{"id":1858,"date":"2011-08-23T11:16:28","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T18:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janice-campbell.com\/?p=692"},"modified":"2023-10-13T13:42:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T17:42:24","slug":"gattos-7-lessons-of-compulsory-schooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/gattos-7-lessons-of-compulsory-schooling\/","title":{"rendered":"Gatto’s 7 Lessons of Compulsory Schooling"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most influential books I’ve ever read is John Taylor Gatto’s Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling <\/strong><\/em><\/a>in which he describes the fundamental lessons he was required to teach during his 26 years as a schoolteacher. The book is adapted from a speech given at a ceremony in which Gatto was named the New York State Teacher of the Year for 1991.<\/p>\n

What Students Learn from Compulsory Schooling<\/h2>\n

<\/a>\"\"Here are the seven truly awful lessons of compulsory schooling \u2014 see if you recognize any of them from your own school experiences.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Confusion<\/strong>: “Everything I teach is out of context . . . A close examination of curriculum and its sequences turns up a lack of coherence, full of internal contradictions.”<\/li>\n
  2. Class position<\/strong>: “Students must stay in the class where they belong . . . [they learn] how to envy the and fear the better classes and how to have contempt for the dumb classes.”<\/li>\n
  3. Indifference<\/strong>: “I teach children not to care too much about anything . . . Nothing\u00a0important\u00a0is ever finished my class nor in any class I know of . . . Bells inoculate each undertaking with indifference.”<\/li>\n
  4. Emotional dependency<\/strong>: “By stars and red checks, smiles and frowns, prizes, honors, and disgraces, I teach kids to surrender . . . Rights may be granted or\u00a0withheld\u00a0by any authority without appeal . . .”<\/li>\n
  5. Intellectual dependency<\/strong>: “Good students wait for a teacher to tell them what to do . . . It is the most important lesson that we must wait for other people . . . to make the meanings of our lives.”<\/li>\n
  6. Provisional self-esteem<\/strong>: “A kid’s self respect should depend on expert opinion.”<\/li>\n
  7. One can’t hide<\/strong>: “The meaning of constant surveillance and denial of privacy is that no one can be trusted, that privacy is not legitimate.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The reason I share these seven lessons here is to remind each of us not to replicate these unfortunate lessons of compulsory schooling in our own homes. When I talked with college admissions counselors while I was writing Transcripts Made Easy<\/a><\/em>, almost every one of them spoke positively of some of the key differences they’d seen in homeschoolers. These included a lack of peer dependence, the ability to self-motivate, perseverance, independent thought, and often, a lively interest in life and learning. Let’s keep it that way!<\/p>\n

    More from John Taylor Gatto<\/h3>\n

    If the state of modern education has puzzled you, you might want to watch this five-hour Ultimate History Lesson<\/strong> with John Taylor Gatto. In it, he shares how America’s public education system has gotten where it is today.<\/p>\n