Re: Change vs. Development LO76

Michael McMaster (Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 11 Feb 1995 19:36:16 GMT

[Responding to Change vs. Development LO60]
-- 
Michael McMaster

This seems to me a wonderful opportunity to make the change/development distinction powerful. The situation of the past is almost uniformily considered negative. So a change is wanted. But the pathway to that change will be developmental. I don't see how it could be otherwise. What was missing, and troubling that it was missing, from a wonderful speach by de Klerk in London recently was that while he talked about change - police, schools, welfare, etc - he didn't once mention the words learning, development or education. I was left wondering how this change was going to happen -and fearing that it would be by intervention of "those who know best".

Development is a process which builds on the past without necessarily continuing that past. What we have to build education with and to stand on to begin new learning is the past - our experiences, our feelings, our knowledge gained, and what we have seen to be missing and wrong. I have never feared development - even though it might go wrong for a time - and I have always feared intervention from outside the system - and experts are always outside the system as a whole.

Mike McMaster Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk