Problems in Sustain Ability

 
Toward some Collaborative
Philosophy of Learning & Teaching
 
Dear Paula, Laura, and Colleagues ATC

I’ve referred often in previous spam to Keith
Sawyer’s studies of Collaborative Genius,
thinking  the topic might provoke conversation
among us as supplement to our emphasis
on individual genius.
 
Or if  “genius”  carries too much stigma:
individual accomplishment, individual
training, individual achievement & success.
 
Compare "schooling," say,  to playing on a
team or in a band. Boxing to volleyball.
Skiing to old-time back porch jam.
Radically different environmental
values, don’t you agree?
 
A difference that makes a difference:  
between  1)  individual and collective,
values of  competition & cooperation
and 2)  values of collaboration.
 
Parts and Wholes. Not on the same level
of logical hierarchy:  2 different ontological
states of being, true?  Incommensurate. Can’t
assess  wholes in terms of parts. And vice
versa: individuals in terms of collectives.  
 
Talk about individual genius and talk about
collaborative genius ought to involve some
way of mediating and translating the 2 kinds
of talk without  collapse and conflating
collaboration in terms sacred to individualism.
 
Always the risk of dominant pairs of dimes.
dominating.

It ought to be turned up as  properly problematic:
how  these 2 values might relate inside a single
institution. A problem in Sustainability.
 
Emphasis IS generally on the individual no matter
how I might  deny, cover, and  protect my
totalitarian Ego by writing  my first person
pronoun in small caps (i)  rather than
large (I): wanting to do the
right thing..
 
Me first.  I admit it.  Collaboration’s  a
quantum leap. I on the one hand,
opps, ouch, damnit, holy
smokes on the Other..
 
Idios on one hand, Socios on the other.
My Personal Idiocy and then there's
the  Common Sense uber alles.  And
can the 2  Just Get Along or is it always
got to  be the sound of one hand slapping?
 
I’ve  thought  CollabGen Ed  might suggest
a way to think  about Ray Anderson’s 
concern with the adherence to obsolete
pedagogies  & traditional curricula  and
hence be  part of our sustainability repertoire.
 
An environment that encourages failure
as well as sustains high suspicion of “clarity”
Sawyer claims these two environmentalism
as prerequisite for nurturing Collaborative Genius.
 
And so: there would have to be a firewall protecting
the two value-sets, individual and collaborative genius. 
Sort of  like  ivory tower, moat, and territorial pissings;
or  ice-cream parlor,  frontiers-yet-unknownm, and hell:
some  triadic structure that would mediate without
conflating the distinction:
 
Individual Genius
Collaborative Genius,
A Sustainability Challenge.

I could use some help here--always asking for it.,
Just begging really. Come labor on.
Or what are colleagues for?

xxxooo, Sam