From Classic to Holistic Paradigm: The Troubled or Troubling Child as Environment Creator (From Understanding Troubled and Troubling Youth, P 154-172, 1990, Peter E Leone, ed. -- See NCJ-124182)

• NCJ Number: 124190
• Author(s): W C Rhodes
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The shift in recent years from the classic paradigm of science to a new scientific paradigm has implications for education and suggests the need for a basic reexamination of assumptions about education, particularly the education of troubled children.

Abstract

The changes in science have grown out of the revolt in physics by relativity and quantum mechanics. This movement challenges our basic assumptions about reality, truth, and the origins of knowledge guiding the education of our children. The classic influence has led to an emphasis by educators on objective sources of knowing, truth, and reality; on breaking down external reality into manageable pieces; and on removing the self from objective information about the world. As a result, all children, and troubled children in particular, come to see the external environment as dictating or controlling their existence. However, the holistic approach of the new science is now being incorporated into a curriculum that is being tested with severely emotionally disturbed, physically and sexually abused adolescent and preadolescent children in a residential setting. The curriculum aims to extend children's higher mental powers and make them fully aware of their power in reality construction. The preliminary results are encouraging. 29 references.