> It almost certainly is 'for real' ...."brain based" education is the
>latest fad among those who insist that education can not only be
>professionalized but become 'scientific.' As with all such fads it is
>entirely premature or, to paraphrase Frank Zappa's take on the circulari=
ty
>of human events, it's just too previous man.
It's a fad being written into US law ("Fact: Mental illnesses are
diagnosable disorders of the brain, and treatments are effective 60 to 80
percent of the time":=20
http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-es/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/6/=
7/1
7.text.1).=20
Never mind society, let's treat the meat!
Such understandings reflect the received wisdom of the OECD:=20
[in the next 25 years], =91[n]o aspect of the human being, whether physic=
al,
mental, intellectual, social, psychological or physiological, will be
beyond practical manipulation and change, all of which will be made
possible and practical through technology=92 (Coates 1998: 41). Coates
assumes that at this point, [b]rain technologies will go well beyond
disease, offering relief for the person who is short-tempered the person
who has no sense of humour, the person who is overly emotional. And relie=
f
from these conditions will find a substantial market. Beyond that will be
the possibility and later the practice of enhancing people's cognitive
processes, enabling them to think more clearly, to have a better command =
of
arithmetic, to have a better memory for faces, to be more generous and
loving, or to be less prideful or slothful. (1998: 42)=20
Conflating religious fundamentalism, technocracy, normativity ... eugenic=
s
is about to make a _big_ comeback. =20
Phil - gloomily
=20
Phil Graham
p.graham who-is-at qut.edu.au
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html