Overview

The psychologist Jerome Bruner opened my eyes to the fact that argument and story are two ways of knowing: two modes of cognitive functioning, two modes of thought, each providing distinctive ways of ordering experience, of constructing reality . . . a good story and a well-formed argument are different, natural kinds. Arguments convince one of their truth, stories of their life-likeness . In my first volume Random Memories: Reflection on a Life, I gathered together a lifetime of personal stories of growing up and raising a family, my life on the road alone in over 100 countries and stories of my life of learning in schools as a student or teacher. Barbara Hardy stated, narrative is a primary act of mind and as Joan Didion mused We tell ourselves stories in order to live . But this volume is a collection of my arguments. There are seminal moments in my life on the journey of learning to teach that explode with discovery about something so fundamental that up to the moment of illumination I did not know was there. But when it was exposed I often felt Of course! Why did I not see that before . It makes so much sense . One such lightening bolt struck me some 30 years ago, where Lev Vygostsky's ideas of language and thought inspired me to understand the power of talk, that new knowledge is best internalized when socially expressed, How do I know what I think until I hear what I say.' . . .Or see what I write. That 'understanding is at the point of utterance'.Other insights emerged as our school board exploded with a multi-racial student population and racial injustices were evident in our growing community. Similarly in 1971, Prime Minister Trudeau announced our policy of Multiculturalism and inspired me to research and write about Canadian national culture and identy through a different lens. This volume contains a collection of my published and 'in press' arguments around these themes of literacy, identity, antiracism, Canadian culture and identity, and the power of early learning for disadvantaged children.

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