In our discussion of Herbart's apperceptive mass, we recognize the usefulness of the concept for visualizing one way in which memory could work. To the extent that all our experiences, both cognitive and affective, from birth on, exist somewhere in memory traces in our apperceptive mass, and to the extent that many of them become linked, like paper clips in a holder, so that when one comes to conscious memory, it brings others along with it, to that extent, one way to remember is to link to as many other memory traces as possible. Notice that we've followed this principle with our site index. Look, you can find "worm," and "ostrich," and "horse stall." Not because worm, ostrich, and horse stall are concepts of social theory and analysis, or even because they are themes within which we discuss theory and analysis. They are "paper clip" words. We find ourselves remembering those words, and looking for the file that they brought to mind. So we added them to the site index, so we could find our site materials quickly, with the words that actually come to mind. We know those stories or pages link conceptually to ideas we teach.

Years after putting up Teaching Tolerance's " Home Was a Horse Stall, I added "horse stall" to the site index when I found myself looking for horse instead of home. "Home" is one paper clip in my apperceptive mass; "horse" is another.

Richard Delgado has written and edited some interesting social justice material on the importance of indices and catalog categories to inclusion in the canon of academic works

Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, June 2000. "Fair Use" encouraged.

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