As I listen to the conversation about community in education, the image I most often hear propounded is one of “therapeutic community.” …In this image, community equals intimacy. Is intimacy a good thing, a valuable form of relationships? Of course. Is it the kind of community best suited to the aims of education? I think not. While knowing, teaching, and learning require intimacy in certain forms, education would be distorted if intimacy became its ultimate norm.
From To Know as we are Known by Parker J. Palmer in the “Preface for the Paperback Edition: The Recovery of Community in Education” (xii-xiii).