The Dear Habermas KIDS' Page

See a program by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Teaching Tolerance Site. See drawings and stories by kids on the site. And . . . .

The WORM IS HERE!! Crawling On and On and On!!!

But wait! There is an ostrich out there. Whatever could she be up to? An ostrich? Better get to the KIDS' Page fast. Things are happening there!
Updated on July 20, 1998.

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A Graphic Artist's Plea
Added July 20, 1998.

Plea that graphics be taken for free personal use on the Web with integrity and respect for the artists' rights. The Web has grown so rapidly that most of us still fly by the seat of our pants. This is a plea encountered on Rafi's Place. Rafi is a graphic artist who is helping other artists create a forum from which to warn us of the danger of destroying graphic artists' sites in the taking of the freely offered graphics. .

Rafi, like others, offers many free graphics. The graphic artists have made an unstated assumption that those who take the graphics will download them and then upload them to their own sites. We who take them seem to have made the unstated assumption that since they're free it doesn't matter how we take them, so we might as well link to tntegrity and hem. The graphic artists' essay explains why groups needed to state their assumptions. Only as we come to the discourse table can we build a LEARNING community where each of us listens in good faith to the other before we accidentally destroy vast potential.

This plea represents many facets of public discourse. The artists' need for a forum, and the lack of such a forum. Their need for respect and integrity in their own work when those of us who take from their work never meant to harm either them or that work. We need to hear that the situation is very different for a graphic artist than it is for us who wander with unstated assumptions through frontier territory we could destroy before it has the chance to grow. Give their validity claim a chance to be heard in good faith. To find the pleas, click on the Web Presence Button, designed by Rafi .

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Virtual Faculty: A Research Site
Site added in May. Inclusion of links and explanations, added July 21, 1998.

Andrew Lock says of the Virtual Faculty Project: "Our intention is to use the possibilities opened up by recent communications media to re-invent the form of university education. This particular project is located within the social sciences, but is transferable to other disciplines. It seeks to supplement rather than replace current practice through a reversal of the traditional notion of distance education. That is, rather than the students being dispersed, in this case it is the faculty members who are dispersed. This enables recognised world leaders and authorities in a field to join together as an active, virtual faculty, allowing students access to an array of talent that no traditional University could assemble."

Dear Habermas has been invited to join as a project on this site, and you will find many sources and interests shared. Look for Vygotsky. Look for Ken Gergen and his work on the self. Look for Ken and Mary Gergen, who wrote the piece on reflexive methodology that Jeanne and Susan always cite. Look for what Alfie Kohn might describe as an intrinisic motivation to teach, and teach well.

Nota bene. This is a research site. That does not mean that students are not welcome. Teaching cannot even happen without students. Never let the system persuade you to forget that. There are many papers available on this site. There is much from which you can develop your own aspect of this dialog. Go visit, and enjoy! Since Dear Habermas is part and parcel of the Virtual Faculty effort, recognize that you have your own forum as part of this research. Let us know when you've been there. Let us know what you think. Ask us. Maybe we'll know the answer, and maybe you can help us find the answers we do not know.

Problems with Privatizing Prisons This is the latest story in a series that just won't stop happening. Another 16-year-old brutalized and neglected, serving 15 months of a 3 month sentence! Be aware! Our children are our future!

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Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge
Added on July 15, 1998.

Steven Epstein's passionate, yet restrained, story is a page turner. He reminds is of the ambiguity we must face with even basic medical science the multiple claims of the seriously ill and of those who would make them well. The simple evaluation we encourage to assess the knowledge claims of Web sites pales before the task of weighing treatments.

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Validating Sources
Added on July 3, 1998.

This news story broke in early July 1998. CNN and Time reported that the U.S. Military used lethal gas against deserters during the Vietnam War. Time immediately printed the story. Protests brought reconsideration, and the story was withdrawn. Several journalists were sanctioned and/or lost their jobs. But later stories have suggested that one well known newscaster escaped sanctions on the grounds that he had not really even seen the story. Yet Time magazine gave him by-line cxredit. Check the editorials in the L.A. Times for the follow through.

Check the validity of your sources! People will believe that 47 of the most improbable things are true, before they turn to checking their information. Just because the story is good, that doesn't mean it isn't fiction!

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Living in the Bonus Round: The Online Diary of Steve Schlachlin. This is an award-winning site on Geocities. (And for summer fun you should consider opening a free web site at Geocities. So investigate while you're there.) Steve's diary is an incredible example of narrative, as we use it on this site to tell our stories, to turn those stories into text, and to understand how those stories determine our validity claims and how well they are heard. Steve is a songwriter. Go out on the Web and enjoy! And e-mail Steve. He's offered to come to CSUDH to perform for us! Jeanne
Added on June 20, 1998.

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The Self-Injury Site, run by Debra Martinson. As soon as our navigation system is complete, we will have an entire set of source links for those who need support in making their validity claims heard. This site and Steve Schlachlin's site on Living in the Bonus Round are the first two for that section. If you know of a well done site in this category, alert Jeanne to it, so she can add it to the section.

There are many well-told narratives on the site, much like Steve's diary. One of the best to start, and one that applies to many of us is

am i alone?
Added around June 20, 1998.

In this post to a self-injury news site, llama reminds us that none of us is alone. Where others have been, there are footsteps to follow or to from

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Domestic Violence Sites

For many of us discourse is rendered impossible through violence and abuse. So we begin a source list of links for support in ending such dilemmas and in the forgiveness which will be needed for the discourse to follow. The first site on this list was chosen because a broken link somewhere led us to a Service Provider in Minnesota, which listed the sites it hosted. One of those sites was Friends for a Non-Violent World, and that led through the link to Higher Education Center Against Violence and Abuse to MINCAVA - Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse.

That link led to Men and Women Against Domestic Violence, a California site that offers hot line numbers and resources for all states.
Added June 23, 1998.

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In Memoriam:A Child is Dead For Want of a Way to Make His Validity Claim Heard

This is the story of the young Northern California 16-year-old who died in an Arizona Boys Ranch. He tried to tell them he was sick. He was. But they punished him with heavy physical exercise until he died. Become aware! Our children are our future.
Added June 13, 1998.

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Added July 1, 1998.

Difference Comes in So Many Shapes
Added June 13, 1998.

This is a catch all category right now. Over the summer all of these pieces will go up.Donna William's books on what it's like being autistic, Moving Violations on what it's like to to live in a wheelchair from the age of nineteen, and many more such narratives will go up. Watch for them here!

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