Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
by John Taylor GattoReviews
Ron Miller said:
John Taylor Gatto’s fiery speech to the New York legislature, upon being named the state teacher of the year, was reprinted in several publications and widely circulated among alternative and radical educators, making Gatto an immediate hero within the alternative education movement. That speech, along with four other essays are brought together in Dumbing Us Down, a book that should further establish Gatto as the most visible contemporary critic of public schooling. Like Paul Goodman, John Holt, Herb Kohl, Jim Herndon, and Jonathan Kozol in the 1960’s, Gatto is a morally sensitive and passionate teacher who is thoroughly disgusted by the spirit-crushing regimen of mass schooling, and unafraid to say so. Both Kohl and Kozol are still writing important books that present a progressive/radical critique of schools, but Gatto (like the late John Holt) gives voice to a growing populist rebellion against schooling as such. Whether this rebellion will support or counteract the holistic education movement is an open question to which Dumbing Us Down may offer some clues.rest of review
Hannah B. Lapp said:
The publishers of Dumbing Us Down call Gatto’s ideas about education “not easily pigeon-holed,” which is an accurate observation. Who else would stand up and tell us that schooling, as we know it, is not education, but a “twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned”?According to Gatto’s observations, the seven lessons taught in public schools from Harlem to Hollywood Hills, are these:
1. Confusion (The natural order of real life is violated by heaping disconnected facts on students.)
2. Class Position (Children are locked together into categories where the lesson is that “everyone has a proper place in the pyramid.”)
3. Indifference (Inflexible school regimens deprive children of complete experiences.)
4. Emotional dependency (Kids are taught to surrender their individuality to a “predestined chain of command.”
5. Intellectual dependency (One of the biggest lessons schools teach is conformity rather than curiosity.)
6. Provisional self-esteem (“The lesson of report cards, grades, and tests, is that children should not trust themselves or their parents, but should instead rely on the evaluation of certified officials.”)
7. One can’t hide (Schooling and homework assignments deny children privacy and free time in which to learn from parents, from exploration, or from community.)
rest of review
About Gatto
John Taylor Gatto's site
John Taylor Gatto is a retired school teacher of 30 years and author of several books on education. He is an activist against compulsory schooling.
Where to get the book
Amazon
Gatto's book store
Written by: John Taylor Gatto
11 December 2005
| Posted by: leech kiss 19 December 2006 | Comments: "Dumbing Us Down" reminded me a little of the book "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt. It was just more specific and more radical than Levitt's book, not saying it's a bad thing. Both books are definally most reads. |
