In his Dewey-L post of 17 Jan 2003 00:30:10-0500 titled "Re: Dewey Quote?",
Tatsuro Sakamoto wrote:
"There is a slight error . . . . [in the quote as presented by Hake
(2003)]. . ., but it's from Dewey's 'Morals Are Human,' Dewey: Middle
Works, Vol.14, p. 207:
'Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and
memory. It instigates to invention. It shocks us out of sheep-like
passivity, and sets us at noting and contriving. Not that it always
effects this result; but that conflict is a sine qua non of
reflection and ingenuity.' "
Although I am in non-violent conflict with Math-Teach gadfly Rene
Amy's (2003) post, I wish to thank him for a Martin Luther King quote
that echoes the above Dewey quote:
"So must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind
of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of
prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and
brotherhood."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Letter from Birmingham Jail"
On the other hand, Celinda Scott in her Dewey-L post of 17 Jan 2003
06:14:50-0500 title "conflict" quotes MLK thusly:
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Returning violence for
violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night
already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness - only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate - only love can do
that."
I agree with Russ Hunt (Dewey-L post of 17 Jan 2003 09:59:34-0400
titled "Re: Conflict"):
"I don't understand why everyone's apparently assuming that conflict
necessarily entails violence. I don't think Dewey would have. I
don't see anything inconsistent between the passage from Dewey and
the one . . .(given by Celinda). . . from King."
Nor, in my opinion, is there any inconsistency between the above two
MLK quotes.
Amy, R. "Re: [greatschools] Re: Deficient Language Skills (was "An
old subject revisited"), Math-Teach post of 20 Jan 2003
08:28:19-0800; online at
<http://mathforum.org/epigone/math-teach/thenddwerlbol>: "Funny that
Klentschy et al.,. . .(in their paper on the success of the El Centro
CA inquiry science program). . . despite some effort on their part,
could find no one else to publish the results of their
National-Science-Foundation-supported 'research.' WRONG - check out
Klentschy et al. (2002).
Klentschy, M., L. Garrison, & O. Amaral. 2002. "Valle Imperial
Project in Science (VIPS): Four-Year Comparison of Student
Achievement Data, 1995-1999," Journal of Research in Science Teaching
(IN PRESS); online as a pdf at
<http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/foss/FOSSResearch.html>. Thanks to Larry
Woolf for the online URL.