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If this is a real problem, addressing it at the college level seems far, far too late. Also, while the author hammers on their point that "education is not trau

If this is a real problem, addressing it at the college level seems far, far too late. Also, while the author hammers on their point that "education is not trauma", I am not inclined to agree without giving it more thought. All I have is anecdotes but they are troubling. A couple of weeks ago I spoke with a second grader who was brought to tears at the thought of upcoming testing (state required assessment). My immediate thought was something along the lines of "Just do the best you can", but the question remains: where was this anxiety coming from: parents, teachers, both? In this case, education was very clearly trauma for this individual. Perhaps the "helicopter parents" are doing more harm than good, that seems likely. At the same time, perhaps round after round of assessment testing is hurting as well. And universities seeking to coddle their students, perhaps to keep them "happy customers" but also to keep them ignorant of their overall costs. In any case, it's not entirely clear that "education is not trauma", this article itself seems to contradict that thesis.

danharaj 11y ago
Education absolutely is trauma in a hierarchical society. The whole point of education is to beat children into the mold that fits society's expectations and needs, not their own. You can't expect anything else out of institutions based on domination and authority. > Public school teachers are in much the same position as prison wardens. Wardens' main concern is to keep the prisoners on the premises. They also need to keep them fed, and as far as possible prevent them from killing one another. Beyond that, they want to have as little to do with the prisoners as possible, so they leave them to create whatever social organization they want. From what I've read, the society that the prisoners create is warped, savage, and pervasive, and it is no fun to be at the bottom of it. > In outline, it was the same at the schools I went to. The most important thing was to stay on the premises. While there, the authorities fed you, prevented overt violence, and made some effort to teach you something. But beyond that they didn't want to have too much to do with the kids. Like prison wardens, the teachers mostly left us to ourselves. And, like prisoners, the culture we created was barbaric. - Paul Graham, Why Nerds are Unpopular
- tomp 11y ago
  > The whole point of education is to beat children into the mold that fits society's expectations and needs, not their own. I'm not sure I agree. I think I grew up as an emotionally mature, successful (so far), yet quite unusual person, despite having been schooled for a long time and acing most of the formal requirements of the institutions. My parents always said, "trust us, you need to go to school" even though I didn't want to (I mean, obviously, I had a computer and games and a compiler!), but now I agree with them - back then, I couldn't imagine the perspective, breath, width, emotional maturity and social development that further years of schooling would give me, and I couldn't appreciate the extent to which schooling, vocation and other long-term choices that we make (or are guided towards) as completely inexperienced adolescents will shape the future 60-80 years of my life (I'm only about 10 years down the road so far, but the signs and directions are much more obvious now). Sure, some amount of authority is necessary, but that's mainly because people, especially children, will otherwise go for short-term pleasure without thinking about the longer term. But saying that school molds children in any way is quite a stretch in my opinion - a better way of putting it would be that it shows them different possibilities and enables them to be better informed before choosing which direction to take in life.
wmt 11y ago
Education is not traumatic for people who can cope with failure, but can be devastating for those who have not learned how to deal with. Handling negative emotions like rage, fear, failure, regret, envy or disappointment are basic skills we normally learn as kids through all kinds of positive and negative experiences. By trying different approaches a child can learn e.g. that failing just means you'll need to work more to succeed, instead of more counterproductive defences like sour grapes or that you were cheated. It is unfortunate that some parents inadvertently hurt their kids by either not allowing them to learn to deal with negative emotions, or even worse, teaching them ideas like "it's okay that you failed the test, I know you did your best"

danharaj 11y ago

Education absolutely is trauma in a hierarchical society. The whole point of education is to beat children into the mold that fits society's expectations and needs, not their own. You can't expect anything else out of institutions based on domination and authority. > Public school teachers are in much the same position as prison wardens. Wardens' main concern is to keep the prisoners on the premises. They also need to keep them fed, and as far as possible prevent them from killing one another. Beyond that, they want to have as little to do with the prisoners as possible, so they leave them to create whatever social organization they want. From what I've read, the society that the prisoners create is warped, savage, and pervasive, and it is no fun to be at the bottom of it. > In outline, it was the same at the schools I went to. The most important thing was to stay on the premises. While there, the authorities fed you, prevented overt violence, and made some effort to teach you something. But beyond that they didn't want to have too much to do with the kids. Like prison wardens, the teachers mostly left us to ourselves. And, like prisoners, the culture we created was barbaric. - Paul Graham, Why Nerds are Unpopular

tomp 11y ago
> The whole point of education is to beat children into the mold that fits society's expectations and needs, not their own. I'm not sure I agree. I think I grew up as an emotionally mature, successful (so far), yet quite unusual person, despite having been schooled for a long time and acing most of the formal requirements of the institutions. My parents always said, "trust us, you need to go to school" even though I didn't want to (I mean, obviously, I had a computer and games and a compiler!), but now I agree with them - back then, I couldn't imagine the perspective, breath, width, emotional maturity and social development that further years of schooling would give me, and I couldn't appreciate the extent to which schooling, vocation and other long-term choices that we make (or are guided towards) as completely inexperienced adolescents will shape the future 60-80 years of my life (I'm only about 10 years down the road so far, but the signs and directions are much more obvious now). Sure, some amount of authority is necessary, but that's mainly because people, especially children, will otherwise go for short-term pleasure without thinking about the longer term. But saying that school molds children in any way is quite a stretch in my opinion - a better way of putting it would be that it shows them different possibilities and enables them to be better informed before choosing which direction to take in life.

wmt 11y ago

Education is not traumatic for people who can cope with failure, but can be devastating for those who have not learned how to deal with. Handling negative emotions like rage, fear, failure, regret, envy or disappointment are basic skills we normally learn as kids through all kinds of positive and negative experiences. By trying different approaches a child can learn e.g. that failing just means you'll need to work more to succeed, instead of more counterproductive defences like sour grapes or that you were cheated. It is unfortunate that some parents inadvertently hurt their kids by either not allowing them to learn to deal with negative emotions, or even worse, teaching them ideas like "it's okay that you failed the test, I know you did your best"