A few weeks ago an essay by John Taylor Gatto
showed up on the del.icio.us popular page that reinforced my opinion of
traditional education. With the authority of an award winning teacher,
Mr. Gatto, explains the state of education in the form of seven lessons
he taught students throughout his career.
1. Confusion – Mr. Gatto’s first point is that children are
taught a mass of disconnected facts. He states, “The logic of the
school-mind is that it is better to leave school with a tool kit of
superficial jargon…than to leave with one genuine enthusiasm.?
The memorization of facts only to repeat them on a test is dull and
pointless. That is what school is for most kids. For the rest it is
about getting good grades. Purpose of education (understanding and
development) is ignored.
2. Class Position – “Everyone has a proper place in the
pyramid…there is no way out of your class…you must stay where you are
put.?
This is definitely one of the lessons I took away from high school.
As a student in high level classes I felt resentment from lower level
students and was encouraged by teachers to consider them less
intelligent. The division caused students to behave according to their
level. The high level students become pretentious and the low level
students misbehaved.
3. Indifference – “When the bell rings I insist that they stop
whatever it is that we’ve been working on and proceed quickly to the
next work station…They must turn on and off like a light switch.
In what purposeful system do people invest themselves for a short
period, then drop everything because of an arbitrary bell and start
doing something totally different. This makes no sense at all and it
teaches children not to care about what they learning.
4. Emotional Dependency – “By stars and red checks, smiles and
frowns, prizes, honors and disgraces I teach kids to surrender their
will to the predestined chain of command.?
Students are taught that their happiness is controlled by the
teacher. Obey him, follow the crowd and you are rewarded, act
independently and you are punished. This destroys individuality and
prepares people for a life time of passive indifference
5. Intellectual Dependency – “Good people wait for a teacher to
tell them what to do. It is the most important lesson, that we must wait
for other people, better trained than ourselves, to make the meanings
of our lives.?
This point gets me fired up. We are trained to believe our own
thoughts are stupid. We must rely on “experts? to show us the way. This
puts us under the power of the “experts? and preempts the development
of ability. We are always surprised what we can do for ourselves.
6. Provisional Self-Esteem – “The lesson of
report cards, grades, and tests is that children should not trust
themselves or their parents but should instead rely on the evaluation of
certified officials.?
This lesson falls in line with four and five to
form the triumvirate of “expert? dependence: emotional, intellectual,
and self-esteem. This dependence extends past childhood into adult life.
How greatly does your boss’s opinion effect your emotions? He/she
praises and we feel great, he/she scolds and we are scared and upset.
From childhood we are conditioned to submit to authority.
7. One Can’t Hide – “I teach
children they are always watched, that each is under constant
surveillance by myself and my colleagues.?
Our superiors are always watching. I know this is
true for me. We must stay always on our best behavior or we will be
punished. Being constantly on edge creates passive individuals that lack
the spontaneity and confidence to innovate.
The second part of the essay claims that education wasn’t always this
way. It draws on American history, stating that regimental schooling
began just after the Civil War when the central government assumed total
control. “We were something special,? Gatto says, “we Americans, all
by ourselves, without government sticking its nose into our lives,
without institutions and social agencies telling us how to think and
feel.?
In the third section Gatto says, “We have a real national crisis, the
nature of which is very different from that proclaimed by the national
media. Young people are indifferent to the adult world and to the
future, indifferent to almost everything except the diversion of toys
and violence.? Do you see the truth of this statement? I am twenty-two
years old. Among the people in my peer group, nearly all spend their
free time in passive entertainment. Our conversations revolve around
entertainment or consumer goods. There is a lack of free thought or
intellectual curiosity. Many strong independent spirits are mired in
vice and indifference.
When I first read this essay I imagined a great conspiracy to enslave
the individual. After reflection I have come to a different conclusion:
the majority of people like being told what to do. It makes them feel
safe. It takes the pressure off them. As G. B. Shaw
said, “Ninety-five percent of the population would rather die than
think.? So what does all this mean? Is American society destined to
evolve into the dystopia of Huxley’s Brave New World? I don’t think so.
There will always be brilliant irrepressible people. It is essential to
make these individuals aware that there is an alternative to the
mainstream system.
Gatto brings to light a possible solution: “Some form of free-market
system in public schooling is the likeliest place to look for answers, a
free market where family schools and small entrepreneurial schools and
religious schools and crafts schools and farm schools exist in profusion
to compete with government education. I’m trying to describe a free
market in schooling just exactly like the one the country had until the
Civil War, one in which students volunteer for the kind of education
that suits them, even if that means self-education.?
The institution of education appears unassailable, but the fact that
this essay was written and that it was selected for the del.icio.us
popular page means that people are aware. Recognition is the first step
to improvement. Do your part as a conscientious citizen and discuss it.
What do you think about the public education system?
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