Dumbing Us Down: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
John Taylor Gatto
"For twenty-five years of teaching in school, I noticed an amazing phenomenon: schools and the entire education system have less and less relationship to the great events and beginnings of the planet. Nobody believes that scientists are trained in science classes, that politicians are those who have had time in social studies classes, and poets are those who shone in their native language lessons. In fact, schools do not teach anything, except obedience to orders."
Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling.
John Taylor Gatto
Main thesis
Gatto asserts the following regarding what school does to children in "Dumbing Us Down":
1 - It confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials, this programming is similar to the television; it fills almost all the "free" time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
2 - It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
3 - It makes them indifferent.
4 - It makes them emotionally dependent.
5 - It makes them intellectually dependent.
6 - It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
7 - It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.
He also draws a contrast between communities and “networks,” with the former being healthy, and schools being examples of the latter. He says networks have become an unhealthy substitute for community in the United States.
See also:
Weapons os mass deception;
Weapons os mass instuction;
Weapons os mass migration.
John Taylor Gatto
"For twenty-five years of teaching in school, I noticed an amazing phenomenon: schools and the entire education system have less and less relationship to the great events and beginnings of the planet. Nobody believes that scientists are trained in science classes, that politicians are those who have had time in social studies classes, and poets are those who shone in their native language lessons. In fact, schools do not teach anything, except obedience to orders."
Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling.
John Taylor Gatto
Gatto asserts the following regarding what school does to children in "Dumbing Us Down":
1 - It confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials, this programming is similar to the television; it fills almost all the "free" time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
2 - It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
3 - It makes them indifferent.
4 - It makes them emotionally dependent.
5 - It makes them intellectually dependent.
6 - It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
7 - It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.
He also draws a contrast between communities and “networks,” with the former being healthy, and schools being examples of the latter. He says networks have become an unhealthy substitute for community in the United States.
See also:
Weapons os mass deception;
Weapons os mass instuction;
Weapons os mass migration.
