My Vision of Education Meaningful education has its basis in
psychology. What children learn has little meaning without
connection to how they learn. We begin with a brief comment on
how education has used and misused psychology. The Tyranny of
Normal Normal. Its history in education and psychology
chronicles the predilections of the dominant aspects of a
culture. Normal means stability and predictability. It has less
to say about the health of people than it does about the
security (and attendant fears) of the vested interests of
institutions and the people who profit from them. Normal’s
pernicious effect on children and education has been trumpeted
by many including Illich, Szasz, Foucault, Adler, and Friere…I
could run this list all day and not be finished. Normal in
psychology is excruciatingly defined in the DSM. Have you ever
seen it? There is a diagnoses waiting if you have 5 (or 3 or 8)
of a possible 10 (or 12 or 18) behaviors of a certain type. Some
diagnoses make sense as there is mental dysfunction