Summary: I have written admiringly of John Taylor Gatto before. I am
provoked to do so again by Mike Kilen's moving summary and critique of mandatory schooling (aka the factory model of education).
There are large dangers to 'factorified' education; the worst, IMHO, is each student's loss of relationship to her or his potential. What's left? The sole decision: as to how much one commits to, or resists, becoming an "appropriately trained" worker participant in a one-size-fits-all vision of existence .
To quote Gatto (via Mike Kilen in today's Des Moines Register):
"To raise kids to get a job rather than find a way to be useful in the world[italics mine*, SPH] is an act of murder," Gatto said."In a perfect world, he would close all government schools, use the money to pay parents or other experts to teach kids and sponsor apprenticeships."
"It's not going to happen although a growing number are taking education into their own hands by home schooling.[sigma]
[sigma]So Gatto would start by taking the profit out of teaching kids the relatively easy tasks of reading and arithmetic. He'd eliminate the administrators and school boards. He'd have small, neighborhood schools and measure performance by individualized instruments while teaching themes instead of subjects. He would allow flexible time and space for students to think critically and perform creatively, all within a framework of core values of work, duty, obligation, loyalty, service and fun.
*I'd rephrase more explicitly to say, "find a way to become a satisfactory version of one's vision of one's unique self and at the same time be useful (i.e, contributing to the ongoing project of righteous survival for the immediate and extended community )
Links:
Gatto's web site - His acclaimed and Insightful The Underground History of American Education
- An audio clip from "The Paradox of Extended Childhood"
- His link to World Prosperity - " A group that is dedicated to defining the root causes of social dysfunction, the most fundamental of which is a dysfunctional educational system."
