> I believe our present system of schooling is excessively coercive
> (though often in rather baroquely indirect ways), and that this
> coercion is mainly a means of imposing certain adult views and
> interests on the younger humans of our community. I believe its
> justification requires such an incredible apparatus of
> rationalizations that the resulting belief system about "children"
> and schooling makes it very difficult for us to solve any of our
> educational problems as a community.
Yes.
Alfie Kohn has made a strong argument that there's really not much
difference between rewards and punishments: do not "gold stars,
incentive plans, praise, and other bribes" also count as (a
baroquely indirect form of) coercion?
There's an extremely interesting series of articles on extrinsic and
intrinsic "motivators" (or, perhaps, forms of coercion) in the
_Review of Educational Research_ that arrived today.
-- Russ
__|~_
Russell A. Hunt __|~_)_ __)_|~_ Department of English
St. Thomas University )_ __)_|_)__ __) PHONE: (506) 363-3891
Fredericton, New Brunswick | )____) | FAX: (506) 450-9615
E3B 5G3 CANADA ___|____|____|____/ hunt who-is-at StThomasU.ca
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