(Untitled)

[hobgadling]

I wonder what TAMSters would think of John Taylor Gatto's analysis of the public school system in America... The Underground History of American Education.

Comments

[egosumne]

"In 30 years of teaching kids rich and poor I almost never met a learning disabled child; hardly ever met a gifted and talented one either. Like all school categories, these are sacred myths, created by human imagination. They derive from questionable values we never examine because they preserve the temple of schooling."

I'm still in the prologue, but Amen already. I will surely post more later.

[egosumne]

"As long as gasoline is freely available, gun control is beside the point. Push on. Why do we allow access to a portable substance capable of incinerating houses, torching crowded theaters, or even turning skyscrapers into infernos?"

[egosumne]

After writing a book searching for the hidden genius of Greece in its schools, Kenneth Freeman concluded his unique study The Schools of Hellas in 1907 with this summary, "There were no schools in Hellas."

Mixed reaction...

[ciggieposeur]

I remember vividly the experience of the sharp dichotomy between sophomore year in public school and junior year of TAMS, so Gatto makes a whole lot of sense. My first trip home I told my parents that TAMS was fresh air for the first time in my life

Re: Mixed reaction...

[egosumne]

I think he points out that while the ones' he's blaming are at fault, it wasn't what they were intending. "If I’m correct, we’re in a much worse position than we would be if we were merely victims of an evil genius or two."

While I am entertained by his distractions about non-school related problems with the world, it verifies his own admission to being at best an average writer.

[ribbit_ribbit]

I read it ages ago, and I thought it was very pertinent, if a little bent towards the libetarian side for my taste. Enough so that I went out and bought his book awhile back but I haven't gotten around to reading it.