Subject: nature v nurture
From: Ania Lian (ania@lingua.arts.uq.edu.au)
Date: Tue 30 Nov 1999 - 05:50:52 MET
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 14:50:52 +1000 (EST) From: Ania Lian <ania@lingua.arts.uq.edu.au> Subject: nature v nurture
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> G: As I said, I am truly curious. When I examined Multiple
> Intelligence Theory (a digest of it can be found at
> http://www.gwu.edu/~tip/gardner.html) I reflected on the fact that
> some individuals are more naturally suited for learning how to play
> ball than others. Michael Jordan is the quintessential example of
> this I suppose. I look at my 13-year old who plays second string on
> his 8th grade basketball team and it dawns on me that he will never be
> able to learn "as well" as Jordan in this activity!!!
I have seen TALL GIRLS brought to my basketb team, girls that I would
swore could not even breath that's how uncoordinated they were. The trick
about basketball is not about *playing 'it'* as there is nothing to play.
The trick is to play your part, whatever this may mean. For whatever
reason, my part took me years to develop, their part, took them (due to
excellent coaching as who wants to loose TALL GIRLS!) two months to move
from zero to stars. I believe learning is not about application of nature
but about mobilising possible forces (natural, whatever this means, and
not natural ones) toward goals.
The quality of the achievement may depend more on the quality of the
understanding of what the final product should look like rather than on
the ability to mobilise nature toward unnatural goals. I think that
shifting away the mystery from learning allows us to assess more
critically the quality of the conditions that we offer to our learners and
the direction which we should follow.
Ania Lian
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