This book critically examines the socio-cultural role of achievement within education, arguing that the increasingly global demand for measurable standards of academic achievement is an expression of political ideology and the aggressive, competitive reality of a neo-capitalist schooling system. The book explores how this burgeoning demand in education systems contrasts with the very foundations of education and educational common-sense, which should value achievement as a basis for developing a positive sense of worth for all students and for nurturing their potential. Instead, these systems are structured by consumerism, exploitation and marginalization, breeding a social-Darwinian atmosphere within school environments that results in many students feeling socially worthless and as though they have under-achieved.

Throughout history, compassion has stood at the base of the radical cry to change the world order and remedy injustices. It has also been a political tool for society's power-wielders, who have exploited the sense of calling compassion arouses to hide the repressive, belligerent, and manipulative nature of society's power structure. This book analyzes four models of compassion, each representing manifestations of compassion in different cultures and eras: Judeo-Christianity, Buddhism, Modernism, and the author's alternative, a response to neocapitalist postmodernism-radical compassion and its imperative to take action.

This book criticizes sharply the way in which schools create, exacerbate and ignore the distress of children, when in fact the place that is supposed to provide a humane response to that very distress. Taking a broad critical and interdisciplinary approach (philosophical, sociological, psychological and educational), the book points out the organizational, psychological and functional difficulties of today's public school, which prevent the adults working there from sensing taking responsibility for and acting to alleviate the distress of children.

Throughout history, compassion has stood at the base of the radical cry to change the world order and remedy injustices. It has also been a political tool for society's power-wielders, who have exploited the sense of calling compassion arouses to hide the repressive, belligerent, and manipulative nature of society's power structure. This book analyzes four models of compassion, each representing manifestations of compassion in different cultures and eras: Judeo-Christianity, Buddhism, Modernism, and the author's alternative, a response to neocapitalist postmodernism-radical compassion and its imperative to take action.