Piaget's developmental thought.
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| [b] Austin City Limits RF |
What I liked the most was the example the author used to explicate Piaget's principles. First imagine a studious little fourth grader from somewhere in the American educational system. Ask the growing tyke to memorize the fifty American state capitals, and she will be on it like fudge on a sundae.
No problem.
In fact, many of us reading this post today were "that" fourth grader (and some of us have since grown a little rusty on whether it's Olympia or Walla Walla...or Bismarck or Hitler).*
*As some of you know, this is a Simpsons reference, but I cannot find a YouTube link.
Well, the point is, of course, that such an ability, while hefty, is nowhere near the full analytical toolbox we need to proceed in our educations. It's sort of like a screw driver (and a flat-headed one, at that): we can't live without it—and it works for things that it really wasn't designed to do, like prying paint lids. Still, it is just one slot in the big ol' tool belt that we need if we are going to go toe-to-to with intellectual giants such as Michel Foucault or Glenn Beck.
For that, we need something more formidable, and that can be summarized in the book's key point.
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| [c] Dakota Towers RF |
So you know the fifty state capitals, do you? So says this American example version of Jean Piaget, who would probably have been thinking of European national centers or French administrative district seats. Still, you know 'em all, right? Yup. Little Rock, Springfield, Tallahassee.
O.k., now consider this. What would the capitals be if the United States were divided into ten?
Into ten? But there aren't ten. There are fifty.
No, this is the point...Piaget's point.
It is that the fourth-grader can memorize what is. S/he is not yet very good at conceptualizing what might be. This is a key skill, he says, and we should practice it.
I have always loved this idea, and I use it to introduce my students in college history courses to what we will be doing in our studies. We'll be engaging the source materials and thinking about new ways to interpret them. It's Piaget all over, up and down.
The "Power of Five" is a little different. These five
Remember, if you think that this is a "top-five" list, such as you read on Yahoo, you are very badly mistaken. No, these are totality.
If that doesn't make sense...go back and read the introduction and the links!
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| [d] Springfield RF |
The Five State Capitals
(feel free to click the links)
Richmond (Virginia)
Austin (Texas)
Lincoln (Nebraska)
Carson City (Nevada)
Bismarck (North Dakota)
Honorable Mention**
Willow (Alaska)
San Juan (Puerto Rico)
** The RSQ board will occasionally make use of the "honorable mention" opportunity to throw in a few more things to think about. The board quite obviously had tongues in cheeks here.
There's plenty to argue about here (plenty about which to argue). It might seem arbitrary at worst and merely "directional," at best (look at a map). Here is the RSQ board of directors' reply.
"Merely directional? "You can't be serious. Merely...directional? East→South→Center→West→North→and ever onward...in space, time, and history? Merely directional?"
'nuf said. The cosmologists have the last word.
Tomorrow
The Five Interstate Highways
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| [e] On to Richmond RF |
I'm going to need to think about this one a little,
ReplyDeleteYup, Pam. This is definitely one that could be looked at from many perspectives. There are fifty of those countin' things, after all. That's a lot to choose from, even from a "cosmological board."
ReplyDelete