QUALITY STORYTENTS
A resource for family, early childhood and community literacy workers
William Glasser, introducing Choice Theory, writes "if we are not sick,
poverty stricken,
or suffering the ravages of old age, the major human problems we struggle
with ... are
caused by unsatisfying relationships"
(Glasser, 1998a, p.ix). When he
looks at the problem
of academic failure, Glasser sees its root in the way teachers and students
interact. He
states that the "main reason so many students are doing badly"
in
schools is a "destructive,
false belief"
that kids ought to learn whatever we
want them to learn, and that they should
be punished for any refusal or failure. He calls this false
belief, and the behaviour it
creates, "schooling" (Glasser, 1998a, p.237).
According to Glasser, "schooling" is an example of something he
sees everywhere
in our society. He calls it "external control psychology"
(Glasser,
1998a, p.5) or the"
ancient I-know-what's-right-for-you tradition" (Glasser, 1998a, p.4).
This is the same topdown,
didactic, expert-driven model of human education that humanists deplore
and
groups like the NAEYC speak out against.
For Glasser, an external control approach is destructive
because it damages human
relationships and makes impossible the kind of "learning
as social transaction" Vygotsky
described. "Teaching is a hard job when students make
an effort to learn,"
he
writes. "When they make no effort, it is an impossible
one"
(Glasser, 1988, p.1).
Glasser believes
that teachers can encourage learners to make the effort
by building a positive relationship
with each student.