Re: emotional bonds/education

Peter Smagorinsky (psmagorinsky who-is-at ou.edu)
Mon, 16 Feb 1998 06:31:51

At 06:02 PM 2/15/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Some students may appreciate a coach who inflicted pain upon them later
>when they enjoy their success. For me, it is entirely their own business
>unless they had choice and freedom during this experience. However, I have
>a problem with that if they were forced and coerced in it (even if they
>later appreciate the gains of this coercion).

One special condition in my Bob Knight example is that the student-athlete
gets recruited by a variety of coaches and makes a choice to play for
Knight (or whoever), presumably to play in his highly demanding, autocratic
system. That sort of choice is not so easily available under most public
school teaching/learning arrangements, though most systems I know of allow
for a transfer out of an inappropriate classroom (though an athlete often
has to move to a different district to change coaches).

Peter