Hi Sarah - thanks for such a detailed and insightful reading. I am coming
increasingly interested in he idea of mindlessness, and enjoy your questions
about this too. I wonder if we could be less judgemental about it (if I
could) and regard it in the sort of light that Alan talks about in his poem
as follows:

"In a place 
Where the heart is no whole
No singularity 
Of defined independence
 
 
But receptively responsive
To what flows 
Both within 
And without 
Our Knowledge"

I was out with my daughter the other day and we went to the bathroom in a
shopping centre. As I came to wash my hands, a little girl was doing
likewise in the basin next to me. She was bout 8 and her mother was leaning
against the door of the toilets, fondly looking on. The child turned the
basin tap on full bore then walked to the other side of the room as the
water was gushing down the sink to get the soap, have a passing chat with
her mum, and then stand at the basin casually soaping her hands, over and
over as the water continued to flow. For those on this network who are not
in our Australian circumstances, Adelaide has been given 18 months before
that city runs out of water completely, here in Sydney we have about
reserves that are questionable, but our supplies are below 40% capacity, and
the Murray Darling Basin, one of the world's greatest river systems, is
about to be declared officially dead through decades of misuse and neglect.
Anyway, I was standing there choking, feeling .Like a pint of my blood was
going down the sink with each second of this tap being on. Without thinking
(mindlessly) I leant over to her, and turned off the tap, and said with
light humour "hey - let's turn that off while you wash your hands - because
every drop counts doesn't it?" I found myself, instinctively, looking up to
her mum, as if seeking permission after the act, or perhaps confirming
mutual parenting responsibility without offering any negative judgement
towards her. She kept on smiling at me, and nodding... Not sure what was
happening. The child smiled up at me, and nodded her agreement and I left
with my adult daughter. I mention this moment in the everyday because it has
haunted me - so much of our public life is full of tacit value assumptions
which have immediate consequences for people in different ways; and yet we
are divided from each other as Alan describes, so we cannot feel these
consequences, and if we do, we do not feel we have a responsibility or a
right to act. In this instance it was as if a hand passed over my eyes, and
an instinctive wisdom came through, uncaring of social conventions. But it
feels so awkward and troubling. How would I have felt if someone had acted
so with my child or me? Would I have felt bound to a common good or judged
as less than? Would I have felt transgressed in the boundary break, or
touched in the sense of shared mothering? What would have made the
differences? It felt as if there was something else flowing between us than
the water, but if so, it was not a result of rational thought or even
measured practice: I was compelled from within and against my "better
judgement" in one sense, to serve another judgement potentially at odds with
relational accountability.
Hmmm
Thank you Alan for the works. Am reading on.





On 7/11/06 8:37 AM, "Sarah Fletcher" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear Mohsen (and Everyone)
> 
> I have read your paper Fighting for Otherwise with enormous enjoyment and a
> spirit of conviction
> that you are offering me much to learn. It's been a quite a long while before
> the cherry has ripened
> sufficiently on the bough for me to form a response to your work. I offer it
> to you in deep respect.
> 
> In forming a response I have been trying to create something that will I hope
> assist you and others
> in sharing insights into my standards of judgement.  I read your paper three
> times - this is how I
> always approach a review.  On a first reading I get a gut reaction,  on a
> second a detailed analysis
> and on the third I review my initial reaction and my detailed analysis: have I
> missed anything here?
> In so doing I believe I bring together qualitative i.e. 'affective' standards
> of judgement as well as
> quantitative ones e.g what proportion of this paper adds knowledge to that
> which already exists?
> 
> My starting point in reviewing your paper after three readings was this:
> 
> What have I learnt that can enable me to
> 
> * deepen my understandings and knowledge
> * enhance how I live my values in my personal and professional life?
> * enable me to develop my aptitudes and extend my skills?
> 
> Those of us who are familar with the Scottish Standard for Chartered Teachers
> will see where I am
> coming from! The Standard using a tri-dialogic dynamic interaction amnog these
> perspectives as a
> basis for improving practice, using action research as a form of on-going and
> systematic enquiry.
> 
> I then moved on to Standards that I share with others but since I am focusing
> on Can this scholarly
> work bring about Good? and the notion of Good inevitably differs from person
> to person then the
> standards of judgement I use are essentially my own here.  I bring my own
> 'filter of Being' to them.
> 
> * Is this paper written in a way that enables me to understand what the author
> is trying to say?
> * Is the research appplicable in the socio-economic and cultural climate in
> which I live and work?
> * What changes if any might need to made for the process and/or outcomes of
> this scholarly work
> to be enacted for 'Good'?
> * What is the quality of this research?  is it rigorous?  Has it been
> validated?  Can it be validated?
> How has data been synthesised to create evidence that backs up claims to know?
> (Jack you have 
> trained me well!!!  Our ten years' work in adjacent offices at the University
> of Bath weren't wasted!)
> * How do I feel about this work?  Might it earn a place in my forming a
> positive and possible self?
> * How can I use what I read to assist me to nurture my own and others'
> internectivity for Good?
> 
> My review (apologies for a very lengthy email - please don't click 'Quote
> Original' if you reply to it!)
> 
> 'language users may sometimes .... what they want to say (page 1)
> I take this to mean something akin to Schon's notion of reflection-in-action -
> here 'speech action'
> 
> 'It may be proper to mention ....mode of being' (page 1)
> This is very interesting and 'new' knowledge!  You entice e to learn more
> about 'understanding'.
> 
> According to Usher .... opulently rich in vew of content' (page 1)
> I think this applies especially in relation to using email - and resonates
> with my experience of
> 'getting it wrong' ....
> 
> 'The same mindfulness ... content and substance' (page 2)
> This brings home to me inadequacies of text alone to communicate the finesse
> of meaningful acts
> 
> 'This consciousness .... in the early stages of learning'. (page 2)
> This resonates with my own experience where I realised that I was at near
> native fluency in French
> as a second language but struggled (and has a different personain my third
> language, Spanish.
> 
> The very coscniousness ... conscioulsness and expression' (page 2)
> I have a third point 'What impact might my words have on others especially if
> I struggle to express
> myself in a language I am not altogether fluent in?'
> 
> 'According to German Expressivism ..' (page 2)
> New knowledge for me -could be useful and I'll find out more ...
> 
> 'every human being is unrepeatable'
> True, I think yet there are sufficient replications in our make-up that we can
> act empatheticaly and
> inclusively while embracing our diversity.
> 
> 'each person develops and unfolds according to his/her own code' (page 3)
> I have problems with this .. what about the notion of free choice? Also - kids
> I have taught seemed
> to have a natural sense of justice. Where di it come from (not always from
> their parents I felt sure!)
> 
> ' ...Islamic philosophers .. ' (page 3
> This is new and exciting ground for me!
> 
> 'the exclusion of philosophical thought does not, iso facto, prove the
> falsehood of these types of
> knowledge' (page 3) I agree wholeheartedly!  It puts me in mind of Galileo's
> insights and the quote
> (must look it up - I found it for a paper I drafted with je Kan - "I am a
> stranger in my own land").
> 
> Last paragraph numbered page 3099 - puts me in mind of the Johari window -
> wouldn't this be a
> useful reference for Mohsen to relate to perhaps?
> 
> 'We need to look again at the distinctions ...' (page 3100)
> Why?  I need you to explain this to me, Mohsen, please.
> 
> 'As long as someone has not talked or written anything ...' (page 3100)
> I think in images - why  limit to spoken or written communication?  What about
> deaf:blind and 
> deaf:mutes - is their knowledge only what has been transmitted to them through
> words? No ...
> 
> 'conditions under which children gain consciousness' (page 3100)
> This kind of creative 'priming' can be assisted by visualisation of positve
> and possible selves.
> 
> 'mindless' top line  and the remainder of the page(page 3101)
> This definition is not to be confused with couldn't care less - type
> mindlessness but seems more
> akin to the state of action and spech that assumes a kind of autonomy or it
> would clog our 
> thoughts and potential to communicate.  This puts me in mind of talking to
> Moira when she was
> teaching in Bath - she interacted SO creatively with the National Curriuclum.
> The same legislation
> has made other teachers automatons who need to be stimulated to realise their
> creative potential
> - how can I use what Mohsen is teaching me to assist teacher and students to
> interact creatively?
> 
> 'mindfulness liberates us from our limitations' .... (page 3101)
> 'mindlessness .. an impediment for novel ideas'
> Not sure about this - sometimes when my mind is idling it's when my creativity
> bubbles through. 
> This page reminds me of a fascinating presentation at the recent IATEFL
> conference I attended in
> Croatia - I must remember to send Mohsen the link.  The girl presenting
> proposed teaching auto-
> running EFL phrases so students get a feel for the language - she was shot
> down by a ourist who
> insisted on teaching only words that could be employed mindfully - I think you
> need both kinds!
> I think you need to model how to challenge mindless expressions so they are
> revitalised and 
> reinvented - as language develops organically.  On the other hand you need
> enough set phrases
> to oil the wheels - to get you going when you interact in a languae that is
> not your mother tongue.
> 
> Page 3104  'To put it another way'
> I agree entirely Mohsen!  We need speech compenets to be learnt but we aos
> need to model that
> these can be combined in an infinite and unbounded combination that enables us
> to express our 
> uniqueness as well as our connectedness to others, tat will enable us to learn
> inside out and 
> outside in and communicate that process to others - with pedagogical and
> androgical intent.
> 
> Page 3105 'a new discourse may promise the opening of a new way of thinking'
> (premise?)
> Your blessings do that Mohsen - my office is filled with lilacs and I am
> enjoying their perfume!
> 
> For me the jewel in yourpaper is offered in the final paragraphs - 'The
> essence of creativity ...
> This is fabulously inspiring to my mind and elucidates how inadequate the RAE
> categories would 
> be as a stand alone standard of judgement - they do nothing to communicate the
> power and 
> exquisite beauty of your language and  your persuasive and masterful
> conclusion to your paper!
> 
> Thank you, thank you, Mohsen for offering me so many riches to savour (and
> learn from) in your
> writing.
> 
> Pete - I see you asked for interaction as a basis for understanding standards
> of judgement in play
> - at the risk of having exasperated everyone by such a long email I hope I
> have offered insights
> into the standards of judgement I use.  Some have been drilled into me by
> constant use - as an
> MA tutor I look for critical engagement with appropriate literature and
> evidence that the writer has
> refleted on their own practice through on-going and systematic enquiry.
> Mohsen has - superbly! I
> look for originality of mind and critical judgemet (standards that I was
> subject to as a PhD student)
> Ample evidence in Mohsen's writing. Most of all I search in my heart as I
> read. Am I 'moved'? YES!
> 
> Warm regards,
> 
> Sarah
> 
>