6. Book Launch: Beyond Coercive Education

A Plea for Children’s Rights in Education
Amersfoort, 29 September 2016 – In the book ‘Beyond Coercive Education’, Peter Hartkamp shows that the education system is based on assumptions, which comprise the framework of the system. He confronts the reader in 11 Myths with these underlying assumptions of education and calls them into question. Read more

The official book launch of the Dutch version will be on October 10th at Seats2Meet in Utrecht CS, the Netherlands. The book is simultaneously available in English (paperback and kindle), partly edited to facilitate a more international public. The core of the problem with education in all countries, without exception, leads back to the fundamental rights of the child. Book is available on Amazon

The book demonstrates that the rights of the child are crucial to the well-being, learning and development of children and how these rights are institutionally and routinely violated in schools. Although education is an oft-recurring topic in politics, the media and among educational professionals, the coercive nature of mainstream schooling hardly ever surfaces. Over the last 100 years the focus has almost always been on tinkering with the status quo. Questioning the assumptions and breaking the framework is the start of a radical change in education. The book ends with a number of proven alternatives based on respect for children as full human beings. More information: www.beyondcoerciveeducation.eu

Testimonials:
"This is a book that needed to be written. The arguments are strong and convincing" - Alan Thomas (Ph.D.), FBPsS., Hon. Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology and Human Development, UCL Institute of Education, University of London, U.K.

"I wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend this book to the many parents, students, teachers, employers and policy makers" - Derry Hannam, retired school vice-principal and school inspector in the U.K., advisor to the Council of Europe Education for Democratic Citizenship project and many NGOs (The Hannam Report).

"I recommend this book to everyone who cares about children or about the future of humanity" - Peter Gray (Ph.D.), research professor of developmental and evolutionary psychology at Boston College , U.S.A. and author of Free to Learn