AGAINST SCHOOL How public education cripples our kids, and why

Spinning Globe ^ | September 2003 | John Taylor Gatto

[Clintonfatigued]

The article is a couple of years old, but very revealing.

[wizardoz]

Well, I've only been teaching for 2 years but I have to disagree. I am never bored with teaching or with what I'm teaching. Only frustrated that my students don't see the value in learning to write well. They just don't think it's a valuable skill.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Oh Captain! My Captain...!

[Shimmer128]

Everything Gatto writes is very revealing. You ought to read "The Six Lesson School Teacher" Do a search for his name.
It will open your eyes!

[Clintonfatigued]

Here's a statement worth remembering:

"By the time I finally retired in 1991, 1 had more than enough reason to think of our schools-with their long-term, cell-block-style, forced confinement of both students and teachers-as virtual factories of childishness."

[kenavi]

I've only been teaching for 2 years

Why do you degrade teaching?

[Antonello]

I get the feeling the author isn't so much against the 'public' part of 'public education', as much as he is against the current methods of the 'education' part. Perhaps a return to the good ole days of apprenticeships for 12 year olds at the local sawmill are in order. Who needs all that high falutin', boring science and engineering anyway?

I could be wrong, though.

[umgud]

I won't argue that there are problems in the schools that can be directly tied to the unions, the teachers and the administration, but I have tell you that a lot of the problem is a large contingent of students who aren't going to learn no matter what you do. This group of students is large enough to seriously bias educational statistics.

[MAexile]

I like this one better.

One afternoon when I was seven I complained to him of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head. He told me that I was never to use that term in his presence again, that if I was bored it was my fault and no one else's. The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn't know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible. Certainty not to be trusted.

[wizardoz]

How did I degrade teaching?

[ClaireSolt]

I went from teaching history to sucess in sales. I always though I did well in sales because I got to be good at selling kids on history. So, take that as part of your job. First convince them that writing is important. Then teach them how to do it.

But it does get old, year after year.

I decided once that the schools were training bureaucrats to work in the state government. And they are run by bureaucracies. I am not sure corporations have much of a role.

[Domestic Church]

Read his book!
The Underground History of American Education


http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm

[Tired of Taxes]

HOMESCHOOL PING

(An older article, but still worth the read).

[Clintonfatigued]

There are a lot of dedicated, concerned, and well-meaning individuals who work in the public schools, and I'm sure you're one of them. They do their best, but their individual efforts are undermined by the system as a whole.

[wizardoz]

Yes. The system as a whole reinforces the childrens' sense of entitlement and their motivation is nil because of it.

[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

Great read!

CC&E

[after dark]

I doubt anyone would miss the Prussian method of schooling if it were allowed to die from disuse.

[sageb1]

The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto

[after dark]

"Genius is as common as dirt."

I totally agree with this statement...