During the Intimate Study
LC1b Text Comments: Source materials This material consists of 21 protocols, primarily transcripts from audio recordings, some of which have been absorbed directly into the chapter “Sketches of Natural Learning,” and others used in “The Development of Objectives.” Some are in character more like the Vignettes of The Intimate Study, which derived from them. All …
Vn029.01 Making Puzzles 6/18/77
Vn86.1 An Unexpected Test 9/8/77 Today, the children’s first day of school, was a tough one for me. The combination of a late arrival at Logo and logistics problems put our work under an unusual time pressure. Miriam was tired (and later said she wished she had taken a nap) and didn’t pursue with enthusiasm …
Vignette 30.1 temporary upload Original Fair Copy, Scanned page 1 Original Fair Copy, Scanned page 2
Vn102.1 The Last Day 10/8/77 Both children and I had planned to spend another Saturday afternoon at the movies. For the past three weeks, we have spent our Saturdays watching Marx brothers movies (cf. Vignette 93). These last two weeks we have seen A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races; Animal …
Vn101.1 The Death of Robin Hood 9/29/77 “Did Robin Hood really die in the charge of the Light Brigade?” This peculiar question of Miriam’s, rising from no external cue that I noticed, recurrently perplexes me. Its background is this. Months ago, Robby, Miriam, and I watched the movie “Robin Hood” wherein Errol Flynn performed at …
Vn100.1 Arithmetic Ripples 9/26/77-10/2&7/77 9/26 Miriam tells me today was her first day of doing math at school. “But we did it differently there from what we [she and I] did here.” She explained that school math was playing with cuisiniere rods. I told her I thought that was great, and asked what she did …
Vn99.1 Puns 9/26/77 At a recent visit to the library, Robby borrowed two books which both he andMiriam have read and re-read since then (cf. Vignettes 84 and 94). The first book is one of Knock-knock jokes, the second is one of riddles. I believe this second book broadened Miriam’s view of making jokes and …
Vn98.1 Miriam’s New Reader 9/24/77-10/3/77 9/24 Since I was uncertain how much Miriam’s reading skill had developed over the summer (focused as much of it was on reading Peanuts and Pogo cartoons), I could not easily judge what would best test Miriam’s capacity. We discussed the problem. Miriam characterized the book used in Miriam at …
Vn97.1 Retrospective: Logo Conference 10/1/77 The week of IJCAI, August 22-26, concluding as it did for some of us with attendance at the Logo conference, was an especially busy one for me. I can see now this was the point at which I lost control of processing the data of the project “on line” (keeping …
Vn96.1 Tic Tac Toe 9/19/77 After the final arithmetic session of this date, Miriam wanted to play some tic-tac-toe. (Her purpose was to get the material over with so she could have a friend come play with her on the morrow; her assumption that such was necessary was an error.) These games began with a …
Vn95.1 Why the Project is Ending Now 9/18 & 27/77 9/18 Miriam has expressed her desire to do the same work as her class- mates, her preference for doing the whatever ‘math’ they will do at school to learning the kind of math we do together. I take this prefer- ence as a strong commitment …
Vn94.1 Miscellany 9/dd/17 At lunch today a variety of topics came up for discussion. Miriam said she would like to bring her friends over to visit Logo. I thought of previous visits. “You mean something like the earlier visits of Meg and Dara?” Miriam added, “I want Michelle and Laurie Ann and Elizabeth.” I asked …
Vn93.1 Marx Brothers 9/17/77 About a week or two ago, a radio program I sometimes listen to was displaced by a series of recordings played in memory of the then just dead Groucho Marx. I had to explain this to Robby and Miriam, explain that the funny little man they had seen on TV in …
Vn92.1 Company for Dinner 9/14/77 This has been a week for company at our house. Fernando Curado and José Valente first, then Bertrand Schwartz and Antoinette together with Laurie Miller, and this evening Seymour and the Minskys. My intention in asking Marvin and Gloria here at this time was to provide a sense of setting …
Vn91.1 Squirming and Thinking 9/14/77 Miriam had a very bad night last night; she had missed a dose of medicine and played with kittens. Miriam and I were up much of the night. Still wheezing badly this morning (she had reached the point where she could not hold down any orally-administered medicine), she went with …
Vn90.1 Meeting Miriam’s Teacher 9/11-12/77 9/11 This Sunday morning, Miriam inquired of me if I knew what kind of a teacher she had. When I admitted I did not, she continued: Miriam Nice. She says if the math problems are too easy, I won’t have to do them. Bob What will you do instead? Miriam …
Vn89.1 The Ten in Fourteen 9/7-10/77 9/7 After considerable confusion at the beginning of yesterday’s arith- metic work (Home Session 18, 9/6/77), in a reprise after games of Tic Tac Toe, I was able to explain ‘carrying’ to Miriam in a manner access- ible to her. I cited a recent comment of hers while doing …
Vn88.1 9/8/77 Over the past few weeks, Miriam has spoken, in the context of repressing her desire for things she can’t have, of having “an eraser mind.” When asked to explain what she meant, Miriam conveyed the image of ideas written on a tablet and subject to erasure. As supper drew to a close this …
Vn87.1 Turtle Tactics 9/7/77 This night is the last of summer, so defined by the children’s beginning school on the morrow. Over this summer they have gradually become accustomed to going to bed late, and now, in order to rise early, they should go to bed early. No one found this argument convincing. We negotiated …
Vn84.1 Go Cart Demon; Knock-Knock Jokes 9/5/77 The third-floor tenant in our landlord’s mansion was moving out today. Robby and Miriam went to help. One comment of Miriam’s came floating up from the court yard. When she chanced upon a collection of records brought down in a wooden case, Miriam said, “Hey, Robby, let’s ask …
apparently, this file needs to be recreated, from earlier sources. The tags attached to the source suggest it is important.
Vn82.1 Hanging Designs 9/3/77 After today’s session was complete, I asked Miriam why she had not pinned on the wall — as she had said she intended — those designs made in yesterday’s session (Logo 58, 9/2/77). She explained that she had started to do so earlier but needed help. I separated the designs from …
Vn81.1 Imitating Machines 9/3/77 Ever since their first encounter with the Votrax Voice Box back in May (Logo Session 5, 5/22/77), both children have thought it funny to imitate the peculiarly mechanical tone of that speech generator. I have suspected some correlation between my asking them questions they consider stupid and their adopting this mode …
Vn85.1 9/6/77 When we started playing tic-tac-toe, I asked Miriam how many different ways can you start when you move first. She claimed 9 ways, one for each block in the frame. I pushed the point further by inquiring whether these three frames were really different or the same: X | | | | | …
Vn80.1 Planning for School 9/2/77 Miriam, showing her unprompted concern, began the following dialogue. I transcribed it from memory (not tape) about 2 hours after the fact. The content is accurate, though the sequence of points may be a bit muddled. Miriam What do you think the teacher will say when she finds out I …
Vn79.1 Sums Over a Hundred 8/29/77-9/1/77 8/29 While we sat at lunch today, Miriam introduced the topic of adding with this claim: “Daddy, if you live for another hundred years, I know how old you’ll be.” When I expressed surprise Miriam demonstrated: “A hundred 37.” Two complications derailed this discussion. Robby introduced my birth on …
Vn78.1 Allergies Controlled 8/26/77-9/2/77 8/26 Today we took Miriam to her doctor, a pediatric allergist, and explained both her symptoms (waking in the middle of the night, wheezing, coughing, and vomiting) and our own sense of their severity (it has been happening regularly; Miriam has had only 2 uninterrupted nights of sleep since our return …
Vn77.1 A Geometric Puzzle 8/29 & 31/77 8/29 Since Miriam’s completion of our work with picture puzzles (cf. Logo Session 40, 8/1/77), it has been my intention to examine her performance with geometric puzzles. In the past, she has played with a puzzle, the Pythagorean puzzle, which I had made from wood. The Pythagorean puzzle …
Vn76.1 Where Do Ideas Come From? 8/29/77 In this hot, humid weather, Gretchen and the children have been spending all day at Logo with me. This morning I found Sylvia Weir had taken a desk in the room where Robby had just laid claim to an empty desk. She seemed intent on reading, and knowing …
Vn75.1 Logo Seahorses 8/29/77 At the end of the day’s work (Logo Session 56), when the recording equipment was packed away for the trip home, I was preparing material for tomorrow’s session. Robby had been using procedures where DELTA named a variable increment applied to a linear distance and today was introduced to a use …
Vn74.1 The Light Brigade 8/27/77 Miriam, Robby, and I watched on TV this evening a movie about ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade.’ The movie was an important one for several reasons. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I try to lead the children in extending their sense of connection to other places and other times. …
Vn73.1 Not Being Ready; Logo vs. School 8/26/77 For the past week Miriam has been mentioning that she doesn’t ‘feel ready for school.’ I’ve tried to find out what Miriam means by her feeling ‘not-ready.’ In one case, she explained to me that she didn’t know what they do there. In another incident, at the …
Vn72.1 Tic Tac Toe with Robby 8/25/77 Having seen Miriam play tic-tac-toe with me and feeling a little left out, Robby asked to play with me after Miriam went to bed. Game 1: Robby moves first (numbers) 2 | C | 4 5 | 1 | D A | 3 | B Robby originally made …
Vn71.1 Tic Tac Toe (7) 8/25/77 This material provides Miriam with an opportunity to exhibit what she retained of instruction in the previous tic-tac-toe session (cf. vignette 61, 8/10/77). Where Miriam fails to elect a winning strategy (game 3), I subsequently demonstrate how she should have played, then provide the opportunity for her to turn …
Vn70.1 8/22/77 Over the past few weeks, Robby has shown an interest in playing frisbee. Miriam has tried to play with us but has been so inept that the game always became a squabble. Robby usually argued that since the frisbee was his, he should choose the players for the game. It was an obvious …
Vn69.1 Chatterbox 8/19/77 In Vignette 3, I noted one of my objectives was to render Miriam more willing to reveal her thoughts than was formerly the case. Such a change has gradually but very definitely taken place. Gretchen now complains that Miriam is never quiet, that she talks about every least action she undertakes; for …
Vn68.1 Continuous Quantity 8/18/77 As is the case with many who have a few fine things, we hardly ever use them. Our silver and china are in some dark corner, our Venetian glassware sits empty, hardly touched. At dinner our common wine goes into common wine glasses. Through accidents at table and sink, the usable …
Vn67.1 Think and Do 8/17/77 I asked Miriam today if she had read all the stories in the book Friends, Old and New (the book used in initially assessing Miriam’s reading ability in Miriam at 6). She thumbed through the book, said she hadn’t read them all, but found the stories just too easy. What …
Vn66.1 Pre-History 8/16/77 For some unknown reason (“I just wondered,” she says), Miriam asked me who was the first person to sail around the world. Remembering the Straits of Magellan and that it must have been the major obstacle to the western passage, I speculated that Magellan must have been the man. Gretchen, drawing on …
Vn65.1 Arithmetic Ripples 8/13/77 1. Miriam brought me this morning a dime she had found in the laundry. My speculation is that it had been left in some pocket, fell out in the wash, and was pinned in and nearly cut in half by the washing machine. How it got on the floor where she …
Vn64.1 Jumping Rope 8/13/77 Miriam began jumping rope after we moved to Massachusetts. Earlier she had played a game ‘Angels/Devils’, a group rope jumping game in which a child in the center of a ring turns, saying alternately ‘angels devils angels devils. . .’ until one of the children in the peripheral ring fails to …
Vn63.1 Another Birthday Party 8/12/77 This was a party for Robby’s Boston friends, boys he has met while at school here. With respect to planning, this party was pretty much a rerun of the party in Guilford (cf. Vignette 53). The party favors were the same: Hershey bars, bubble gum, and balloons. Match box racers …
Vn62.1 Multiplication 8/7 & 11/77 8/7 Robby has many times now seen Miriam on my lap receiving some instruction in addition. Complaining of feeling left out, he has asked for help in math. Robby said he needs help with addition of numbers such as 9 plus 6 and 8 plus 7. I found him a …
Vn61.1 Tic Tac Toe (5) 8/10/77 This material shows Miriam accepting instruction at corner opening play through a process of “turning the tables” on me after my exemplary victory. (The data were transcribed as Home Session 15.) A corner opening in tic-tac-toe is the strategy of choice, since its use nearly guarantees victory for the …
Vn60.1 Surprise Party 8/8/77 Spoiled by living in the air-conditioned comfort of our Connecticut home during the mid-July heat wave, when the next spell of hot weather found us in the hot air heated loft of our Boston carriage house little persuading was needed to induce Gretchen to join Miriam and me at Logo yesterday. …
Vn59.1 Air Conditioning 8/6-11/77 8/6 Logo came into our conversations twice this day at lunch. When asked if she knew what a palindrome was (cf. Logo Session 39, 7/15/77), Miriam offered two examples: ‘mom’ and ‘I’ (I checked that she did not mean the word ‘eye.’) Miriam later said she would like to sleep at …
Vn58.1 Owning an Angle 8/4/77 As far back as the end of June (in Logo Session 32) making hexagonal mazes has been a part of both children’s Logo work. Before our Connecticut vacation both children worked together generating pictures of mazes (7/8/77: Logo Session 36). During that session, Miriam “discovered” the 60 degree angle input …
Vn57.1 Desserts 8/3/77 When I was a small child, there was rarely dessert in my house. On special occasions my mother might make some rice pudding or tapioca (when cooked, the large size tapioca became transparent balls we children pretended were the eyes of frogs). When my children pester after every meal for dessert, I …
Vn55.1 About Taxes 8/1/77 Since the beginning of the High School Studies Program, the children and I have come to Logo to use the system from 8 to 10 am. One consequence is that we occasionally skip breakfast. Even when we do not, the children have become accustomed to mid-morning snacks. The favorite: apple pie …