Sue:
What a task you've taken on. I brainstormed for a few moments and
imagined the following task to make the learning community manifest:
I believe I have read that there are among northern communities rituals
which are old and somewhat fading. Perhaps the stored knowledge of such
occasions could be demonstrated anew in a syncretistic fashion. Here's
what popped into my imagination:
Have the communities you are involved with build octagonal-shaped
"houses", where four of the eight walls are aligned with the compass or
with two or more other directions important to the local people. On the
inside of this simple structure in which people could meet, create a
living "museum" of culture, including art, transcribed oral tradition,
pictures of the old and the new (people, technologies, landscapes).
Apply for grant monies from the Provincial government.
Make these structures proud meeting places and instructional magnets,
where the illiterate might WANT to learn to read numbers and letters
(these could be printed especially large for those embarking on the
reading process).
The entire project to build such a meeting place would honor the past,
combine it with the present, draw generations together, and provide a
learning medium through doing.
Maybe it has all been done! Just a thought, though.
Good luck, and best regards from the Southern Climes,
--Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>