Peltzer

Speaking of Dave Peltzer, I've always read of his books, but never actaully read one. Then, in stacking about twenty million copies of them today, I managed to read the blurb on the back and became rather enthralled by the message coming across as well as, naturally, appalled by the events of his childhood. From amazon uk:
This book is a brief, horrifying account of the bizarre tortures she inflicted on him, told from the point of view of the author as a young boy being starved, stabbed, smashed face-first into mirrors, forced to eat the contents of his sibling's diapers and a spoonful of ammonia, and burned over a gas stove by a maniacal, alcoholic mom.
You want to read to see how he overcomes the awful events, deals with the struggles and pain. In a rather perverse way I suppose we want to read to simply find out how awful it really does get, to know what the events are, rather than just how he deals with them. It is like being invited into a life, books on abuse. They tell a deeply personal tale that is difficult to read and equally difficult to tell. But then we must read them to know how awful the pain is, and to ensure that it doesn't happen more. Our education in life comes from the experiences of others, the most crucial resource available. Our failings tell us most about ourselves. I would love to learn from the book 'Why children fail' for I'm sure it would help me become more concious of not giving out those signals of disappointment to children, to understand better what it occuring, and to rectify the situation more efficiently.
"John Holt explains, though examples and case studies, his insights into how children's experience of education differes radically from the experience which teachers expect or imagine. He explains how some children can go through school without apparently learning anything, and how children conform to a system which values the appearance of success (getting the 'right' answer) rather than true understanding. In doing so they use all their intelligence to avoid the appearance of failure, rather than in the pursuit of learning. This is a disturbing book for anyone who thinks they understand children or know how to teach, and is vital reading for any school teacher. "

We learn from analysis and Peltzer is scary to read, to even comprehend the pain, but it is an education worth having.