Agony in Education: The Importance of Struggle in the Process of Learning

(Hardback)

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Enchanted with novelty and obsessed with power, control, and efficiency, technocrats eagerly and imprudently plow under what they deem anachronistic relics. Utility and ease are their passwords, and the poor individual with sole recourse to personal resources and ingenuity is viewed as a waste of time and energy. What this means for education is that uniformity, predesigned programs, and abdication to an elite corps of experts have come to dominate and characterize our institutions. As antidotes for the technological age, Kuhlman suggests motifs and imagery from the classical world, such as agon, arete, and paideia. He reminds us of the agonies of the artist in the gestation of the great, soul-fulfilling creations of our past. He wonders if truly great accomplishments are possible without the pain and agony of individual struggle. He suggests that the individual psyche is withering on the vine because it is not expected to undergo the suffering necessary to transform it into an educated self.

Reviews

Presents a powerful and thoughtful discussion of the need for an ideological balance in this age of techno-pop, and perhaps more importantly a critical dialogue about educational reform between the various groups in society. Graduate; faculty.-Choice
"Presents a powerful and thoughtful discussion of the need for an ideological balance in this age of techno-pop, and perhaps more importantly a critical dialogue about educational reform between the various groups in society. Graduate; faculty."-Choice

Author Bio

EDWARD L. KUHLMAN is Professor of Education at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. He is the author of An Overwhelming Interference (1985) and Master Teacher (1987).