... I am not 'against pain in education' and I do believe
>that there are plenty of worthwhile learning experiences that
>involve pain -- inevitably, or by choice, or by error of judgment
>on the part of the person who will experience the pain, and hopefully
>the learning. What is immoral about coercion by pain is intentionally
>inflicting pain on another without their informed consent probably
>for the purposes of teaching them a lesson (their may be exceptions
>in this case), and certainly for the purpose of controlling their
>behavior, especially long-term behavior, in our interest and against
>(even likely against) their own.
Perhaps immoral is too strong, but certainly misguided,
to control even _painlessly_ the behavior of another in the
interests of serving what we assume without asking,
without hearing from them, to be _their_ interests. The
refusal of a dialog....
>It is one thing to yell at a child who is making your afternoon a
>living hell, and make them cry, and teach them a lesson about
>the risks of offending more powerful individuals, and get some
>temporary peace and quiet. It is quite another thing to force
>students for years to study a prescribed curriculum designed to
>make them believe as you believe and value as you value, so that
>your interests and privileges and those of your ilk will tend
>to be maintained quite independently of any personal interactions
>or conflicts you may have with the individuals you are 'teaching'.
Jay, pretend you're the mother of all curriculum developers -
& anything you say goes, as long as it can be implemented in the
current public school system (some organizational modifications
are acceptable) without massive outlays of capital. What can
we look forward to?
Judy Diamondstone
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
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