Abstract
I wonder if the pattern I learned from my mother saved my life. (Nissen, p.133)
The central theme of this challenging book is an examination of the educational, or otherwise, experiences available to the Children of Alcoholics. From the very first words of Chapter 1 it is clear that Leslie Nissen speaks with the authority of one who was and is defined by her childhood as a child and carer of an alcoholic mother who constantly sought a ‘cure’ for her state by moving to new homes in different places; seeking the heterotopias that would provide the means and circumstances for a contradictory life free from addiction and all the social, psychological, financial and personal mess that is a part of addiction. This book is truly a life changing read, written at times with a pacey writing style blended with a reflective personal diary narrative all combined with detailed research and an impressive list of references.
The passion of the writing draws the reader’s attention to the full implication of ‘the geographic cure’ always moving on to a better place, and the need to address present educational philosophical views of educational provision with psychoanalysis within curriculum theory. Psychoanalytic thinking can contribute to the consideration of education as a process conducted between teacher and student rather than imparted by teacher to student. Deborah Britzman and Alice Pitt (1966) speak from a psychoanalytic perspective when calling for teachers to learn from their student’s learning. They recall Anna Freud’s investigation of learning itself, which “begins with a central concept in psychoanalysis, that of, ‘transference,’ or the idea that one’s past unresolved conflicts with others and within the self are projected onto the meanings of new interactions” (Britzman & Pitt, 1966). (Nissen, p. 6, Chapter 1)
In considering the present international education system that inhabits a world of testing and then more testing Leslie Nissen has produced a challenging book that offers a knowledgeable, forceful and well-researched education reader. The key theme, she argues, is one important to us all committed to bravery when faced with the question as to how we best support all children, our gifted and able students included. She asks the reader to consider what is ‘wrong’ with children. In other words, what a child may bring to education should be examined for its contribution to informing teaching styles and education pedagogy for that child instead of the child becoming the ‘problem’ because what they are does not fit the grade. The narrative, the exploration of existing paradigms and a passion for exploring what is right for children now makes this book not only worth reading but additionally worth having near to refer to whenever in doubt as to who and what education is meant to support and enable. We all seek the ‘cure’. For the gifted learner the needs are great and complex when they find themselves in a world that seeks to define them in existing prejudices, rather than accept that children should be informing and leading us, the educators, teachers and administrators. I am quite ashamed to admit that decades ago I was one of those teachers who insisted that whatever was going on at home should be checked at the door (author’s italics). It took a couple of years before I came to fully understand that there were kids sitting in my classes who, at home, were devalued at best – or worse, truly unloved. Those problems cannot be neatly tucked away before the school day begins. Yet when I was first employed as a teacher, my position was that my students were not to even think about utilizing problems at home (author’s italics) as an excuse for anything, whether implicitly or outright. After a while it finally dawned on me that I was teaching the way I was taught, with only a very few exceptions I was expecting of those children what was expected of me, forgetting all about the part where leaving problems at the door was impossible. (Nissen, p. 10)