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The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling?
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I would say that Gatto's Underground History got me thinking about modern public education. He is kind of a wingnut, but he has lots of good history, and points about our modern industrial education system. That led me to learn about the history of education, and I realized that when we abandoned the classical liberal arts tradition, we lost a lot. So basically, I thought that by using the Core Knowledge Curriculum, combined with Latin and Singapore Math, we could provide a better education than our local public schools.
Sadly, there's as much variation in the quality of homeschooling as there is in the quality of public schools, apparently, but from what I've seen in our homeschooling community, an involved, caring parent will do just as well as, if not better than the average public school.
As to the reasons for going back to school, a few of her friends decided to go to high school, which means the end of her reading and writing groups. We were prepared to go all the way, but she decided to try high school. I don't have many worries, other than the normal parent-of-teenager worries. She's got a good head on her shoulders.
I really feel that the truth is in plain sight - they have made the planet into one giant labor camp. The population IS the 'Federal Reserve'. Cities, suburbs and rural all fit into what he describes imo, through there are still differences between the three.
Regarding 'camps' - along with my assertion above, the various governments in the United States officially intern over two million people over 18. A former advisor to Nixon admitted that the war on drugs was manufactured to target and imprison large swaths of the hippie/black communities in the 1970s, as these groups were posing a huge challenge to state power.
Also, the government interns tens of millions of young people for thirteen years. (https://www.amazon.com/Underground-History-American-Education-Investigation/dp/0945700040)
Couple of good links/books - (https://thefunambulist.net/editorials/history-the-obscure-history-of-suburbia-by-noam-chomsky-peter-galison-and-mike-davis) (https://www.alternet.org/2014/06/11-ways-our-society-treats-us-caged-rats-do-our-addictions-stem-trapped-feeling/) -'Caliban and the Witch' & 'Re-enchanting the world' by Sylvia Federici
Chapter 9 - “The Cult of Scientific Management”
Maybe you looked at the wrong book
Edit - the wrong version
https://www.amazon.com/Underground-History-American-Education-Investigation/dp/0945700040
412 pages not 157
Well I'm willing to bet most people aren't familiar with Gatto.
https://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm
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This is a short article by John Taylor Gatto covering similar subject matter to his book "The Underground History of American Education"
https://www.amazon.com/Underground-History-American-Education-Investigation/dp/0945700040
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Underground_History_of_American_Education
​
He wrote that book as a result of his frustration with the classroom environment, and the administrative structures that make it difficult to improve the elements that are suboptimal, and in the process of writing the book, and earning a NY state teaching award, he quit and never taught in a public school again.
https://web.archive.org/web/20040203180418/http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue2.htm
Basically his argument is that at least part of why American schools suck so much is that they were originally conceived of as institutions to create factory workers and corporate drones that are dull in rebellion and imagination, and rich in rote memorization, obedience and tolerance for drugery, because a huge amount of the political movement for compulsory education came from industrialists who found those characteristics lacking in their workforces.
Read into it if you want, or don't. In spite of the massive failure of the institution to provide consistently excellent education, there are gems of teachers who somehow manage to fight off cynicism and laziness and do an amazing job, but I'm very confident that they could do a much better job if they weren't so hamstrung, and that the institutions could do a much better job at replicating those success stories by encouraging other teachers to adopt winning styles.
Maybe I'm an asshole idealist, maybe I'm on to something. Maybe you'll find Gatto interesting, maybe you won't.
Sorry for the lazy, hyperbolic and angry tone, the failure of the US education system does legitimately make me angry, but I could have represented my point better, so please consider the apology and the links.
It's a good question, and the honest answer is I don't entirely know. I've only been alive for about thirty years, and most of this occurred long before I was born.
I think I can tell you why, though, and I think the same answer would apply to the question of why leftists dominate other arenas like education.
The power of politics is not who occupies the office. Not in a democracy or in a republic. Every person in power is one election away from losing that power. The only way to build enduring power is to control the culture.
There's a wonderful book I would recommend anybody to read, called The Underground History of American Education which discusses the strategy which I believe is in play: if you control the levers of public consciousness, you passively control that populace.
It would be a bit difficult to believe that our diverse media climate could be coordinated, except that just six corporations collectively control 90% of the American media market. We have the illusion of diverse opinion, but not the reality of it.
FFS Hormones are not the end-all-be-all of human behavior!
It is one thing to despise stereotypical teenage behavior - it is quite another thing to treat people like shit simply because they are a certain age. Just because you were an idiot at that age and blame it on hormones does not mean that this is the case for every single human being alive - some of us could handle our hormones just fine.
Please explain why you think hormones are a valid reason to discriminate against someone - how about women with PMS? Can we refuse to seat them because "hormones affect cognition at the most basic level"...?
I'm not foolish enough to think that I can change anyone's mind, but if anyone else here thinks that my opinion has a shred of validity, please check these out:
Q. What is the Teacher TURNOVER rate at your school?
> We teach students to think, question
Are you talking about the American School system because let me say "BWAHAHA."
Two famous teachers say the exact opposite:
Paul Lockhart's A Mathematician’s Lament
John Taylor's The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling
Let's talk about music. Is music class mandatory or optional?
Music availability is an issue. While General Band is offered in nearly most schools ...
a) ... the following are not in more then 60% of schools:
- Chorus
- Concert Band
- Guitar Ensemble
- Guitar, Individual
- Individual Lessons
- Individual Voice Lessons
- Jazz Choir
- Marching Band
- Music Technology
- Orchestra
- Percussion Ensemble
- Piano
- Show Choir
b) ... music is NOT required in secondary schools:
> Nearly all secondary principals (98%) reported that at least some music was offered in their school, although music was only required in 34% of the schools represented.
Music, sadly, is not a priority in public schools.
Another one the problems of the public school system is that the rate of topics covered is DICTATED regardless of how well or how poor students. Assembly-line regurgitation IS the norm. I'm not even going to discuss the clusterfuck of Core Math.
Homeschooling tends to do better then public school ( 72 points higher than the national average SAT) due to the poor quality of public school. One of the comments at the previous link there said:
> I have taught on average 200 college students a year for the last 16 years (freshmen to seniors) and I can state unequivocally that I am impressed with the abilities, knowledge, dedication, intelligence, and performance of home-schooled students.
The best kind of teaching is one-on-one. Unfortunately, the general public can't afford it due to the amount of excessive money wasted on war. Oblig. Joke:
Q. What do you call someone who murders 160 people?
A. Depends on who is paying them:
- If the government then a "War Hero",
- If no one then a serial killer.
> We also have shop classes, life skills classes, computer classes, band, music, art, etc
That's great that YOUR school does that! However, that is NOT the norm. You aren't looking at the data across the nation.
School Teachers have THE most important job in society. Unfortunately they are valued the worst compared to how much money entertainers make.
I was not entirely wrong, I was not even partially wrong. I was in fact completely correct.
Nothing in your quote from Jefferson refutes my statement, and if you read the bill (which was not passed BTW) in it entirety you get a clear picture.
Jefferson was for free education for all people, as am I, featuring an education on the Basics of Reading, Math, Science, and History
Jefferson however was not for Federally Controlled Indoctrination of children based on political ideology (either left or right) controlled by the Federal and/or State Governments
Todays schooling system is a complete Perversion of Jeffersons idea of free education.
I will leave you with this
John Taylor Gatto: “The Underground History of American Education"
It's an interesting book, for other references it's pretty easy to google.
I'd recommend looking at Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Edward Everett.
Edit for lots of formatting nonsence. I have been writing way too many scripts today.
An ordered, structure environment is hell on earth for most kids. Have you ever observed kids around that age? Getting them to sit still during the better years of their lives could be considered a form of sanctioned torture. They easily learn how to act at home, most of them spend their time outside playing with the neighborhood kids.
If you are going to educate kids today on this kind of scale, you need to stop treating them like produce on a farm. Each of them has their own talents, but smashing a square peg into a round hole is what we seem to do these days. That our modern school system is supposedly based off of the caste system from India is deplorable. I believe this book has the information you'll want; they had it up for free for years, but sadly, they appear to be having server problems right now (WHOIS shows the domain is still registered, since 2000 and good through 2012). Someone should have a PDF somewhere if you're interested.
Schools are institutions, nothing more. The service they provide is social education, and human beings are capable of learning inside and outside of a classroom environment. Hate, racism, and class-ism are not deeply engrained in American values; they are simply perpetuated as it still profits those who wish to use them. Education, via a classroom, instills only one very 'valuable' lesson which is this: submission to authority. A teacher's authority, a professor's authority, a police officer's authority, a politician's authority, and so on. But a learned person values only arguments set forth by reason, not arguments by authority. Do you disagree?
Learning -> enlightenment, in my opinion. Education, as mandated by an authoritarian system -> straying off the path. Education, by any other means? I would have to weigh said system or method when it appears. You seem to be insinuating that I am a Republican.
You ever listen to Pink Floyd? Yes, I know you have. They have a song for you.
To be honest, there's no saving that system. Like our political system, it's banjaxed. But then, knowing that the system is screwed up is a step ahead of the people who insist on keeping it despite its mounting problems. Thus, when you ask what options we could offer to make things better, it's like asking us how we could make the war in Iraq better. How about stopping? Just stop, until we find a better idea.
But I am glad to hear that the system worked so well for you.
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