Posted: 1/19/2012 5:57:21 AM EDT
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Has anyone ever read "The Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto??? I have heard Neil Boortz talk about this book for years. A little about the book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Underground_History_of_American_Education Using anecdotes gathered from thirty years of teaching, Gatto presents his view of modern compulsion schooling, describing a "conflict between systems which offer physical safety and certainty at the cost of suppressing free will, and those which offer liberty at the price of constant risk". Gatto argues that educational strategies promoted by government and industry leaders for over a century included the creation of a system that keeps real power in the hands of very few people. Russ Kick offers this in summary: "In other words, the captains of industry and government explicitly wanted an educational system that would maintain social order by teaching us just enough to get by but not enough so that we could think for ourselves, question the sociopolitical order, or communicate articulately." A little about the author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto He was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991. In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled ‘I Quit, I Think’, to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, saying that he no longer wished to "hurt kids to make a living." The book can be found online at http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm Damn, I hate finding these things that I really want to read and learn about but has absolutely nothing to do with what I NEED to be doing. I should be studying for some tech certs instead for my job.  ETA: Here is a link to his 2002 NY Teacher of the Year Acceptance Speech: http://www.home-ed.vic.edu.au/2002/02/26/john-gatto-teacher-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/ Here is a link to a speech that he delivered to the VT Homeschooling Conference: http://4brevard.com/choice/Public_Education.htm |
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Yet another reason to send your children here for a proper education
Fork Union Military Academy (class of '83) |