Product Description

This controversial and compelling book uses a wealth of examples from all sectors of education to show how the contemporary education system is turning young people and adults into anxious, cautious and passive individuals rather than aspiring, optimistic and resilient learners.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87785 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 182 pages

From the Back Cover

The silent ascendancy of a therapeutic ethos across the education system and into the workplace demands a book that serves as a wake up call to everyone. Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes' controversial and compelling book uses a wealth of examples across the education system, from primary schools to university, and the workplace to show how therapeutic education is turning children, young people and adults into anxious and self-preoccupied individuals rather than aspiring, optimistic and resilient learners who want to know everything about the world.

 The chapters address a variety of thought-provoking themes, including

• how therapeutic ideas from popular culture dominate social thought and social policies and offer a diminished view of human potential

• how schools undermine parental confidence and authority by fostering dependence and compulsory participation in therapeutic activities based on disclosing emotions to others

• how higher education has adopted therapeutic forms of teacher training because many academics have lost faith in the pursuit of knowledge

• how such developments are propelled by a deluge of political initiatives in areas such as emotional literacy, emotional well-being and the 'soft outcomes' of learning

The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education is eye-opening reading for every teacher, student teacher and parent who retains any belief in the power of knowledge to transform people's lives. Its insistent call for a serious public debate about the emotional state of education should also be at the forefront of the minds of every agent of change in society... from parent to policy maker.

About the Author

Kathryn Ecclestone is Professor of Post-Compulsory Education at Oxford Brookes University. She has written two best selling books on assessment, and is a member of the Assessment Reform Group and the editorial board for the Journal of Further and Higher Education.

Dennis Hayes is Visiting Professor in the Westminster Institute of Education, Oxford Brookes University. He is the editor and author of several books including The RoutledgeFalmer Guide to Key Debates in Education (2004).

Customer Reviews

SETTING EDUCATION'S BALANCE STRAIGHT!
Yes! Let's get rid of the curriculum of the self!

Clearly, it took a lot of courage to write a book like this when one reads through it and can imagine what fellow tutors might feel who do not necessarily share your own point of view in the educational world.

The two Professors, Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes, have produced a important work on educational policy and thinking here which, in my view, is much needed by giving some balance to the current debate on the future of education and the type of people we are producing for this first generation of 21st century.

So what is this `therapeutic education'? There is no one single definition from the authors but let's has a go- they write that:

`Therapy was once regarded as a cure or treatment for people who were disturbed or troubled or mentally ill.'

They continue `now the term has changed its meaning and become a positive value'. This is where I come into the discussion, reading the work as part of my PGCE studies and being genuinely affected by it because it covers much of what has concerned me about what is happening in education in the early part of this century.

Continuing their theme over 8 chapters looking at different areas, the first introductory chapter is entitled "In an emotional state". Here, the authors examine "how the government has come to sponsor therapeutic education as part of New Labour's approach to `social justice'" offering "examples of popular concern about emotional well-being and the therapeutic orthodoxies that underpin and reinforce this interest".

The authors then show a political evolution from ideas about conferring esteem on a vulnerable public to the more active promotion of `the means to be happy', and they summarise how their arguments have led to a new role for education.

For me, this book then became a critique of what the `New' Labour government has done to the UK with its policies embracing `therapy' in all its guises since 1997, and I agree with most of what the authors have written, having viewed the effects of therapeutic education directly in further education colleges and at university (chapters 4 and 5) as a teacher in recent years and as Counsel in the courts.

Many readers of this book will know that it is no secret that much of what we teach today does not meet the requirements of our society and, frankly, much of the blame can be laid at the feet of this `therapeutic education' experiment which has failed with serious consequences for society. That is the strength of this book.

There are well argued conclusions to each of the main chapter headings, but the most important is left to the end, in chapter 8, entitled "a response to our critics".

I said Ecclestone & Hayes have been brave when looking at this `new curriculum of the self' which is how I would describe therapeutic education and therapeutic approaches to knowledge which (they say) instills "the idea that the pursuit of knowledge, once a liberating ideal, is inherently emotionally unsettling and even damaging" if such approaches are used.

Yes, they are correct and I gained original knowledge of it whilst completing my PGCE.

One sub heading is "There are a lot of damaged people out there"! The authors look at the state of suffering and their comments made me think immediately of the previous generation to mine whose lives had been transformed by world war but had got on with it, as ex-servicemen like me do today. I came away with the view that there is a strong need for balance, but that balance has shifted the wrong way and the reasons have been identified by the authors.

The authors' final conclusion is "don't change the subject" where they write that "therapeutic education exposes children ... and older people to intrusive interventions that probe, elicit and assess their emotions, and make them accountable for them. This reinforces a view that they are vulnerable and at risk".

I liked the best bit of the conclusion when they say that "therapeutic education is social engineering of the feeble, passive subject on an unprecedented scale".

The final problem to consider, then, is what have we produced here with the learners? The presumption is that most learners are damaged in some way. I support the view of Ecclestone & Hayes, and would go farther saying that it is rubbish to make such sweeping generalisations on `damage' which the therapeutic educator has done to turn education upside down.

The balance needs to be redressed because the saddest thing of all is we produce people who cannot read and write properly, but have a dangerously high ego which is of no value to employers, or ultimately to society which could become `broken' if remedial action is not taken soon.

Watching the news over the summer, I reflected on the effects of this experiment with the incidents of violence on the streets, serious challenging behaviour exhibited regularly especially by the young inside and outside the classroom, and, that by `changing the subject' what is actually damaged is society itself because that subject has been changed. However, it is not too late, to revert to established techniques which returns therapy to its rightful place.

I very much hope, after 2010, with our next newish baby boom, that the education balance can be redressed and we get away from the dominance of popular culture on social thought to expand and not diminish human potential and put therapy policy in the limitation box where it belongs.

We should be very grateful, and thank, Professors Ecclestone and Hayes for having the guts to stand up and be counted on this issue- more power to them.

Therapy for all
Pupils taught how to be happy, the front page of the Sunday Times (07/09/08) stares out at me. This American scheme backed by New Labour is to be introduced into our schools to, "immunise youngsters from getting the blues by educating them at a young age." We are also told that the programme will be shown on Tuesday at a government backed (no less) conference on "wellbeing".
We must combat this nonsense is the message in this excellent, incisive and groundbreaking book by Ecclestone and Hayes. It is a warning against the invidious creep of therapy into our education; inevitable they argue, as part of the UK therapy culture.
I agree that a dystopian modern world, where the credit crunch, sub-prime, Enron and junk bonds, failing banks and rising prices, is something to worry about. But to somehow go from this, to argue that the solution to all ills, is to increase therapy across the board in education, is crazy in the extreme. Committing as it does, the category error of getting an 'ought' from an 'is'. It is 'commonsense,' that it's all therapy now, 'innit', is the increasingly accepted chant by those that should know better.
This debate has a longish history going back through Furedi, Nolan, Lasch and beyond. The uniqueness of this book is that it encompasses the therapeutic turn in all aspects of UK education, and related fields of culture and work. This book conjures up my own personal demons. In my current research into the initial diagnosis of diabetes, the psychology component is scattered throughout with, 'well being' questionnaires, 'quality of life' statements, 'interventionist techniques' all aiming to make things better.
The book gives the first frisson of excitement since my time at the London Institute of Education with Michael Young, Basil Bernstein et al. Their look into the social construction of knowledge may have taken a wrong turn at times, but I never doubted that something new and interesting was taking place.
So, it is with this book! In eight closely argued chapters, well supported by research, they argue that therapeutic education is profoundly dangerous with the argument "...that populist orthodoxies reflect and reinforce the concept of a 'diminished self', 'low esteem' and the making of 'emotionally fragile people'. Apart from pursuing their own take on the debate, chapter eight gives a useful summary of their critics' views.
This is an important book appealing to all interested in the state of education, and why the mantra of 'education. education, education' isn't working. Simply using a soft notion of therapy to plaster over glaring gaps in funding and resources, is not the answer and is an insult to the intelligence.
If you buy only one serious book this year, this is the one to get.