Prelude to Chaos

Copyright © 2009 by John V. Patrick.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

AVOID CHAOS! AVOID THE NEUROTIC OBSESSIONS, TEACH

SELF-ACTUALIZATION

APPENDIX 1

ANNEX 2

APPENDIX 3

APPENDIX 4

APPENDIX 5

APPENDIX 6

APPENDIX 7

APPENDIX 8

Dedications

This book is dedicated to my wife Dorothy whose advice, inspiration and patience made this book possible and to my daughter Lisa and son Marc for their confidence and encouragement.

INTRODUCTION

For at least the last ten years, we have attempted to improve our schools by proposing and executing change after change. We have spent an enormous amount of money on an inordinate number of new programs, and by any reasonable measure, our systems has gone backward.

Plummeting test scores, increased school dropout rates—some urban areas are reporting a dropout rate of over 40 percent, increases in teen pregnancies, increases in teen crime rate, and a student body that is disrespectful, conniving, selfish, hostile, and so disruptive that our teachers cannot effectively teach them and are part of our school problems.

The simple cause is that our children’s needs are not being met, resulting in a form of neurosis with its own set of human traits and coping strategies. And as the children become adults, their needs remain unchanged, and the adults develop a new and different set of coping strategies—all based on the effects of deprived needs and a lack of self-actualization.

This book characterizes what we already know, have observed, and identified as real problems with our educational system; relates the identified problems to more in-depth causes; delves further into these causes; and proposes fundamentally different and unique solutions to the problems with our schools and our society.

The chapter units of this book are highly interrelated. Chapter 1 discusses the theory related to the neurosis caused by unfulfilled needs leading to disruptive students. Chapter 2 explains, in greater detail, how the developed neurosis affects our students, our schools and our society. The resulting accelerating degenerative effects on teachers and administrators; all resulting in our ineffective schools are explained in chapters 3 and 4. A unique solution to our dilemma is presented in chapter 5 while Chapter 7 presents ideas on how to execute the solution. And several factors which may help with the funding of our schools are discussed in Chapter 6.

CHAPTER 1

Psychology Theory

Our education systems and our schools are failing. For at least the last ten years, we have attempted to improve our schools by proposing and executing change after change. We have spent an enormous amount of money on an inordinate number of new programs, and by any reasonable measure, our schools have gone backward. At the present time, our government is poised to spend an additional humongous amount of money to redo (improve on) what we have been doing in the past fifty years—improving teacher efficiency, smaller schools and smaller class sizes, longer school days, better analysis of test data, and the list goes on.

Plummeting test scores, increased school dropout rates—some urban areas are reporting a dropout rate of over 40 percent, increases in teen pregnancies, increases in teen crime rate, and a student body that is disrespectful, conniving, selfish, angry, and so disruptive that our teachers cannot effectively teach them and are part of our school problems. The list goes on to include frustrated teachers and administrators culminating with our failing school system. These problems have now continued for several generations and are now affecting adults and many other aspects of our society.

We are also experiencing increased white-collar crime—especially fraud, a higher divorce rate, and may I add an increased number of dishonest politicians and civil strife.

The simple cause is that our children’s needs are not being met, resulting in a form of neurosis with its own set of human traits and coping mechanisms. And as the children become adults, their needs remain unchanged, but the adults develop a new and different set of coping strategies—all based on the effects of deprived needs and a lack of self-actualization.

This book characterizes what we already know, have observed, and identified as real problems with our educational system; relates the identified problems to more in-depth causes, delves further into these causes, and proposes fundamentally different and unique solutions to the problems with our schools.

Our references to needs and neurosis are not treated in the classical sense. A college dictionary defined neurosis as a mild psychiatric disorder characterized by anxiety depression or hypochondria. We prefer a much-milder interpretation that relates neuroticism to inner needs and ego mainly directed toward others.

Several noted psychologist who pioneered work on self-actualization were Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), Kurt Goldstein, (1878-1965), and Karen Horney (1885-1952).

Maslow explicitly defines self-actualization to be the desire for self-fulfillment—mainly the tendency for the individual to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be rephrased as the desire to become more and more of what one is—to become everything that one is capable of becoming.

According to Kurt Goldstein, self-actualization is the tendency to actualize as much as possible the individual capacities. He felt the tendency to self-actualization is the only drive and abilities by which the life of an organism is determined and, therefore, determined the path of one’s life.

A basic definition from a typical college textbook defines self-actualization, according to Maslow, simply as the full realization of one’s potential without any mention of antiquated Goldstein. The most important difference between the two theories of self-actualization is the following:

For Goldstein, self-actualization was a motive; and for Maslow, it was a level of development. For both, however,