Ask:
The Underground History of American Education? Has anyone read this book? Have you read any of John Taylor Gatto's books? I have read Dumbing Us Down and just about all of his essays. I'm currently reading The Underground History on his website - for free!
Just curious what your opinions were...
I don't know how to do a hyperlink here, but the website is: johntaylorgatto.com
You can read his book by clicking on The Underground History, scrolling down and clicking on "book". Here's an excerpt from his prologue:
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If I demanded you give up your television to an anonymous, itinerant repairman who needed work you’d think I was crazy; if I came with a policeman who forced you to pay that repairman even after he broke your set, you would be outraged. Why are you so docile when you give up your child to a government agent called a schoolteacher?
I want to open up concealed aspects of modern schooling such as the deterioration it forces in the morality of parenting. You have no say at all in choosing your teachers. You know nothing about their backgrounds or families. And the state knows little more than you do. This is as radical a piece of social engineering as the human imagination can conceive. What does it mean?
One thing you do know is how unlikely it will be for any teacher to understand the personality of your particular child or anything significant about your family, culture, religion, plans, hopes, dreams. In the confusion of school affairs even teachers so disposed don’t have opportunity to know those things. How did this happen?
Before you hire a company to build a house, you would, I expect, insist on detailed plans showing what the finished structure was going to look like. Building a child’s mind and character is what public schools do, their justification for prematurely breaking family and neighborhood learning. Where is documentary evidence to prove this assumption that trained and certified professionals do it better than people who know and love them can? There isn’t any. You wouldn’t build a home without some idea what it would look like when finished, but you are compelled to let perfect strangers tinker with your child’s mind and personality without the foggiest idea what they want to do with it.
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Note/disclaimer: No offense to any teachers! ( I am a teacher myself... )
Answer:
I have heard quite a bit about John Taylor Gatto- all good, in that he is trying to stand up for kids and real learning. I have not read his works, but I will now. He is making a valid point in the excerpt you posted... how well do you know your child's teacher?
I think that most teachers really try and want to do the best job they can for the children. I had some really great teachers. But I had my share of lazy/slacker teachers in school, also, and dh's old high school chemistry teacher is serving a life sentence for murder (committed while he was teaching dh's class).
I think most Americans want to believe the school system is fine. For some lucky families, it *is* fine. But to admit it isn't working too well and then taking a stand (homeschooling or trying to correct school problems) takes a lot of work. A lot. And most parents are working hard enough already without that extra burden, so they tend to be very tolerant of the "status quo".
Answer:
Totally agree! Wow I can't believe that about the teacher who committed murder!!! And yes, there are so many teachers who are kind, good-hearted, committed people. If only we could guarantee those are the ones we'd get each year...