Subject: Admin: ChildWrite Project Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 16:31:10 -0700 From: mcpherso (John McPherson) To: childwrite We just got several new subscribers to this mailing list! Attached below is the current directory of subscribers. There are several "schools of thought" now represented on this list: 1. Project Renaissance -- teaching various learning, idea- generating, holistic health techniques ... perhaps most well-known for the practice of "image-streaming" 2. General Semantics -- a discipline for better evaluations of spoken/written words, and the inherent errors arising in communications and thinking 3. Libertarian community -- working to build a future where equal individual rights-and-liberty are respected (i.e., the "ends" do not necessarily justify the "means") 4. Systems theory -- building more accurate models of virtually everything by taking into account levels of organization, complex networks of relationships, functional analogies between apparently different things, processes, events, etc. 5. Etc. (what else needs to be added to this list?) This project is still in its infancy (:-), and is still very much in the process of "becoming". It looks like two separate emphases have arisen: teaching children how to think, create, problem-solve, etc.; and teaching them what to think (supporting particular values, particular ways of looking at the world in order to figure it out, etc.). It would appear that the highest goal would be to teach children _how_ to think for themselves, become more resourceful and creative, perhaps learn how to do things in smarter ways, etc. This emphasis and distinction is probably very important for a number of reasons, but I should probably address one in particular, that of apparently differing values. Some of us, myself included, highly value the philosophy and practice of "social individualism", which would certainly seem congruent with the goal of empowering children as increasingly self- responsible individuals in the context of the surrounding society. Others on this list may hold more collectivist values and wish to impart values of "social responsibility", "supporting the common good", etc. While it is probably true that a synthesis or at least compromise can be arrived at between these two camps, in the interim some may feel tempted to argue for particular values in this forum, but that might distract us from the larger goal of helping children through stories. I would suggest that it might be more productive, in the context of this particular project, to "argue for your values" in the form of (completed) children's stories. Obviously another possible major difference in values among subscribers will involve ideas about "religion", "god", "atheism", "humanism", etc. While we could get into lengthy and high volume discussions about whether these stories should all acknowledge and support particular religious (or non-religious) views, again, that would take energy away from the main purpose of this list and of the project: helping children to think, be creative, more effective at figuring things out and learning, learn how to use their imaginations more productively, etc. We may well need more thinking and clarification about this matter, and the above only represents my understanding about the project and some of my thoughts on an important consideration. Thoughts? ======================================================== E-Directory of current subscribers: Rick Ashby Michael Cole Sean Collins Lachele Foley John Greenwood Jim Heflin Douglas Hull Michael Joyner Larry Kueneman Tibor Machan Sunni Maravillosa Wendy McElroy John McPherson Jean Narveson George Nelson Elaine Parent Ana Robles Maximilian Sandor Daniel Shapiro Rolls Straveca Tice Tansil Matthew Turco Michael V Win Wenger Falkd Frank Gerald Orion