[Squeakland] the non universals

[Blake]

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007 06:16:25 -0700, Alan Kay <alan.kay at squeakland.org>  
wrote:

> Over the last 30+ years of my own experience I have been greatly
> surprised at some of the things children have shown they can do (the
> 4 year olds at Reggio Emilia, the 6 year olds of Julia Nishijima,
> that 5th graders could do the Galilean gravity project I designed for
> 9th graders, etc.). Basically, we still don't really know what
> children can learn at different ages if the subject matter is
> properly formed. The experiments are very difficult to do, and lots
> of them need to be done (in part because there are so many things
> that can prevent a good reading of the children).

Alan,

	I think you would find interest in a visit to the Institutes for the  
Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia (www.iahp.org), if you're  
not familiar with it already. (I was reminded of it when you mentioned  
McLuhan, whom I know made some contributions there in the '70s.) They've  
been wrestling with these questions for 60 years now and they have some  
interesting and effective answers.

	===Blake===