Volume 46 Number 3 Article 7 March 2018 The Disruption of Evangelicalism: The Age of Torrey, Mott, McPherson and Hammond (Book Review) Keith C. Sewell Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege Recommended Citation Sewell, Keith C. (2018) "The Disruption of Evangelicalism: The Age of Torrey, Mott, McPherson and Hammond (Book Review)," Pro Rege: Vol. 46: No. 3, 40 - 42. Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege/vol46/iss3/7 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Digital Collections @ Dordt. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pro Rege by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Dordt. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ProVolume XLVI, Number 3 Rege March 2018 Features Therapeutic Approach in Moral Education: A Critical Assessment Jan Hábl The Common Thread in Kuyper, Kuhn, and Cognitive Psychology: Interpretive Frameworks Daniel Hitchcock WANTED: Vegetarian Kuyperians with Artistic Underwear Calvin Seerveld A Letter to Dr. Sacha Walicord Chris Gousmett Reply to Dr. Chris Gousmett’s Open Letter Sacha Walicord Book Reviews Walton, John H. and Walton, J. Harvey. The Lost World of the Israelite Conquest. Reviewed by Justin Bailey. Treloar, Geoffrey R. The Disruption of Evangelicalism: The Age of Torrey, Mott, McPherson and Hammond. Reviewed by Keith Sewell. Tuininga, Matthew J. Calvin’s Political Theology and the Public Engagement of the Church: Christ’s Two Kingdoms. A quarterly faculty publication of Reviewed by Keith Sewell. Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa Pro Rege Pro Rege is a quarterly publication of the faculty of Dordt College. As its name indicates (a Latin phrase meaning “for the King”), the purpose of this journal is to proclaim Christ’s kingship over the sphere of education and scholarship. By exploring topics relevant to Reformed Christian education, it seeks to inform the Christian community regarding Dordt’s continuing response to its educational task. Editorial Board Mary Dengler, Editor Josh Matthews, Review Editor Sally Jongsma, Proofs Editor Carla Goslinga, Layout Pro Rege is made available free of charge as a service to the Christian community. If you would like your name added to the mailing list or know of someone whose name should be added, write to: Editor, Pro Rege Dordt College Sioux Center, Iowa 51250 or E-mail: [email protected] The index for Pro Rege, now in its forty-fifth year of publication, can be accessed via the Internet: http://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege/ The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent an official position of Dordt College. ISSN 0276-4830 Copyright, March, 2018 Pro Rege, Dordt College Therapeutic Approach in Moral Education: A Critical Assessment There are many advocates, but some of the most notable should be named: Carl Rodgers, Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, Sidney B. Simon, Louis Raths, and Merrill Harmin. For a proper understanding of these approaches, it’s necessary to review first the cultural-ideological context of their origin. After that I will analyze and evalu- ate their key tenets, which I consider problem- atic. Specifically, we will scrutinize these prob- lems: (1) the problem of process at the expense of content, (2) the problem of devaluation of the educator’s authority, (3) the problem of blurring of moral concepts and standards, (4) the problem by Jan Hábl of value pseudo-neutrality and indoctrination, (5) the problem of individualism, subjectivism, Abstract: and relativism. This study aims to critically assess the so- called therapeutic approach in moral education, Key words: which emerged in the postwar twentieth century, Moral, education, therapeutic, method, in- in the western part of the world. The proponents doctrination. of the approach used different terms to express its essence: value clarification method, or sometimes Historical and cultural context the decision-making method or the critical thinking Education, in the sense of therapeutic clarifi- method. These philosophies of education have the cation of values (and all related concepts), was in common feature of a personalistic, non-directive, many ways a reaction to the postwar crisis of val- or client-oriented approach to the individual. ues and culture in general. The coming genera- Therefore, I will refer to them here as therapeutic. tion openly distanced themselves from the “mor- als” of their parents. In addition to freedom of expression, emancipation of human rights, and Jan Hábl (doc, 2016, Charles University in Prague; PhD, emphasis on autonomy, the prevailing sentiment 2009, University of Wales) is a professor of pedagogy at of the flower children was resistance towards the universities in Hradec Králové and Ústí nad Labem (Czech Republic) and a research fellow in Comenius Institute in “stale” culture that priggishly preached, commis- Prague. sioned, and taught. The culture of their fathers— Pro Rege—March 2018 1 because of the horrors of war that were still fresh the sick woman, borrowed from everyone he in their memories—had lost its moral legitimacy could and still had only half of the cost of the and become more of a source of shame than medicine. He begged the pharmacist to lower something to pass along pedagogically. From the price or allow him to pay it in install- such a background it was not surprising, there- ments. But the pharmacist wouldn’t budge. fore, that in the 1960s there arose a method that Desperate, Heinz broke into the pharmacy at emphasized discussion, openness, engagement, night and stole the medicine. no guidelines, and so on. The goal of the method was neither the formation nor transmission of Sharon and Jill were best friends. One day any kind of specific “bag of virtues,” in the words they went shopping together. Jill was trying of Lawrence Kohlberg, or other moral material; it on a sweater, when she suddenly put her jacket on over it and left the store. The guard arrived was indoctrination, which was considered one of immediately afterwards, stopped Sharon and the cardinal defects of all traditional educational 1 asked the name of her friend who had fled the approaches. Teachers and educators of this new store. At the same time, she threatened to call type were given the task of helping students the police if Sharon wouldn’t give the name. think independently and critically, based on the psychological assumption that if the individuals The questions for discussion are obvious: Was themselves identified their own values, the in- Heinz’s theft wrong or not? Should Sharon be- ternalization of those values would be easier and tray her friend or not? The discussion has to be more durable than if they were mediated by some well-controlled didactically in order to fulfill its adult. The students were thus guided to discover, task. Therefore, the authors present the follow- classify, and develop their own values, that is, to ing instructions. (1) Recapitulate the basic facts construct their own moral universe. of the story and ask a clear yes/no question. (2) Experimental findings by developmental Give the students enough time to think through psychologists such as Piaget and Kohlberg con- the question and answer independently, ideally veniently arrived just in time.2 Although their in writing, and with justification. (3) Next, the theories of the moral and cognitive development students say their answers aloud. If it happens of the individual were not originally intended to that most of the group agree, S. B. Simon rec- be educational, their application to pedagogy was ommends adding “balancing” information. For soon found. Different variations of Kohlberg’s fa- example, if most of the class vote for giving the mous micro-story dilemmas were used in lessons name, the teacher can draw attention to the im- as a tool for clarifying moral categories and val- plications that this judgment would have on the ues, a tool which was expected to both move the girls’ friendship, or bring a new variable into the students to a higher stage of moral development story—for example, what if Jill was from a weak and teach them independent moral judgment social background, and so on. (4) The teacher is and argumentation. to lead the discussion in a fundamentally non-di- How does the method work in didactic prac- rective manner. No interfering unless necessary, tice? For illustration, I present two mini-stories: only steering it by means of questions—either Kohlberg’s now famous “Heinz’s Dilemma” and stimulating (if the discussion lags), or regulatory “Sharon’s Dilemma” from the just-as-well-known (if the discussion gets off track) or clarifying (to teacher’s handbook of Simon and his colleagues:3 break down concepts or motives, etc.). Teachers must also avoid the temptation to express their A fatally ill woman lived in Europe. She suf- fered from a special kind of cancer. There ex- own opinions (even though the students request isted a medicine that was recently discovered it) because that usually ends the discussion. (5) by a pharmacist from the same town. To pro- The conclusion of the discussion should contain duce the medicine was very expensive, and a summary of the arguments (for and against), the pharmacist charged ten times more than as well as a re-stating of the beginning and end- it cost him to make. Heinz, the husband of ing opinions. Did the students change their view? 2 Pro Rege—March 2018 For what reason? And so on. Of course, the sto- pological assumption of the innate goodness of ries and strategies can also be subject to thematic human nature, the belief that people are unprob- changes and adapted to the age and circumstanc- lematically good—both ontologically and mor- es of the group. ally. In the 20th century we first saw this domi- The method spread quickly and gained popu- nance of process over content in Carl Rogers’ larity.