Mixed reaction...ciggieposeurJuly 12 2005, 21:36:06 UTC
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.
Yeah, it's plain to see public school is a mess, and Gatto ties it together with all the other items from _Culture Jam_. But. Gatto spends a lot of time talking about religion, corporatism, science, big business, government, etc., and it seems like everyone-who-isn't-him has some share of the blame, and if only we all became Amish all would be well. I don't buy his presentation of Christianity's virtues in Chapter 14, or his insistence that modern schools are atheistic playgrounds worthy of the USSR. His story of "how the Powers-That-Be took over raising our kids under our very noses" is too sweeping, too well-directed, and way too long-range in scope to be the people he blames. (Corporate boardrooms are notorious for short-term outlooks, how could they plan a two-hundred-year takeover?) He's only a few sentences away from revealing that we're halfway through an Armageddon instigated by demons who call themselves the Senior Partners at Wolfram and Hart (for all you Angel fans).
Still, if the time comes, my own kids get homeschool precisely so they can get out of the classroom during the day and apply what they learn.
Re: Mixed reaction...egosumneJuly 13 2005, 18:06:48 UTC
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.
Yeah, it's plain to see public school is a mess, and Gatto ties it together with all the other items from _Culture Jam_. But. Gatto spends a lot of time talking about religion, corporatism, science, big business, government, etc., and it seems like everyone-who-isn't-him has some share of the blame, and if only we all became Amish all would be well. I don't buy his presentation of Christianity's virtues in Chapter 14, or his insistence that modern schools are atheistic playgrounds worthy of the USSR. His story of "how the Powers-That-Be took over raising our kids under our very noses" is too sweeping, too well-directed, and way too long-range in scope to be the people he blames. (Corporate boardrooms are notorious for short-term outlooks, how could they plan a two-hundred-year takeover?) He's only a few sentences away from revealing that we're halfway through an Armageddon instigated by demons who call themselves the Senior Partners at Wolfram and Hart (for all you Angel fans).
Still, if the time comes, my own kids get homeschool precisely so they can get out of the classroom during the day and apply what they learn.
Reply
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.
Reply
Leave a comment