coercion and affect

Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Sat, 11 May 96 17:11:54 EDT

Phillip White is very eloquent indeed on coercion and affect in
the learning struggle of kids whose dispositions don't fit the
middle-class mold, and the teaching struggle of adults trying to
find non-coercive ways to help.

I was particularly struck by the note about parents who so feared
and hated schools in their own day that they can't deal with them
even now. That is an important and overlooked issue, and it
speaks volumes about differences in class attitudes and their
reproduction (by both classes) from one generation to the next!

Schools are not, for many older adults as they are not for many
students, necessarily places of positive, or even neutral affect.
Maybe coercive practices are not the whole story of why, but I
agree that they play an important part, to our shame. JAY.

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JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU