[NIFL-WOMENLIT:993] Questions

From: Jenny Horsman (jhorsman@idirect.com)
Date: Mon Sep 25 2000 - 19:16:07 EDT


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From: "Jenny Horsman" <jhorsman@idirect.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:993] Questions
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I promise I won't add even one more question in this message!  I think
Daphne has added some great new questions as have many others of you and
I've been asking question upon question!  So I want to encourage you to pick
up on any of those questions from past messages that have been stirring your
thinking in the last few days and share your musings - help us to learn
about how the question plays out in your context.

Today I just want to comment on an earlier message I missed, a lovely
personal "epiphany" about guilt.  I've found myself remembering the "I
should have known better" type comment - I'm not sure they are the exact
words but they made me think about how much as practitioners, researchers,
etc. we may often feel that we out not to be struggling with the same mess
of issues that students are working with.  Somehow we worry I think that we
shouldn't be the teachers if we haven't "got over it" and there aren't many
places to talk about the cost of trying to work with our own "stuff" and
support students work with theirs.

Then there's Andrea's interesting comment that "violence is a technique for
getting and enforcing power."   I've been churning that one around and find
it very interesting.  I too have kept thinking about possible responses to
the idea that what counts as violence is relative, viewed differently in
different cultures - though I still keep thinking about the variations
within a culture as well, wondering how to shift the assumption that within
a culture there is one monolithic view of whether something is acceptable or
not.

Thinking of enforcing power also makes me think of Clarissa Chandler's work
perhaps also becomes I've just been listening to one of her tapes.  She's a
therapist specializing in trauma issues and stresses that all violence,
whether the systemic violence of racism and other "isms" or sexual abuse
forces us to leave our bodies, and that means we leave our place of power
and knowledge, and instead pay attention to the "other" and their needs and
desires which diminishes our power.  That's a rather simple version of her
argument which is way more complex and completely thought-provoking I find.

I also want to add here an interesting piece that somehow got lost en route
to the list that I asked Suzanne to post again when she told me about it.
If others of you have found that messages you sent out haven't emerged
please don't assume that they were censored I'm sure they simply vanished
into the ether of the internet - if there was a censoring system all those
"I want to unsubscribe messages" would get re-routed too!

So here is the missing message:

---- Original Message -----
From: A. Schofield/S.Smythe <andrewsc@interchange.ubc.ca>
To: <nifl-womenlit@nifl.gov>; Multiple recipients of list
<nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2000 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:982] Targetting women


>
>   > Back in July we had a brief exchange on this list about the merits of
> literacy programs that "target" women. When I was in South Africa and
> Lesotho this past August I thought alot about the "targetted" approach,
but
> what I experienced in the rural villages in Lesotho just didn't fit with
its
> assumptions.
>
> Women's and men's lives are intertwined via their children, their culture,
> their extended family networks and the local economies. The "target"
> approach seems to assume that if women are financially independent they
can
> avoid abuse, educate their children and continue to do the work of the
world
> in peace. But will their abusive/irresponsible partners and their families
> magically disappear? Will their children's lives be different?
>
>  It's much harder work to change the way society behaves toward women. But
> the work in "Too scared..." , the language and political work of those on
> this list and the work of women in their everyday lives is a start. I
think
> the "target" approach suggests an easy way out when there isn't one. As
Kate
> and others have pointed out, other ingrained behaviours have changed, why
> not this?
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <KathleenBombach@aol.com>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 10:26 PM
> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:982] Re: Too Scared to Learn - starting the
> discussion
>
>
> > There has been some interesting work in the international development
> > literature on how men use additional income vs. how women use additional
> > income in developing countries.  To put it succinctly, men spend the
> > additional income on self-gratification activities (alcohol use,
> socializing
> > with other males, etc.).  Women spend the additional money on their
> > children's health and education.
> >
> > As a consequence of this research, more and more development programs
are
> > targeting women, and even those that don't require specific strategies
for
> > women.


Jenny Horsman
Spiral Community Resource Group
jhorsman@idirect.com
www.jennyhorsman.com

Have you checked out www.thehungersite.com
to donate much-needed food every day?



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