FW: [NLA] Tom Sticht's Democracy

[Ellison, Art]

Kathleeen Bomback identifies New England literacy "cliques" that "attend
conferences, meet face to face, argue, debate, develop strong likes and
dislikes". They sound great but after 30 years in adult education in New
England I have yet to find one. Where do I sign up?         Art Ellison

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	KathleenBombach at aol.com [SMTP:KathleenBombach at aol.com]
> Sent:	Friday, January 04, 2002 2:08 PM
> To:	nifl-esl at nifl.gov; nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject:	[NLA] Tom Sticht's Democracy
> 
> Ref Tom Sticht's analysis of discussion list postings:
> 
> The lists that have greater moderator participation, fewer messages, and
> less 'democracy' in the postings are lists I value. I want to thank the
> moderators for their effort, research, and information-sharing with us
> that we might not otherwise be exposed to. 
> 
> Since those of us on these lists, like technology, women, and
> poverty/race, may very likely already agree with the stances taken by
> other posters, we may be less inclined to respond. But that does not mean
> that we are less interested and involved in the content of the lists.
> 
> My thanks to Daphne, Mary Ann, Emily, and others for the work they do,
> since there is an implied (or maybe I just inferred) criticism inherent in
> Tom's posting that the lists they moderate are less 'democratic'. 
> 
> I know that I have made a conscious effort to reduce my list postings on
> the NLA and ESL lists because of the rather passionate discussion two
> years ago on the dominance of postings by a handful of people over issues
> that some felt were arcane or not directly related to the express purpose
> of the lists' creators and sponsors. My name was mentioned, along with
> George Demetrion, Catherine King, Andres Muro, and others. I could argue
> that these lists, which are also the more active lists, are less
> 'democratic' now because the free flow of ideas has been reduced. 
> 
> Numbers of participants do not equal 'democracy': witness countries that
> have an astounding 97-98 percent voting participation rate. If the same
> ideas are repeated by a large number of people, what we may have is the
> reification of one ideology over all others, which 'corporatizes' our
> practice. No matter the volume of messages, their content is reduced to a
> handful of ideas. Other voices with different beliefs and contrary
> experiences are stilled. 
> 
> The initial reason a list is created will naturally change over time as
> the participants 'vote' on the topics they wish to discuss through the
> content of their postings. It is like giving birth to a child: you know
> what you intend for your child, but you also know that your child will
> take on a life of its own; even do and say things you do not agree with.
> The knowledge base of the participants also changes over time as we simply
> learn more and are exposed to different ideologies, arguments, and
> information. Discussions will become more wide-ranging and sophisticated,
> and minds may be changed.
> 
> This does make it difficult for newbies to become integrated into list
> discussions, and that is a problem which must be addressed. But reducing
> discussions to the lowest common denominator is also a problem as simple
> boredom and repetition set in, other ideas and ideologies are not
> acknowleged, and an artificial consensus is created. It is a 'groupthink'
> phenomenon that does not serve us in the long run. 
> 
> For those of us who are not part of the New England literacy 'cliques' and
> cannot attend all the conferences, meet face to face, argue, debate, and
> develop strong likes and dislikes for each other, we are denied an
> important look into the underground tensions, conflicts, and foundational
> issues that exist in the literacy world. We are given the sanitized
> version after these debates have taken place, rather than being full
> participants from the beginning. Of course, there is a plus side to
> this--those of us who live in flyover country tend to like everyone and
> take everyone at face value when we meet, read articles, and attend
> presentations. We simply have less baggage to lug around, which is a
> psychological blessing.
> 
> I think that the homogenization of postings on the lists is a problem of
> the first magnitude. One of the topics we avoid is African-American
> literacy. I consider black literacy issues to be the 'big empty spot' in
> our literacy world map. I grew up in the south, but live on the border. I
> have no practice-based experience in black literacy but my southern
> heritage (Southerners always have heritage; we are never just from
> somewhere. Even white trash like me and my kinfolk appropriate the
> heritage of the upper classes of the south as though it were our own, so
> strong is the racial divide.) tells me that it is intrinsic to the most
> crucial divide in America. When does black literacy become an essential
> part of our literacy worldview? 
> 
> There are other 'big empty spots' on our map--however discomforting, we do
> ourselves no favor by ignoring their existance. To do it in the name of
> 'democracy' is a sin.
> 
> Kathleen Bombach
_______________________________________________
NLA mailing list: NLA at lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org