[Olpc-Haiti] Fwd: Re: "Cr-Aiole, icole, rationaliti"

[Michel DeGraff]

----- Forwarded message from edith at media.mit.edu -----

    Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:08:57 -0400
    From: Edith Ackermann <edith at media.mit.edu>
Reply-To: Edith Ackermann <edith at media.mit.edu>
 Subject: Re: "Cr-Aiole, icole, rationaliti"
      To: Michel DeGraff <degraff at MIT.EDU>
      Cc: projet.xohaiti at gmail.com, Fequiere Vilsaint <educa at aol.com>,
olpc-haiti at lists.laptop.org, Jacqueline Karaaslanian <jk at laptop.org>,
Max Larson Henry <maxlarson.henry at fds.edu.ht>, Dale Joachim
<joachimd at MIT.EDU>, Wanda Eugene <eugenwa at auburn.edu>, Renold Telfort
<retelf at hotmail.com>, Alice Cavallo <mello at media.mit.edu>, David Cavallo
<cavallo at media.mit.edu>, Bastien Guerry <bastienguerry at googlemail.com>,
Josiane Hudicourt-Barnes <josiane_hudicourt-barnes at terc.edu>, Jacques
Yvon Pierre <jacquesypierre007 at yahoo.fr>, Claire Cecile Pierre
<cecilecpierre at gmail.com>, julian.daily at g84consulting.com, Guy Serge
Pompilus <guysergep at gmail.com>, Shaundra Daily <sbryant at MIT.EDU>,
Claudia Urrea <calla at media.mit.edu>

michel, all

Thanks! i read the  paper and came to the obvious conclusion: )
educational materials / tools un-intelligible to creole speaking
children should not be used in haiti's schools.

more puzzling to olpc:

if one endorses the author's reasoning, it looks like non-creole
speakers ( "internationals" or francophones) can't be of much help
without ending up doing —or being perceived as doing—the wrong thing
(in this respect dejean's separatist stance differs from freire's idea
that folks, especially when silenced,  should speak their own native
tongue plus learn the lingo of the 'oppressor').  it looks like in
haiti, the rights of children and people have been violated so deeply
that change will have to come from within-or it won't come!

In most Edu-&-Tech projects i have been working so far (brazil, US, EU)
there was a taken-for-granted agreement among "trusted" players that
it's OK (alias, that it can be rich) to be from different backgrounds
and to speak in different tongues (multi-culti mindset). My experience?
while naive, the multi-culti mindset, at times, paradoxically, creates
a mental space where  things can happen.  it open
possibilities—provided obviously, everyone is heard and differences are
negotiated.

--edith





On Jun 26, 2008, at 3:38 PM, Michel DeGraff wrote:

>
> Dear all,
>
> Here's a more recent article (published in 2006, by Yves Dejean)
> that will complement the Kleifgen article I sent a couple of days
> ago on "Kreyrl li, kreyrl ekri: Haitian children and computers."
> In this piece titled "Schools, Haitian Creole and Irrationality"
> Dejean analyzes the (non)use of Haitian Creole in the education
> of Haitian children---another set of issues that seem most
> relevant to the OLPC project in Haiti.  Dejean's writings should
> help put the OLPC-Haiti project in a broader linguistic,
> educational and historical perspective, and help us understand
> some of the fundamental problems that have undermined "education
> for the majority" in Haiti.
>
> The article can be read online at:
>
>   http://www.tanbou.com/2002/fall/CreoleEcoleRationalite.htm
>
> The article is quite long and loaded with detailed argumentation
> that may not be of great interest to non-linguists.  So, for
> starters, you may want to skip sections 2 and 3 ("Changer le nom
> de la rose?" and "Qui parle frangais?"), move directly to Section
> 4: "Article 5 et rationaliti", and keep reading from there.
>
> Yves Dejean is currently in Port-au-Prince, and will certainly be
> happy to share further thoughts with those of you who are, or
> will be, in Haiti.
>
> And for those who can read Haitian Creole, there's also Dejean's
> longer treatise written in Haitian Creole: _Yon lekrl tet anba
> nan yon peyi tht anba_ ("An upside-down school in an upside-down
> country") published in 2006.
>
> My hunch is that such reports will make OLPC and similar projects
> stand a better chance to help put education in Haiti upside
> up---"education for the majority" indeed, at long last.
>
> An amazing prospect!
>
>                                  -michel.
> _____________________________________________________________________
> MIT Linguistics & Philosophy 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA 02139
> degraff at MIT.EDU http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/degraff
> _____________________________________________________________________
>

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Edith K. Ackermann, Professor
Visiting Scientist at MIT /CAVS
http://www.media.mit.edu/~edith
blog: http://linkedith.kaywa.com/

Mailbox: building 10-491M  /  MIT, School of Architecture /  77,
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