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ERIC Number: EJ816739
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Nov
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0926-7220
EISSN: N/A
The Alleged Importance of Being Tough, Really Tough
Klee, Robert
Science & Education, v17 n10 p1157-1174 Nov 2008
Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel, a philosopher and a psychiatrist, now both policy analysts at the American Enterprise Institute, write in their recent book "One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance" that empirically unsupported psychological theories ultimately descended from the cultural upheavals of the 1960s have slowly wormed their way into the educational and social scientific mainstream. These theories, the authors argue, promote a view of the human person as someone who is "too fragile for this world", and in need of ceaseless counseling and coddling from the cradle to the grave. The case the authors make for their thesis is, I argue, uneven--strong in specific cases, but weak and overwrought in many others. In the end, I argue, they misidentify the main cause of the increasing shallowness that, to a growing number of critics, is slowly infesting contemporary social science and education.
Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: service-ny@springer.com; Web site: http://www.springerlink.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A