Grade Power: The Complete Guide to Improving Your Grades Through Self-Hypnosis

Kim Fahner teaches English and history at Marymount Academy in Sudbury,
Ontario.

Some of the chapters in this book—those on improving self-esteem,
focusing one’s passion, persistence, and balance, for example—are
very interesting and would be without a doubt helpful to any student.
That said, the concept of using self-hypnosis as a tool for improving
grades is problematic. Should students be encouraged to put all of their
academic eggs in this one psychological basket?

For secondary-school teachers who spend time in Kevin Alderson’s
psychological sphere, other questions may arise. To what age level is
his self-hypnosis guide geared? Does it include (or exclude) students
with special needs and learning disabilities? Is consideration given to
the maturity level of the student reading the book? The answers to these
questions would necessarily figure into an educator’s decision to
endorse it or not.

Guidance counsellors may find Grade Power a useful resource, but even
they would be well advised to take the book with a grain of pedagogical
and theoretical salt.