Are classrooms really the best we can do and that innocuous? this was an example once used by rd laing to show that from as early in our lives as preschool, mu

Are classrooms really the best we can do and that innocuous? this was an example once used by rd laing to show that from as early in our lives as preschool, much of the "nice" things we do because we care about others can still cause them to feel great distress - teacher asks her students "which one of you nice children knows what 2 + 3 is?" & many children go "I do!" and raise their hands - teacher pretends to not notice the ones who have their hands raised and instead gives her attention to a boy she thinks has not been participating very much as of late - says "Billy, can you tell me what it is?". he dreads the embarrassment of being laughed at for making a mistake. he also doesn't like it when other students would immediately jump on the opportunity to demonstrate they could tell the teacher what they were supposed to tell her. - after a silence following the teacher's question intended to encourage him, Billy answers "um 4?". the comedic effect of the long silence while the classroom waited watching billy answer ended by a meek mistake unfortunately proves hilarious to some of the students. others yet raise their hands even higher than they already were, restlessly trying to get the teacher's attention. would it be fairly common for preschool children to personally feel they disappointed the teacher when they can't perform what the teacher asks? if Billy is doubtful he can make the teacher proud and Billy wants to move the unwanted attention onto a student who wants the visibility (and grows restless without it), then Billy's subject to irreconcilable demands. Of course it's possible he'd grow petrified because he would associate "the opportunity to learn something I didn't know" with being singled out according to the demands of everyone else in the room.