ABSTRACT
This chapter examines conditions: folly and fraud, that breed and nurture both acute and chronic infestations of pernicious nonsense in education and that also work to marginalize or destroy what is both true and beneficial. It focuses on Romantic modernism; anomie and egoism; incentives for continual innovation; absence of contract, contact and accountability; and education schools as the primordial soup of infection. The common view does not adequately capture the history of innovations in education, such as additive-free diets, 'gentle teaching', 'sensory integration', 'full inclusion', and 'facilitated communication' for persons with autism and other developmental disabilities. Fads are isolated events in the culture. Romantic modernism is a large thread in our culture that helps both to nurture and organize a critique of contemporary Western society. Romantic modernism is a rejection of the modern world and its social institutions and value orientations, including capitalism, government, the middle-class family, organized religion, and schools.
