This creative philosophical essay demonstrates Vygotsky's principles in the form of an extended fictional thought-experiment, in which the author is "interviewed" by a fictional Ukrainian reporter, Natasha. The introduction, "Squaring Russian Theory with American Practice," gives some background in Vygotsky's and Davydov's…

Social philosophers and educators of the past are compared with clockmakers. In the metaphoric sense, the biological clock is the child, the child's behavior is the action, and the maturity of the child is the "Swiss movement". With the biological clock, it is the teacher, not the child, who must learn to tell time. (JN)

This book considers how children form connections with the natural world, and questions what may happen to children denied exposure to wild places--a reality for many children today. Two men draw on memories of their own childhoods and on their experiences as naturalists and as fathers to tell stories of children learning about wild places and…