ABSTRACT

Consider some of the words with which EP and other parts of psychology have ‘enriched’ our educational language: ‘intelligence’, ‘highability’, ‘under-achiever’, ‘deprived childhood’, ‘emotional instability’, ‘low ego-control’, ‘level of aspiration’, ‘mentally deficient’, ‘backward reader’, ‘emotional blocking’, ‘learning disorder’, ‘deviant’, ‘late-developer’, ‘behaviour disruption’, ‘hyper-active’. What use can one make of such designations? What purposes could they serve?