[Foundation-l] Another board member statement

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

Kat Walsh wrote:
> I can think of few better places to go than Wikipedia for complete and
> informative coverage of topics that may be shocking or explicit. Most
> other sites which are uncensored are also intended to have
> entertainment or shock value, or to present a culturally or
> politically biased viewpoint. (I do remember being a young geek, going
> to the library with a small cluster of other middle-school girls,
> looking at books which had depictions of sex and sexual topics and
> giggling over them, trying not to admit that we really *didn't* know
> what certain things were or what they looked like, but wanted to. If
> the librarians ever figured out what we were doing, they never even
> cast a disapproving glance, for which I am grateful. It was a
> non-threatening context for satisfying curiosity. Wikipedia would
> serve the same purpose for me, now.)
>
>
>   

I think this point is well worth re-inforcing. What you describe
is the innocent curiosity of youth. We all know that; I think.

The one really strong argument we should remember when
asked by educators as to why they should feel comfortable
in directing their students to wikipedia, is the counterargument:
"Do you have problems directing your students to a library?"

Libraries have stuff in them that are infact likely more
shocking than wikipedia carries.

I have told this story likely a few times that some folks
on this mailing list might remember, but it bears
retelling.

As a pre-pubescent young boy my maths teacher, the
legendary reformer of pedagogical practise in the
teaching of maths, and specifically spatial geometry,
Jaakko "Jaska" Joki, actively encouraged me to
study above the level usually offered to my age level,
and specifically to go to university libraries, saying
that the librarians will not turn away even young
folks.

Trawling through the shelves of the Helsinki
University Library, one of my shocking, but also
gratifying experiences was finding the brick
sized (understatement if anything) work, "No
Laughing Matter : Rationale of the Dirty Joke:
An Analysis of Sexual Humor" by:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gershon_Legman

I hesitate to make grand sweeping claims, but
I have to say that book has such depths of scatology
etc., that anything wikipedia offers, very rarely
exceeds. And -- here is the moral of the story --
one asks, has any educator ever had even the second
thought about recommending libraries as character
building, civilizing, an in general raising ones sophistication
and learning? I dare say not.


Yours,

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen


P. S. (And I have said this too before.) Gershon
Legman is the man credited with coining
the phrase "Make Love, Not War!"