Date: Thu, 10 April, 1997 9:35
From: Krissi
1. When contemplating how pedagogy is/would be changed by a rhisomatic aesthetic , I think that in addition to rethinking the materials taught, we will fundamentally have to rethink accountability. "coursework" is inherently about demonstrating proficiency, which marks a change, a progress.
I don't think rhisomatic classes would have finals (hint hint) because their goal would not be to show the cumulative "I LEARNED THIS" effect. Rather, as mentioned before "process" would be emphasized.
In light of this... I don't hink any board of ed would go for this. They want to corporatize education "RESULTS, RESULTS, RESULTS." Any of you familiar with "outcome-based education" and the like know what I am talking about.
2. Another brainstorm on how to organize an American Lit Survey class...
The class would still be chronologically based. However, everyone would
not study the same things. Small "rhisome" groups would focus on one
particular movement in a time period while another group studied another.
Then, the differnt groups would "come together" -- potentially in a
role-playing type of gig--to show the interaction and connection between
the differnt movements.
For example, I could see an 19th cent class where
group one is women's lit
group two is Transcendentalists
group three is slave narratives
(or something like this)
The groups would learn about the writings in their rhisome and then have to learn about the connection between women, abolition, slave narratives, the beginnings of women's rights, and the transcendental responce to all of this.