Comments on: Workers, soldiers or nomads – what does the Gates Foundation want from our education system?

By: dave

dave — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:18:53 +0000

In reply to Fred. Thanks for the kind comments about the article. I will say that intelligent design isn't really contentious in my country or in most for that matter... I don't think that you can engage in a discussion about pseudo-science without offending the group that considers it something else. Where else would i look but my own feelings about it to choose one from another?

By: Fred

Fred — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:45:48 +0000

I really enjoyed the article. It is a good contrast to consider goals of a system and its structures. I think that you could and should choose a better (less loaded) example of a pseudo-science than intelligent design. Your feelings toward that being or not being a valid form of science are off-putting to those who may agree with the rest of your points enthusiastically but are within that paradigm.

I also agree with Alain in that all types are needed, however I would argue that our goal as educators should be to set up an environment where each and every student can learn effectively. What type of learner results from our systems’ instructional design (nomad, worker, soldier) should be resultant (imo) of an open democracy where transparency and the will of the people rule.

By: Alain Goyé

Alain Goyé — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:55:47 +0000

Dave,
I agree 90%. As for the 10% remaining, we should be careful not to “jeter le bébé avec l’eau du bain” (French saying: throwing away the baby with the bath water). Today’s society probably needs us much more to be nomads, and this is exciting – at least for us who are ready for that – but also and still needs 1/ workers (having only clones of Steve Jobs would not do), 2/ nomads but who also have a memory and ability to be workers.
Basic knowledge – of languages, math etc. – helps a lot understanding problems and thus inventing solutions. Wynton Marsalis can reach “being the thing itself” thanks to a wide musical culture/mastery. After all, to be rhizomatic, it should help to start with some paramount roots.
A secondary note: is your word “soldiers” well chosen? Such people generally are dedicated to the rule they (ob)serve, not just to a benefit they draw from it (as would soldiers / mercenaries)…

By: Ilene Dawn Alexander (@IleneDawn)

Ilene Dawn Alexander (@IleneDawn) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:13:13 +0000

@onepercentyellow – love that hub of connection you’ve made. thanks for the say back of ideas!

By: onepercentyellow

onepercentyellow — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:17:32 +0000

@Ilene – Your picture of the rhizome-nomad connection really hit me! Of course – the nomad follows the rhizome in its most fertile state! Connection to home is found through the soil – links through the earth.

By: Ilene Dawn Alexander

Ilene Dawn Alexander — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:21:57 +0000

Growing up in a Minnesota town – where farming and hunting cycles moved through nomadic, pastoral and peripatetic versions, where the US-Dakota War intensified the clash between nomadic communities – Dakota peoples and white settlers/Dakota warriors and white soldiers – until 38 Dakota were hanged as a single platform dropped on the Boxing Day of 1862 after a hoax of a trial, and where rhizomes of hops, asparagus, irises and Lily of the Valley rooted at home then traveled underground to new beds – the blend of nomad and rhizome made my brain light up, the synapses tingling with recognition from growing up and in learning that mattered to me as well as teaching I dare to engage. Nomads are not wanderers, homeless nor necessarily restless or relentless – purposed, mindful, drawn to next discoveries and to bringing these home, communal and communicative in both social settings and self-reflection, learners because of and teachers with their families – where the context is about making it safe to take risk and where the mentoring is about making it possible to discern risk and make other decisions.

Thank you, Dave, for this post.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:38:09 +0000

You guys are awesome.

By: Frances Bell

Frances Bell — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:10:44 +0000

@Tobey – thanks for the reference to the book – had a quick inspect on Google books and I see that babies may indeed be nomadic in their thinking (more than us and their ‘schooled’ brothers and sisters). Babies can be ‘abstract enough’ in their thinking whilst remaining grounded in the practice of poking tasting and generally experimenting.

By: Tobey Steeves

Tobey Steeves — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:56:53 +0000

Quite like your engagement with Deleuze & Guattari’s nomadology here. Think it might be helpful to emphasize the nomad in relation to the war machine and the State. That’ll help distinguish the concept from ‘pilgrim’, etc.

Re. the learning of babies, you might try: Olsson, L. (2009). Movement and Experimentation in Young Children’s Learning: Deleuze and Guattari in Early Childhood Education.

Re. apprenticeships, see Deleuze & Guattari’s ‘What is philosophy?’ for a discussion on the ‘apprenticeship of the signs’.

Suspect the soldier/worker duality might be supplemented with attention to the division of labour. Anti-Oedipus = good for this.

By: Frances Bell

Frances Bell — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:01:44 +0000

I see where you are coming from with the nomad idea but I always go back the way that babies learn (and they do more learning than the rest of us). Their loving parents try to give them freedom within safe boundaries (no you can’t crawl on the road) and the babies seem to be driven by curiosity and searching for fun. And of course, they are learning outside ‘educational systems’. I think they may have much to teach us.