Reply to Eric Armstrong about Samba Schools:
10 June 1999
Samba BUG
Seymour Papert, the man of the language Logo that helps young people to
develop their minds by exploring the power of computing, wrote a little book
named Mindstorms (Basic Books Inc., 1980). In it, he expressed great
admiration for a model of education called samba school. Now, one would
think that samba schools are for teaching the high-spirited samba, but that
isn't quite so. Although there is a central core of activities of people
readying themselves for Brazil's annual carnival by learning how to perfect
the dance, the samba school is very much a social and recreational
institution as much as it is an educational one. All activities are wrapped
into one, without designated teachers ruling the roost. Everybody is a
learner. All learn from one another as they socially intermingle and have
fun. At any rate, that's how I remember the gist of Papert's writing about
the samba school. In Mindstorms, Papert applied the concept to kids and
teachers learning by playing with Logo. Together.
I checked the net to refresh my memory about the samba school and, sure
enough, I found confirmation at a Web-site about the Zumbi Samba School
organized by - would you believe it? - the Brazilian community in Washington
D.C. This is what the site tells us, "In Brazil, a samba 'school' is more
than a place where samba dancing is taught. While they originally began as
neighborhood musical and dance groups which competed in pre-Lenten Carnival
parades, today Brazilian samba schools have grown into very large
organizations which also carry on a variety of social and educational
programs. In Brazil's Portuguese language, the term GRES commonly precedes a
samba school's name. It is an acronym in Portuguese for gremio recreativo é
educaço de samba which translates as recreational and educational samba
association."
Eric Armstrong wrote:
> >
> Ooh! Ooh!
> I want to know more about Samba Schools!!
> Being teacher and learner is where it's at!
>
> The Lark Music Camp is very much like that. Last year,
> I taught a class of traditional Irish steps I picked
> up in Ireland -- though usually I'm in the music classes
> struggling to keep up..
> :_)
>
>
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