Regarding engaging minorities in the workforce, I have heard this claim  "It is 
important to have someone that looks like you and has similar shared 
experiences in the workplace."   Isn't this just more tribalism, as it doesn't 
actually maximize diversity?    If it is true, I imagine it has something to 
with scaffolding.   This makes me wonder if scaffolding is really a good thing, 
or if it is an expected outcome of a struggle for power.    The hypothesis is 
that you can't really be you unless you build your own scaffolding.

It also reminds me of the focus of some activists for marriage equality.   
Essentially, the "born this way" claim.   It seems to take the short-term goal 
by way of an assertion rather than asking the more expansive question of why 
would society would dare to have expectations about sexual preference in the 
first place?

From: Friam <[email protected]> On Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2021 4:08 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[email protected]>
Subject: [FRIAM] Instructional scaffolding - Wikipedia


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding#Theory_of_scaffolding

Great meeting, today.  Sorry I overslept.  I promised last week to provide a 
definition of "scaffolding",  as in to "scaffold" learning, or some other frail 
or undetermined process, so as to facilitate its success.  For me the clearest 
example of scaffolding I know is what the surgical nurse does for the surgeon 
when she (sorry) lays out his tools in order on the tray beside him.  It is 
also connected in my mind with a theory of how best to teach kids stuff.  Your 
strategy should always be somewhere in the middle ground between letting the 
kid figure it out for himself and just doing it for the kid. Scaffolding 
relates to the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, which is the 
"space" between the tasks which the kid can do expertly and the tasks the kid 
has no idea how to do them.  So, for instance, in playing a game which involves 
say, putting blocks into appropriately shaped windows, the mother may do it 
once her self, then not do it herself, but hold the block in the right order in 
her hand near the child, then hold them in a scrambled order in her hand so the 
child has to select the order, and finally spill the blocks out and leave the 
child to find them himself.  So at each stage she designs her support the 
child's idea  needs, withdrawing support as the child becomes more capable.   
To me (and perhaps me, alone) the of scaffolding relates to the question of the 
origin of life debate because it contrasts with the idea of "self" 
organization, which I have never understood.  Instead of imagining that 
chemicals just lie about in cess pools until a miracle happens, the theory 
asserts that life was scaffolded by white smokers in the deep ocean.  White 
smokers are volcanic vents in the deep ocean floor that are constantly emitting 
a flow of very hot water laden with solutes.  As the water cools it forms 
intricate structures with minute cavities which mimic, in some regards, the 
properties of cells.  Thus the smokers (on this theory) scaffold life by making 
cell boundaries before there are cell walls to contain the somatoplasm .

All the Erics will correct me, but that is the best I can do with my ambulator 
knowledge.



Nick
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