Walking Targets:
How Our Psychologized Classrooms Are
Producing a Nation of Sitting Ducks
By B. K. Eakman
(c) 2007
America gave up the
three R's and got back the three I's: ignorance, illiteracy, and illegitimacy. Parents of the postwar years wanted a "kinder
and gentler nation,'' just like former President Bush. They had just been through the horrors of
World War II, and they were in no mood for a repeat performance. Americans were vulnerable, therefore, to the
arguments of behavioral psychologists, which came at them, first through
articles and books touting appealing but unworkable philosophies of child
management that eschewed adult guidance and leadership. These messages were later repeated through
colleges of education in the form of courses in "educational psychology.'' Today's schools promote success without
achievement, ethics without religion, and character without morals. Clinical-sounding labels such as "emotionally
handicapped" may make failure more palatable. They certainly make it more permanent.
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