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From: Perry Nodelman <perry_nodelman>
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:36:18 -0500
On 26-Jul-09, at 7:43 PM, Jean Mendoza wrote:
>
>
> I have taught young children for more than 20 years, and written two
> thesis-level papers involving some of the philosophy and theory of
> Piaget, so I've read it, lived it, and written about it. I can
> promise you that although Piaget did miss the mark on some things,
> as he admitted himself on occasion, on many significant points his
> findings were on target (at least for children growing up in
> mainstream Western culture.)
I haven't looked much into more recent research since I worked on the chapter in the third (2003) edition of Pleasures of Children's Literature on developmental assumptions, but here are some quotes that Mavis Reimer and I based our conclusion on in that chapter:
> Until the mid-1970s, Piaget's ideas dominated the landscape the way
> Freudian thinking once ruled abnormal psychology. Since then,
> however, the picture has changed dramatically. Empirical and
> conceptual objections to the theory have become so numerous that it
> can no longer be regarded as a positive force in mainstream
> cognitive-developmental research, though its influence remains
> profound in cognate fields such as education and sociology. (Charles
> Brainerd, Recent Advances in Cognitive Developmental Research. New
> York: Springer-Verlag, 1983.)
> "Piaget invariably claims that when children are not doing
> something . . . they cannot do it" (Sugarman, Susan. Piaget's
> Construction of the Child's Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987.)
> "What we have here are features of white middle-class US society
> mapped onto models of development which are then treated as
> universal" (Erika Burman, Deconstructing Developmental Psychology.
> London and New York: Routlege, 1994.
> The process of socialisation as promoted under developmentalism is
> no more than a story [i.e., a narrative human beings invent about
> themselves]. However, it has become a story with such compelling
> plausibility it has overwhelmingly acquired the seeming status of
> incontrovertible truth--this is the way things really are" (Stainton
> Rogers, Rex and Wendy. Stories of Childhood: Shifting Agendas of
> Social Concern. Toronto and Buffalo: U of Toronto P., 1992.)
Note that the most recent of these sources is from 1994--fifteen years ago. But I'd be surprised if there weren''t more research along the same lines since then. The most logical conclusion of all this work is that if "development" follows in a regular pattern across populations, it is because adults in fact impose it on children. As the Stainton Rogers say, "Children are what we want them to be--or at least, they are what it suits the adult world for them to be" ("Word Children." Children in Culture: Approaches to Childhood. Ed. Karin Lesnik-Oberstein. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. 178-203). I think it's important to move past too much faith in Piaget if we would like more children to be more than they currently, often, are allowed to be.
Perry
> ____________
Perry Nodelman http://pernodel.wordpress.com/
Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
Received on Mon 27 Jul 2009 09:36:18 AM CDT
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:36:18 -0500
On 26-Jul-09, at 7:43 PM, Jean Mendoza wrote:
>
>
> I have taught young children for more than 20 years, and written two
> thesis-level papers involving some of the philosophy and theory of
> Piaget, so I've read it, lived it, and written about it. I can
> promise you that although Piaget did miss the mark on some things,
> as he admitted himself on occasion, on many significant points his
> findings were on target (at least for children growing up in
> mainstream Western culture.)
I haven't looked much into more recent research since I worked on the chapter in the third (2003) edition of Pleasures of Children's Literature on developmental assumptions, but here are some quotes that Mavis Reimer and I based our conclusion on in that chapter:
> Until the mid-1970s, Piaget's ideas dominated the landscape the way
> Freudian thinking once ruled abnormal psychology. Since then,
> however, the picture has changed dramatically. Empirical and
> conceptual objections to the theory have become so numerous that it
> can no longer be regarded as a positive force in mainstream
> cognitive-developmental research, though its influence remains
> profound in cognate fields such as education and sociology. (Charles
> Brainerd, Recent Advances in Cognitive Developmental Research. New
> York: Springer-Verlag, 1983.)
> "Piaget invariably claims that when children are not doing
> something . . . they cannot do it" (Sugarman, Susan. Piaget's
> Construction of the Child's Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987.)
> "What we have here are features of white middle-class US society
> mapped onto models of development which are then treated as
> universal" (Erika Burman, Deconstructing Developmental Psychology.
> London and New York: Routlege, 1994.
> The process of socialisation as promoted under developmentalism is
> no more than a story [i.e., a narrative human beings invent about
> themselves]. However, it has become a story with such compelling
> plausibility it has overwhelmingly acquired the seeming status of
> incontrovertible truth--this is the way things really are" (Stainton
> Rogers, Rex and Wendy. Stories of Childhood: Shifting Agendas of
> Social Concern. Toronto and Buffalo: U of Toronto P., 1992.)
Note that the most recent of these sources is from 1994--fifteen years ago. But I'd be surprised if there weren''t more research along the same lines since then. The most logical conclusion of all this work is that if "development" follows in a regular pattern across populations, it is because adults in fact impose it on children. As the Stainton Rogers say, "Children are what we want them to be--or at least, they are what it suits the adult world for them to be" ("Word Children." Children in Culture: Approaches to Childhood. Ed. Karin Lesnik-Oberstein. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. 178-203). I think it's important to move past too much faith in Piaget if we would like more children to be more than they currently, often, are allowed to be.
Perry
> ____________
Perry Nodelman http://pernodel.wordpress.com/
Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
Received on Mon 27 Jul 2009 09:36:18 AM CDT
