Dear At,
Thanks for the response. This is good! Clarifying my English too.
>After that conversation with Jessica, I almost felt like Jean Jacques
>Rousseau when he wrote Emile. In it he championed that children should
>learn about life, free of complications. I do not want to create the
>impression that Jessica is a faultless oracle. I merely want to offer
>her pre-school development as an example of self-organised learning.
>
>The dictionaries consider "complication" as a close synonym for
>"complexity". But I would like to see a greater difference between
>these two words. Complexity (for me) is the consistent and coherent
>organisation of innumerous different entities. When this consistency
>and coherence of complexity get destroyed, the result is a
>complication. We cannot avoid the complexity of reality, but we can
>certainly avoid to add to the complications of reality. Reality is
>complex, but it should not be complicated also. Maybe there is a
>better word to use for the word complication, but I still have to find
>it.
>Jessica already recognise these two concepts slightly. When she draws
>pictures with many entities, she distinguishes between "deur mekaar"
>(complicated) and "met mekaar" (complexity) pictures. The literal
>translation for "deur mekaar " is "through each other" and for "met
>mekaar" it is "with each other".
I think 'deur mekaar' can also mean 'mixed up' and 'met mekaar' can also
mean 'together'. If that is so, it is also an interesting idea to put
with complicated (=mixed up) and complexity (=together).
>If we are not complicators, then what are we? You say that we should
>be simplifiers. But this word is in conflict with the word complexity.
>Trying to simplify complexity is another way of complicating
>complexity. I think that the word "actualise" articulate our
>uncomplicated interaction with complexity better than the word
>"simplify".
When I say simplify things I am meaning that the world is already complex
enough (complexity) and that we need not complicate it further. Blijf
envoudig (keep it simple) means don't make it more complicated than it
needs to be. That said, even our 'simple' these days is complicated. But
at least we don't have to throw any more into the pot!
I am not sure of the meaning of actualising. Perhaps that is a better
word.
>When I observe Jessica, I see a little actualiser rather than a little
>simplifier. She is now at the stage where she, for example in numbers,
>actualises all sorts of patterns, trying to make each pattern more
>complex. After three weeks in school her teacher thinks she is perhaps
>hyper-active. The teacher mentioned on the quiet that a few other kids
>get Ritalin to make them more compliant to class teaching. I had
>difficulty to control my temper.
To hear something like that appals me. Does not surprise me. What some
do to our children! At least that is not happening to my children in
their school. Their creativity is being encouraged.
Tricia Lustig
LASA Development UK Ltd
Gloucestershire
-- Tricia LustigLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>