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Schooling the Violent Imagination

NCJ Number
127495
Author(s)
J Schostak
Date Published
1986
Length
198 pages
Annotation
This book discusses the education, social, and moral implications of the "violent imagination" in connection with theories of violence, childrearing practices, and schooling as a childrearing institution.
Abstract
The "violent imagination" stems from experiencing violence against the self and is fueled through the stories, myths, folktales, and anecdotes of daily life. In discussing manifestations of the violent imagination, this book examines the relation between sexism, racism, drug abuse, and the emergence of a sense of self that spawns the violent imagination. The discussion explores the complex ways in which images of violence pervade society, inform action, and provide interpretations of events. Schools are identified as contributing to the development of a violent imagination that guides judgments and actions. This development occurs in an educational environment where the minds and behaviors of children are dominated by an authority figure who sets rigid limits on thought and behavior under the threat of various punishments which may include corporal punishment. Some of these experiences of physical and psychological violation are considered normal or even moral; others are considered abnormal, criminal, or pathological. Nevertheless, all such images contribute to the development of a sense of violation, and children are schooled to accept normal forms and reject abnormal forms. Name and subject indexes and a 190-item bibliography