Gatto actually taught in the New York City public schools for more than 30 years, and was named both NYC Teacher of the Year and New York State Teacher of the Year for his efforts.
It's precisely because he was such a wonderful teacher that he objects so much to the way things are done now. In his book "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling," he starts by listing and explaining seven things a public school teacher is trying to teach his or her students.
1. CONFUSION: Particularly in elementary school, kids have everything thrown at them. From astronomy to adjectives, from long division to physical education, nothing is emphasized as being more important than anything else. Essentially kids are told that it's better to know a little about everything than a lot about one thing.
If you want to learn a lot about something, there's always college, trade school or the military. The education you get in K-12 is almost worthless in helping you live your life.
2. CLASS POSITION: Where we assign you is where you belong. You learn to envy and fear the kids who are smarter and have contempt for the ones who are dumber. It's a caste system nearly as rigid as India, and it's nearly as difficult to escape your assigned position.
You learn that there will always be people better than you.
3. INDIFFERENCE: We teach children not to care too much about anything. You might love math and be really good at it, but when math is over it's time to move on to history. We learn on the installment plan, and we learn when the teacher wants us to learn.
There's always time later to be enthusiastic -- if you don't get burned out.
4. EMOTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Thirsty? Need to go to the bathroom? Ask the teacher, and if someone else is already using the hall pass, prepare to wait your turn. The teacher giveth and the teacher taketh away.
Everything depends on the teacher, and if the teacher doesn't like you ...
5. INTELLECTUAL DEPENDENCY: A good student waits for the teacher to tell them what to do. Gatto says this is the most important lesson of all, that we must wait for people smarter than we are to tell us what our lives mean.
My critic put that in a very interesting way: "We just need to help every child from the time he or she enters school to start thinking properly."
6. PROVISIONAL SELF-ESTEEM: Kids are constantly being judged and evaluated, and if they don't measure up, we tell them there's something wrong with them.
The catch here is that kids who know their parents love them unconditionally can't be touched by this one. Both of my children ran afoul of a teacher at one point during high school, and in each case, the teacher told them they were bad kids.
They knew they weren't, though. They knew we loved them and were proud of them no matter what someone else said about them. Yeah, they were bad kids. So bad, in fact, that my daughter got two degrees from UCLA cum laude and my son graduated magna cum laude from Cal State Northridge.
7. ONE CANNOT HIDE: Kids are under constant surveillance, constant supervision. Anytime they leave the classroom, they need a pass. Even in their free time, they're given homework so that the teacher can have some control over what they're doing.
***
We did this.
We created generations of kids who hate school, and by extension who hate learning. Why is it that something like 65 percent of adults never read books after they finish school? My guess is because they're taught that reading is a chore, something to be endured.
Would I eliminate public education? Not on your life. Everybody needs to know how to read, to write and to do basic mathematics, but I'm not sure that learning how to fix a computer wouldn't be more useful than memorizing facts about the sack of Rome or the exports of Argentina.
What I would eliminate is a system based on fear and loathing, a system where fitting in and winning teacher's approval is first and foremost.
What we have now is little more than a baby-sitting service, little more than a way of keeping kids off the streets while their parents are working.
It seems to me we can do better than that, and we'll talk more about this next time.
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3 comments:
This is just the crazy ravings of a mad man.
Shame on you for promoting such nonsense.
And shame on "Evelyn" for her nasty reply.
This is the way you people operate: character assassination, conspiracies, lame scholarship advanced as brilliant, etc.
PEOPLE -- everyone reading this stupid blog site: you are being deceived.
These are losers condemning the greatest educational achievements of all of human history and why?
Because they can generate money through the sale of their line of products, books, tapes, etc.
DON'T FALL FOR THE LIE.
Gatto is a fraud. Mike is a fraud. This whole issue is a fraud.
What they want is to destroy our schools. They want to punish teachers for knowing more than they do. They want to prevent your children from advancing.
This is no longer an agrarian society.
It is a society whose chief business is the procuring, storing, and transmission of information.
If you want your kids to fit in and make a living, don't fall for this bullsh**.
Even well-meaning jerks can have a disastrous effect on society, so their ignorance cannot be forgiven or even tolerated.
I listened to that "youtube" message and you know what I heard: character assassination of one of the world's greatest minds, Charles Darwin.
These flat-earth morons have the audacity to claim Darwin wanted to enslave your children.
Darwin's scientific discoveries freed mankind from the shackles of oppressive religion and barbarous customs.
In addition, Mike and Gatto and their ilk challenge the foundational truths of our country -- that people ought to have a secure place in society.
If they had their way, everyone would be "permitted" to learn what they wanted and do whatever they wanted.
Complain if you will about the cost of the welfare system, but under their watch, the country would be inundated with unemployable people.
A certified teacher has spent years learning how to shape and steer your children into fitting into society. Teachers and school officials know what they're doing. Imagine a world where parents had to supervise their children's education. It would be chaotic and nothing would ever be accomplished. People need structure, training, and guidelines to know where to sit, where to stand, and how to serve the needs of the nation.
That's why courts routinely take custody of children; most children don't need parental supervision. They need educational supervision.
People like Gatto and Mike Rappaport make what is a very big positive sound like a negative.
Don't fall for their lies.
Vote YES on Prop 1A and 1B in the upcoming election here in California. If you don't, they win.
The flat-earthers win.
We lose more teachers, police, and firefighters.
Your children will suffer.
Learning how to obey and comply is crucial for getting a job and fitting it.
Finally, if I wanted to let you know my name, I would have signed it, but since I don't care what you morons think and I don't want any abuse directed at me, I will remain anonymous.
If you can't handle that, then too bad for you.
VOTE YES on Props 1a and 1B.
If you don't, your kids will suffer. Society will suffer. And the fascist and tyrants who would keep your kids from ever being employed win.
Don't let them win.
Vote YES on prop 1A and 1B.
I believe you might just be nuts.
The idea that teachers should tell children what their place is in society is one of the most anti-freedom, anti-American things I have ever heard.
I would be very surprised if there are very many public school teachers who know more -- outside of maybe their specific subject -- than most of us do.
I believe good teachers, teachers who excite children and make them want to learn, should be paid as much as we can afford to pay them.
They are gems, rare gems.
But the teachers who want to teach children to follow orders, to behave themselves and to know their "place" in society, I'd just as soon see them waiting on me at McDonald's.
As for those "fascists and tyrants," my guess is they would rather have your kids working for them than leaving them unemployed.
I believe in free, public education, but not of the sort you propose. You, sir or madam, are a big part of the problem.
Attay boy, Mike.
Tell Cousin "It" where he/she can get off.
Talk about delusions of grandeur.
(BTW, tell your wife and mother -- Happy Mother's Day -- from your readers.)
Jeff
P.S. I just switched my vote on Pops 1A and 1B.
If for no other reason than to drive Cosuin It even more crazy
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