Distributed Cognition and the Pretty Good International School

This can be classified as gossip gone public......

Ordinary gossip about the work place is a way of dealing with problems. Of course, if you are powerless (e.g., because you lack a union), talking to co-workers is primarily a way to understand what you are experiencing.

Recently I was impressed by the way that some of my colleagues articulated certain problems at the school where I work. I believe that the manager's reaction showed a complete failure to comprehend what they were saying.

So far as principles of justice go, there's a very bad one that identifies justice with treating everybody the same. This intepretation of justice is regularly applied at the Pretty Good International Schools International School ("PGI International School").

One recent example involved faculty meetings after school. Our contracts stipulate that there must be a weekly meeting. The meetings are a time when administrators communicate. Sometimes we've witnessed teaching displays, intended to help us.

I must confess that I've not found the displays informative. Neither do I find the meetings valuable. They come at the end of a long day, and their main effect is to increase my exhaustion.

At any rate, it seems to me that even administrators find it difficult to find something to say every week. Recently the high school has had separate meetings from the elementary school. But, elementary school teachers are required to stay in their classrooms and cannot go home early. This is an example of the justice means the-same-for-everyone principle.

Behind the same-for-everyone principle is a fear that our Director once openly expressed: if she did it any other way, someone might complain...

unfinished

Where is there "distributed" cognition in all this? Gossiping with colleagues is a way of sharing and developing thoughts. Perhaps I abuse the technical language; perhaps not.