Notes on Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling

book
notes
education
history
My notes from the book Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto.
Author

Christian Mills

Published

August 25, 2024

These notes are part of the following collection:

Education

Book Links:

Prologue: Against School

Boredom in the Classroom

  • Gatto’s Experience:
    • Taught for 30 years, observing pervasive boredom in schools.
    • Students found work stupid, meaningless, and unengaging.
    • Teachers were equally bored, blaming students’ lack of interest and focus on grades.
    • Gatto’s Grandfather’s Lesson: Boredom is the individual’s responsibility, not an external condition.
  • Root of the Problem:
    • Schools perpetuate childishness by treating boredom and obedience as the norm.
    • Gatto observed that breaking free from these structures could foster curiosity, adventure, and resilience in students.

Questioning the System

  • A System Functioning as Designed:
    • What if schools are intentionally designed to produce the observed outcomes?
    • Could the goal be to prevent genuine growth and maintain a controllable populace?
    • Is forced schooling truly necessary, especially considering successful individuals who thrived without it?
  • Historical Perspective:
    • Many accomplished figures throughout American history lacked formal schooling.
    • Formal schooling does not guarantee success.
    • Compulsory schooling became widespread in the US between 1905 and 1915.

The True Purpose of Public Schools

  • Traditional Justifications (False):
    • To create good people.
    • To create good citizens.
    • To foster personal growth.
  • Actual Purpose (Revealed):
    • H. L. Mencken (The American Mercury, April 1924):

      • “The aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence… The aim is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.”

    • The Prussian Model:
      • American education is rooted in the Prussian system.
      • Designed to create a manageable populace through:
        • Mediocre intellect.
        • Suppression of individuality.
        • Limited leadership skills.
        • Docile and incomplete citizens.

Evidence of Prussian Influence

  • Prominent Figures:
    • William James: Alluded to the Prussian model in the early 20th century.
    • Orestes Brownson: Denounced the Prussianization of American schools in the 1840s.
    • Horace Mann: Advocated for the Prussian system in his 1853 report to the Massachusetts Board of Education.
  • Historical Context:
    • Prussian influence in America during the Revolutionary War and early nation-building.

James Bryant Conant and the Transformation of American Education

  • Key Figure: James Bryant Conant (President of Harvard, influential figure in 20th-century education).
  • Conant’s Revolution:
    • The modern school system resulted from a deliberate revolution between 1905 and 1930 (as stated in “The Child, the Parent, and the State,” 1959).
  • Alexander Inglis’s “Principles of Secondary Education” (1918):
    • Outlines the true purposes of compulsory schooling.
    • Designed to disrupt the unity of the working class and maintain control.

The Six Basic Functions of Modern Schooling (According to Inglis)

  1. Adjustive or Adaptive Function: Establish unquestioning obedience to authority.
  2. Integrating Function: Enforce conformity and predictability.
  3. Diagnostic and Directive Function: Determine and assign social roles through standardized testing and cumulative records.
  4. Differentiating Function: Limit education based on predetermined social roles.
  5. Selective Function: Weed out the “unfit” through grades, remedial placements, and social humiliation.
  6. Propedeutic Function: Cultivate a small elite to manage the system and control the masses.

Perpetuating the System

  • Inglis and Conant: Key proponents of the Prussian-inspired system.
  • Financial Incentives: Industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller recognized the economic benefits of a dumbed-down, consumerist society.
  • Woodrow Wilson (1909):

    • “We want one class of persons to have a liberal education and we want another class of persons…to forego the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific, difficult manual tasks.”

Schooling for Consumption

  • Creating Consumers:
    • Mass production requires mass consumption.
    • Schooling discourages critical thinking, leaving individuals susceptible to marketing and consumerism.
  • Extending Childhood:
    • Elwood P. Cubberley (“Public Education in the United States”, 1934): Schooling extended childhood by 2-6 years.
    • Cubberley (“Public School Administration”, 1922):

      • “Our schools are factories in which the raw products, children, are to be shaped and fashioned…and it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specifications laid down.”

The Modern Condition: A Nation of Children

  • Consequences of Extended Childhood:
    • Inability to form lasting relationships.
    • Lack of financial responsibility.
    • Dependence on external entertainment.
    • Apathy and unquestioning obedience.
  • Surrendering Freedom: Accepting limitations on freedom of speech and thought.

A Path for Parents: Raising Leaders, Not Servants

  • Challenge the System: Recognize and resist the true nature of schooling.
  • Encourage Critical Thinking: Teach children to question authority and think independently.
  • Embrace Boredom: Allow children to develop inner resources and self-sufficiency.
  • Provide Meaningful Learning: Expose children to complex and challenging subjects.
  • Foster Independence: Encourage solitude and self-directed learning.

Conclusion

  • Genius is Common: Schooling suppresses natural intelligence and creativity.
  • A Call to Action: Resist the system and empower children to reach their full potential.

Chapter 1: Everything You Know About Schools Is Wrong

Introduction

  • Premise: Institutional schooling, contrary to popular belief, is a flawed system deliberately designed to control and limit human potential rather than foster it.
  • Goal: To expose the hidden history, motivations, and consequences of compulsory schooling in America, revealing its true purpose as a tool for social engineering and economic control.
  • Methodology: Examination of historical data, government documents, academic writings, and personal experiences to deconstruct the myths surrounding public education and reveal its true nature.

The Hidden History of Compulsory Schooling

The Factory Inspector’s Survey (1909)

  • A survey of 500 working children in 20 factories revealed that 412 of them preferred the harsh conditions of factory work to returning to school. (Source: Helen Todd, Why Children Work, McClure’s Magazine, April 1913)
    • Archive: Why Children Work: The Children’s Answer By Helen M. Todd
    • Helen Todd received various reasons from children for favoring factory work, including:
      1. Monetary Factors:
        • Being paid for the factory work they do.
        • The ability to support their families financially, afford more food, shoes for babies, and other basic needs.
      2. Difficulty and Relevance of Schoolwork:
        • Perceived difficulty in understanding schoolwork compared to factory work.
        • Learning being perceived as hard.
        • Some children feeling unable to learn.
        • Perception that school education is not relevant to their ability to earn.
      3. The Environment at School and Factory:
        • Preference for the factory environment as there is less judgment compared to school.
        • The factory environment doesn’t involve name-calling or bullying as in school.
        • They can avoid the corporal punishment experienced at school for:
          • Failure to learn
          • Whispering
          • Having string in their pocket
          • Squeaky seats
          • Late arrival
          • Forgetting pages of the book
  • Implication: This finding challenges the conventional narrative that school is a universally desired and beneficial experience, suggesting that early schools were deeply flawed and potentially more unbearable than child labor.

The Rise of the “Experts” (1919-1933)

  • Professor Arthur Calhoun (Social History of the Family, 1919) observed a shift from family-centered child rearing to a system where community experts increasingly controlled education. (page 175)
  • Mayor John Hyland of New York City (1922) claimed that an “invisible government” had seized control of the city’s schools, likening the situation to an octopus capturing its prey.
    • Hyland pointed to the Rockefeller Foundation as a driving force behind this shift in power.
  • By 1928, A Sociological Philosophy of Education asserted that teachers were responsible for “running not merely schools, but the world.”
  • Edward Thorndyke (Columbia Teachers College, 1929), a prominent figure in Educational Psychology, declared that traditional academic subjects are of little value.
    • This statement reflects a move away from traditional academic goals towards a focus on social engineering and behavioral conditioning.
  • William Kilpatrick (Columbia Teachers College, Education and the Social Crisis, 1929) advocated for expert control over child rearing, arguing that families were ill-equipped compared to trained professionals.
    • This perspective underscores the growing influence of a technocratic elite seeking to manage society through scientific methods.
  • Max Mason, President of the Rockefeller Foundation (April 11, 1933), announced a national program aimed at controlling human behavior, with schools playing a central role.

The Eugenics Connection

  • The influence of eugenics, a movement advocating for selective breeding to improve the human race, played a significant role in shaping early 20th-century education reform.
    • Goal: To separate “worthwhile breeding stock” from the “evolutionary dead-end material” (Source: Muller’s geneticist’s manifesto, signed by 22 prominent biologists).
    • Impact: This ideology promoted segregation and discrimination within the education system, reinforcing social hierarchies based on perceived intellectual ability and social worth.

The Post-War Shift: From Education to Indoctrination

  • World War II temporarily drove eugenics underground, but its core principles continued to influence education policy.
    • The focus shifted towards using schools as tools for social control and economic manipulation, aligning with the needs of a burgeoning industrial capitalist system.
  • Two congressional investigations (1915 and 1959) revealed that school policy was being shaped by corporate interests operating outside of public scrutiny.
    • Findings: Both investigations concluded that major foundations like Carnegie and Rockefeller exerted significant influence over education policy through funding, research, and advocacy.
    • Outcome: These investigations were largely ignored, and their findings suppressed, highlighting the lack of transparency and accountability within the education system.

The Behavioral Revolution (1967-1974)

  • Teacher training underwent a radical transformation, driven by private foundations, universities, and government agencies, with the goal of aligning education with the needs of the emerging global economy.
  • Three key milestones:
    • 1. Designing Education for the Future: A government initiative that redefined education as a means to achieve national economic and social goals.
    • 2. The Behavioral Science Teacher Education Project (BSTEP): A large-scale project (Contract No. OEC-09-320424-4042) outlining plans to transform schools into laboratories for behavioral conditioning.
      • Goals: To create a system where individuals are tracked from birth, exposed to subliminal influence, and conditioned to conform to predetermined beliefs and behaviors.
      • Methods: Advocated for the use of chemical experimentation on minors, foreshadowing the rise of drugs like Ritalin and Adderall in classrooms.
      • Feasibility Study: Behavioral Science Teacher Education Program. Final Report
    • 3. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: A comprehensive manual by Benjamin Bloom (University of Chicago) that aimed to classify and control all aspects of human learning.

Teachers as Therapists

  • Rising school violence in the 1960s, partly attributed to policies restricting disciplinary action, provided a pretext for further intervention.
    • The Ford Foundation’s policy mandating “due process” in schools hampered teachers’ ability to maintain order and address disruptive behavior effectively.
  • BSTEP advocated for training teachers as “teacher therapists,” tasked with applying behavioral psychology techniques to manage students’ emotions and modify their behavior.
  • This shift marked a significant departure from traditional teaching roles, transforming educators into agents of social control.

“We Don’t Need Brains”

  • Historical Context: Between 1896 and 1920, industrialists and financiers like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, through their foundations, heavily influenced the development of compulsory schooling in the US.
  • Motivations:
    • To create a workforce that was obedient, compliant, and trained for specific tasks rather than independent thinking and innovation.
  • Evidence:
    • The General Education Board (funded by Rockefeller), in its 1906 Occasional Letter No. 1, stated its aim:

      • “In our dreams, people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands…We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning…The task…is very simple. We will organize children and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.”

      • Book: The country school of to-morrow
  • This statement reveals a clear intention to use schooling to maintain a social hierarchy by limiting the aspirations and potential of the working class.

The Literacy Decline: A Case Study in Failure

  • World War II Literacy Data: A high literacy rate (96%) was observed among men drafted during World War II (schooled in the 1930s), with only 4% deemed illiterate. (Source: Army enlistment tests)
  • Korean War Literacy Decline: A significant drop in literacy (down to 81%) was observed among men drafted during the Korean War (schooled in the 1940s).
  • Vietnam War Literacy Crisis: Illiteracy rates continued to rise, reaching 27% among men drafted during the Vietnam War (schooled in the 1950s and 1960s).
  • Analysis:
    • Despite increased years of schooling, more qualified teachers, and “improved” educational materials, literacy rates steadily declined.
    • This suggests that changes in teaching methods, particularly the shift from phonetic to non-phonetic reading instruction, played a significant role in the decline.
    • The lack of a phonetic foundation disproportionately impacted Black Americans, who historically had limited access to formal education and relied on schools to teach basic literacy skills.
    • The Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress later reported a 40% illiteracy rate among Black Americans and 17% among White Americans.

William Torrey Harris: The Architect of American Indoctrination

  • Background: William Torrey Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education (1889-1906), was a leading proponent of Hegelian philosophy and a close friend of Andrew Carnegie.
  • Influence: Harris played a pivotal role in shaping the American education system, promoting standardization and German-style compulsory schooling.
  • Philosophy:
    • Harris believed that children were property of the state and that education’s purpose was to create citizens who were obedient, subservient to authority, and alienated from their individuality.
    • He advocated for schools that were designed to “transcend the beauty of nature” and promote withdrawal from the external world.
  • Key Quotes:

    • “Ninety-nine students out of a hundred are automata, careful to walk in prescribed paths, careful to follow the prescribed custom. This is not an accident but the result of substantial education which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual.” (Source: The Philosophy of Education, 1906)

    • “The great purpose of school [is] self-alienation…It is to master the physical self, to transcend the beauty of nature. School should develop the power to withdraw from the external world.” (Source: The Philosophy of Education, 1906)

  • Impact: Harris’s ideas laid the groundwork for an education system designed to create a compliant workforce rather than critical thinkers. His influence can still be felt in the emphasis on standardized testing, conformity, and the suppression of creativity within many schools today.

The Fourth Purpose: Creating Human Resources

  • Original Purpose of Schooling: The traditional goals of education—moral development, civic responsibility, and personal growth—were gradually supplanted by a new objective: to produce human resources for the industrial economy.
  • Corporate Influence: As schools became increasingly intertwined with the needs of business and industry, the curriculum shifted towards vocational training, obedience to authority, and the acceptance of a hierarchical social order.
  • Woodrow Wilson’s Vision (1909): In a speech to businessmen, Wilson stated,

    • “We want one class to have a liberal education. We want another class, a very much larger class of necessity, to forego the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific, difficult manual tasks.”

  • Centralized Control: The rise of the “Education Trust” in 1917, comprised of representatives from powerful foundations, elite universities, and the National Education Association, further consolidated control over education policy in the hands of a select few.
  • Consequences: This shift in purpose transformed schools from institutions of learning into factories for producing compliant workers, undermining the ideals of a free and democratic society.

The Problem of Overproduction

  • Definition: Overproduction, also known as overcapacity, occurs when businesses produce more goods and services than the market can consume, leading to falling prices, economic instability, and social unrest.
  • Historical Context: In the 19th century, America’s independent and resourceful population, coupled with its high levels of innovation, frequently led to overproduction and economic downturns.
  • The Role of Education:
    • Policymakers and business leaders began to view education as a tool to manage overproduction by shaping consumer demand and limiting independent economic activity.
  • Solution: By conditioning citizens from a young age to become reliable employees rather than self-sufficient producers, the threat of overproduction could be mitigated.
  • Consequences: This approach transformed education from a means of fostering independence and innovation into a tool for controlling the workforce and maintaining economic stability for the benefit of those in power.

The Alternative: A Return to Open-Source Learning

  • The American Experiment: For the first two centuries of its existence, the United States thrived on a system of open-source learning, where individuals were free to pursue knowledge and skills through apprenticeship, self-study, and community engagement.
  • Examples: Figures like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and David Farragut exemplified the success of this approach, demonstrating that traditional education was not a prerequisite for achieving greatness.
  • The Value of Self-Reliance: This system fostered independence, ingenuity, and a spirit of innovation, propelling America to the forefront of global progress.
  • The Need for a Paradigm Shift: Gatto argues for a return to the principles of open-source learning, recognizing that the current system of compulsory schooling stifles creativity, limits human potential, and perpetuates social inequalities.

Conclusion: Reclaiming Education

  • The Illusion of Progress: Gatto challenges the narrative that the current education system is the result of natural progress, arguing that it was deliberately designed to serve the interests of a select few.
  • The Urgency of Reform: The consequences of this system—declining literacy rates, rising social inequality, and a culture of conformity—demand urgent attention and a radical rethinking of education’s purpose.
  • A Call to Action: The book serves as a wake-up call to reclaim the transformative power of education, urging readers to question assumptions, challenge the status quo, and create alternative systems that empower individuals and foster a more just and equitable society.

Chapter 2: Walkabout, London

The Power of Open-Source Learning

  • Open-source learning is argued to be of higher quality than rule-driven, standardized schooling.
  • This type of learning prioritizes individual exploration and real-world experience.

Personal Anecdote: Uncle Bud’s Miracle

  • Gatto’s uncle, Bud Zimmer, lacked formal education but became a successful steel plant manager, overseeing Harvard graduates.
  • Bud’s experience highlighted the limitations of equating schooling with education.

Examples of Successful Individuals Who Didn’t Follow Traditional Paths

  • Jonathan Goodwin (Fast Company, November 2007 cover story):
    • Background: Junior high school dropout from a poor Kansas farm family.
    • Open-Source Path: Learned auto mechanics through odd jobs at a local garage.
    • Success: Founded a successful business converting cars to achieve high gas mileage and low emissions, earning over a million dollars per year.
  • David Farragut: Became a US Navy admiral at age twelve, commanding a captured British ship.
  • George Washington: Dropped out of school at age twelve.
  • Thomas Jefferson: Managed a plantation and 250 employees at age twelve after his parents’ deaths.
  • Danica Patrick:
    • Background: Dropped out of high school at age sixteen.
    • Open-Source Path: Moved to London independently to pursue a career in auto racing.
    • Success: Became the first woman to win a major IndyCar race.
  • Nick Schulman:
    • Background: Dropped out of school in eighth grade.
    • Open-Source Path: Became skilled at poker.
    • Success: Won $2 million on the World Poker Tour by age twenty-one.
  • Diablo Cody:
    • Background: Worked as a stripper.
    • Open-Source Path: Used her experiences to write a screenplay.
    • Success: Won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the movie Juno.

Open-Source Learning: A Definition and Key Principles

  • Definition: Open-source learning allows for diverse starting points on the path to self-mastery, where sequences are personalized, and everyone is a potential teacher.
  • Key Principles:
    • Teaching is a function, not a profession. Anyone can teach.
    • Students determine their teachers.
    • No licensing is required to teach.
    • Students are active participants, not passive recipients.
    • Failure is not a setback, but an opportunity for growth.

Shen Wenrong and the Dismantling of the Phoenix Steel Plant

  • A thousand Chinese peasants, led by Shen Wenrong, dismantled and moved a massive German steel plant in one year, three times faster than German specialists estimated.
  • Shen’s team lacked formal education, computers, and traditional offices.
  • Key Takeaway: Challenges perceived as requiring specialists can often be solved by ordinary people with practical experience and ingenuity.

Richard Branson’s Walkabout and the Importance of Early Independence

  • Richard Branson:
    • Background: High school dropout and self-made billionaire entrepreneur (Virgin Airlines, Virgin Records).
    • Early Open-Source Learning: At age four, his mother dropped him off in an unfamiliar area and challenged him to find his way home, fostering self-reliance.
  • Early Independence:
    • By age twelve, Branson was making 100-mile bike rides alone.
    • Launched his first successful business at age nineteen.
  • Glenn Doman and Early Childhood Learning:
    • Glenn Doman: Author of Teach Your Baby to Read.
    • Core Belief: Babies are capable of learning complex information (reading, math) much earlier than traditionally believed.
    • Obstacles: Delaying learning increases its difficulty.
    • The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential: Doman’s school with no entrance requirements where children learned at their own pace, demonstrating the potential of individualized learning.
    • Book: How To Teach Your Baby To Read

The Human Genome Project and Unconventional Success

  • The Human Genome Project, a massive scientific undertaking, was led by:
    • Craig Venter: A former poor student and surfer.
    • Francis Collins: A homeschooler who followed his interests.
  • Key Takeaway: Traditional educational credentials are not always reliable predictors of intellectual capacity or scientific contribution.

Marilee Jones and the Limitations of Degrees as Proxies for Education

  • Marilee Jones:
    • Background: Successful MIT admissions director for 28 years.
    • Downfall: Fired for falsifying her credentials, despite her exceptional performance.
    • Key Takeaway: Degrees should not be automatic substitutes for proven ability and experience.

Ingvar Kamprad and the Founding of IKEA

  • Ingvar Kamprad:
    • Background: Diagnosed with dyslexia, he began as a fish peddler.
    • Open-Source Learning: Developed practical business skills through real-world experience.
    • Success: Founded IKEA, a global furniture empire, proving that learning disabilities are not barriers to entrepreneurial success.

Charles Webb, The Graduate, and Rejecting Materialism

  • Charles Webb:
    • Background: Author of the novel The Graduate, which critiques consumerism.
    • Unconventional Path: After achieving wealth and fame, Webb gave away his fortune and lived a simple life, highlighting the limitations of material success.

The Plight of Dropouts: A Misunderstood Resource

  • Societal Perspective: 7,000 students drop out of school daily in the US, often facing stigma and limited opportunities.
  • Alternative View: Dropouts could be seen as individuals who don’t conform to standardized systems, potentially possessing unique strengths and entrepreneurial potential.

Examples of Successful Individuals Who Didn’t Graduate College

  • Abraham Lincoln: Had less than a year of formal schooling.
  • Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller: Both were elementary school dropouts who became titans of industry.
  • Lula da Silva: Rose from poverty to become President of Brazil without a formal degree.
  • Adolf Hitler: Exploited the education system of the “best-schooled nation in history” to gain power, demonstrating that even highly educated societies are vulnerable to manipulation.
  • Thomas Edison:
    • Background: Dropped out of elementary school.
    • Open-Source Learning: Pursued his interests and learned through experimentation.
    • Success: Became a prolific inventor (electric light, phonograph) and founded General Electric, holding 1,093 patents.
  • George Bernard Shaw: Dropped out of school at fourteen and became a renowned playwright.

Challenging Assumptions About Education and Success

  • The achievements of individuals with unconventional backgrounds challenge the notion that formal schooling is the only path to success.
  • Gatto questions why these alternative narratives are not highlighted more prominently in education.

The International Happiness Survey

  • The United States consistently ranks as mediocre in happiness, suggesting that material wealth and standardized education do not necessarily equate to well-being.

The Artificial Extension of Childhood

  • Adolescence: A historically recent concept that prolongs childhood.
  • Pre-Industrial America: Children contributed to society at a young age, learning through real-world experiences and apprenticeships.
  • Post-Civil War Shift: Compulsory schooling laws and the rise of factories created a system where children were segregated from adult life and prepared for industrial work.

The Impact of Industrialization on Education and Society

  • The rise of factories and industrialization led to a need for a compliant workforce, which influenced the development of compulsory schooling.
  • Forced schooling, modeled after German systems, aimed to create a more manageable and less independent workforce.

Andrew Carnegie and the Trade-Off of Merit for Social Stability

  • Andrew Carnegie: Steel magnate and philanthropist who recognized the drawbacks of standardized education.
  • Carnegie’s Perspective: While acknowledging that some talented individuals would be overlooked, he believed that mass education was necessary for social control and economic growth.

William Torrey Harris and the Goal of Self-Alienation

  • William Torrey Harris: US Commissioner of Education (1889-1906), advocated for schooling that promoted self-alienation to benefit the state and corporations.
  • Harris’s View: Schools should prioritize obedience and conformity over individual expression.

The Dangers of Centralized Control and the Need for Dialectical Thinking

  • Centralized Economies: Tend towards oligarchies, stifle innovation, and prioritize stability over creative destruction.
  • Dialectical Thinking: The ability to question assumptions and consider multiple perspectives, which is essential for a healthy society but undermined by standardized education.
  • The Importance of Personal Production: Early America valued self-sufficiency, but the shift towards consumerism has made people more dependent on corporations and less resilient.

The Role of Schooling in Promoting Consumption

  • Schools often prioritize obedience, conformity, and test-taking over critical thinking and self-reliance.
  • This system prepares students to be passive consumers rather than active producers and critical thinkers.

The Decline of American Innovation

  • The rise of standardized education coincides with a decline in patent applications by Americans.
  • This suggests that suppressing creativity and independent thinking can have negative consequences for innovation.

G. Stanley Hall and the Invention of Adolescence

  • G. Stanley Hall: Psychologist who popularized the concept of adolescence as a period of storm and stress, justifying the extension of compulsory schooling into the teenage years.
  • Hall’s Influence: His ideas contributed to the medicalization of youth and the view that teenagers require extensive supervision and control.

The Erosion of American Individualism

  • Forced schooling has contributed to the decline of American individualism and self-reliance, replacing it with conformity and dependence on institutions.

The Consequences of Suppressing Imagination

  • The suppression of imagination through standardized education creates a more manageable but less innovative and adaptable society.

The Honor Roll of School Failures

  • Successful Individuals Who Did Not Excel in Traditional Schooling:
    • Craig Venter
    • Franklin D. Roosevelt
    • George W. Bush
    • John Kerry
    • Al Gore
    • Dick Cheney
    • Paul Wellstone
    • Bill Gates (Microsoft)
    • Paul Allen (Microsoft)
    • Steve Jobs (Apple)
    • Steve Wozniak (Apple)
    • Michael Dell (Dell Computers)
    • Larry Ellison (Oracle)
    • Ted Turner (CNN)
    • William Faulkner
    • Warren Avis (Avis Rent a Car)
    • Edward Hamilton (book retailer)
    • Paul Orfalea (Kinko’s)
    • Sean Fanning (Napster)
  • Key Takeaway: Traditional academic success is a poor predictor of entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, or real-world achievement.

Lou Wasserman: From Movie Usher to Hollywood Mogul

  • Lou Wasserman:
    • Background: Movie usher who dropped out of school at thirteen.
    • Open-Source Learning: Developed entrepreneurial skills through his work experience.
    • Success: Founded MCA, a powerful Hollywood talent agency, demonstrating the value of street smarts and practical experience.

Warren Buffett: An Early Entrepreneurial Prodigy

  • Warren Buffett:
    • Background: Began his first business at age six.
    • Early Open-Source Learning: Developed business acumen through various ventures, including selling Coca-Cola, golf balls, and renting pinball machines.
    • Success: Became one of the world’s wealthiest men through his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway.

Why Doesn’t School Teach Real-World Skills?

  • Schools often prioritize abstract knowledge over practical skills and entrepreneurial thinking.
  • This disconnect leaves students ill-prepared for the complexities of the modern economy.

The Potential of 65 Million Children as Producers

  • Imagine the possibilities if the 65 million children currently in the US school system were encouraged to develop their entrepreneurial potential and become producers rather than just consumers.

The Power of Mixing Ages and Experiences

  • Pre-Industrial Society: Children learned from adults in mixed-age settings, gaining valuable experience and mentorship.
  • Modern Society: Age segregation limits opportunities for intergenerational learning and the transmission of practical skills.

The Decline of American Manufacturing and the Rise of Financial Bubbles

  • The US has shifted from a manufacturing-based economy to one increasingly reliant on financial speculation and debt.
  • This shift, facilitated by a decline in practical skills and an increase in risk-taking, has created instability and economic inequality.

The School Bubble: A Drain on Resources and Innovation

  • The education system has become a massive industry that consumes vast resources without necessarily producing commensurate returns in terms of innovation or economic growth.
  • This “school bubble” diverts resources from more productive sectors of the economy.

St. Paul and the Rule Book Dragon

  • St. Paul’s Message: In his letters to early Christian communities, Paul emphasized the importance of adaptability and love over rigid adherence to rules.
  • The Dangers of Excessive Regulation: Over-regulation stifles creativity, innovation, and personal responsibility.

The Return of the Rule-Choked Society

  • Modern society has become increasingly rule-bound, with surveillance technology and bureaucratic systems limiting individual freedom and autonomy.
  • This trend mirrors the rule-heavy environment of ancient Israel, which St. Paul challenged.

The Insurgency Against the System

  • Signs of Resistance: The growth of homeschooling, the internet’s democratizing influence, and the rise of alternative economies all point to a growing dissatisfaction with the status quo.
  • Identity Theft and Copyright Infringement: These forms of crime can be seen as acts of rebellion against systems that restrict individual autonomy and access to information.

The Failure of the Military-Industrial Complex

  • The Limits of Military Technology: The US military’s technological superiority has proven ineffective against unconventional tactics and determined adversaries.
  • The Importance of Clear Objectives: The lack of clear objectives in recent US military interventions has undermined morale and made it difficult to achieve lasting victory.

The Time of the Sweat Bath

  • We are living in a time of unprecedented challenges, characterized by environmental degradation, economic instability, and social unrest.
  • The Need for New Solutions: Traditional institutions and approaches are failing to address these challenges, necessitating a radical shift in thinking and action.

Choosing Allies for the Future

  • In times of crisis, adaptability, creativity, and independent thinking are more valuable than conformity and obedience.
  • We need to support individuals who challenge the status quo and offer new solutions.

The Importance of Self-Awareness and Rejecting the “Human Resource” Mentality

  • Know Thyself: Understanding one’s strengths, values, and purpose is essential for a fulfilling life.
  • Rejecting the “Human Resource” Label: Embracing self-reliance and pursuing meaningful work rather than simply being a cog in a machine.

The Power of Open-Source Learning in a Changing World

  • Open-source learning, with its emphasis on adaptability, experimentation, and personal growth, is essential for navigating the complexities of the 21st century.
  • It’s time to move beyond the limitations of standardized education and embrace a more personalized and empowering approach to learning.

Chapter 3: Fat Stanley and the Lancaster Amish

This analysis explores the limitations of traditional schooling and highlights the value of self-directed education, drawing parallels between the experiences of “Fat Stanley,” a truant student, and the educational practices of the Amish community.

The Illusion of Schooling

  • Schooling, often mistaken for education, focuses on:
    • Habit formation
    • Attitude training
    • External control rather than internal motivation
    • This approach can be unpleasant and stifling for individuals.
  • Education, in contrast, emphasizes:
    • Self-mastery
    • Self-enlargement
    • Self-transcendence
    • Exploration of individual potential
  • While schooling can complement education, Gatto argues that education is paramount for a fulfilling life.

Success Without Schooling: Examples

  • Mary Shelley:
    • Wrote Frankenstein at 18, now considered a literary masterpiece.
  • William Shakespeare:
    • Had limited formal education but remains a global icon of literature.
  • Inventive individuals across fields often achieve success with minimal formal schooling, emphasizing the importance of self-directed learning.

The Essence of True Education

  • Self-initiated learning is crucial for genuine education.
  • Key elements of self-directed education include:
    • Broad experience: Gaining knowledge and skills from diverse sources beyond the classroom.
    • Introspection: Reflecting on experiences and insights to deepen understanding.
    • Focus and Concentration: Developing the ability to sustain attention on one’s goals despite distractions.
    • Curiosity and Patience: Cultivating a thirst for knowledge and a willingness to persevere in the face of challenges.
    • Trial and Error: Embracing experimentation, learning from mistakes, and adapting strategies accordingly.
    • Feedback Integration: Actively seeking and utilizing feedback from the environment to refine understanding and approaches.

A Case for Criticism

  • Gatto highlights the importance of embracing criticism for personal growth.
  • An anecdote about a family member who “doesn’t take criticism well” exemplifies the detrimental effects of such an attitude.

Fat Stanley: A Lesson in Unconventional Learning

  • Fat Stanley, a 13-year-old student, rarely attended school.
    • He excelled in using his fists to deter bullies.
  • Gatto’s inquiry into Stanley’s absences revealed a unique approach to learning:
    • Stanley had five aunts and uncles who owned businesses.
    • He worked for each relative, gaining practical experience and business acumen.
    • His goal was to become self-employed, like his relatives.
    • Stanley valued this hands-on education more than formal schooling.
  • Stanley’s perspective:

    • “This way I get a chance to see how the different businesses work. You tell me what books I have to read and I’ll read them, but I don’t have time to waste in school unless I want to end up like you, working for somebody else.”

  • Impressed by Stanley’s initiative and his mother’s support, Gatto chose to support his alternative education.

The Flaws of Mass Schooling

  • Traditional schooling often fails to cater to the diverse learning styles and needs of individual children.
  • Gatto argues that schooling primarily conditions students for conformity and obedience, not self-direction.
  • Negative consequences of this system include:
    • Waiting and Submission: Students are taught to prioritize external validation and passively follow instructions.
    • Artificial Ranking: Schooling instills a sense of competition and creates a hierarchy of winners and losers, impacting self-esteem and future opportunities.
    • Irrelevant Curriculum: Classroom work often feels disconnected from students’ real-life experiences, leading to disengagement and apathy.
    • Suppression of Self-Discovery: The structured environment of traditional schooling can hinder the natural curiosity and exploration essential for true learning.

The Amish Model: Community and Self-Reliance

  • Gatto contrasts the schooling model with the practices of the Old Order Amish, a community known for its:
    • Small business and farm-based economy
    • Emphasis on practical skills, self-sufficiency, and community well-being
  • The Amish prioritize the development of:
    • Competence in essential life skills
    • Self-reliance
    • Dependability
    • Honesty
    • Neighborliness
    • Compassion
    • Piety
    • Commitment to the common good
  • The Amish success challenges conventional assumptions about business and success, demonstrating that alternative paths to prosperity exist.

Consumption vs. Community: A Tale of Two Systems

  • Gatto argues that the dominant economic system encourages:
    • A relentless pursuit of novelty and fashion
    • Unnecessary consumption driven by manufactured desires and the fear of social shame
    • This cycle perpetuates a culture of “out with the old, in with the new,” contrasting sharply with the Amish values of sustainability and community.

The Bell Curve and Its Discontents

  • School bells are used as a metaphor for the constant interruptions and distractions that prevent deep focus and meaningful learning.
  • Gatto argues that the emphasis on standardized testing and grading fosters a culture of shame and humiliation, hindering genuine intellectual growth.
  • This system, according to Gatto, produces:
    • A workforce conditioned for obedience and conformity.
    • A populace susceptible to manipulation through consumerism and superficial desires.

The Amish Resistance: Protecting Community and Values

  • The Amish have actively resisted attempts to impose compulsory schooling that conflicts with their values.
  • In the landmark case Yoder v. Wisconsin (1976), the Amish successfully argued that:
    • Government-mandated schooling undermined their community’s social fabric and family life.
    • The separation of knowledge from practical experience and the competitive nature of schooling were detrimental to their way of life.
  • As part of their compromise with the state of Wisconsin, the Amish demanded:
    • Small, localized schools within walking distance of students’ homes.
    • Continuity in teachers to foster strong relationships and understanding.
    • A shorter school year focused on essential knowledge and skills.
    • Parental control over educational decisions.
    • Teachers who respected and understood Amish values and rural life.
    • An educational approach that balanced academic knowledge with practical wisdom.
    • Integration of apprenticeships and real-world experiences into the curriculum.

Lessons from Stanley and the Amish

  • Both Stanley’s story and the Amish way of life challenge the assumption that standardized schooling is the only path to success and fulfillment.
  • Key takeaways include:
    • Embracing Individuality: Recognize and nurture the unique talents and learning styles of each child.
    • Rethinking “Success”: Challenge the societal definition of success solely based on material wealth and status.
    • Prioritizing Community: Foster a sense of belonging, cooperation, and mutual support within communities.
    • Valuing Practical Skills: Encourage the acquisition of real-world skills and knowledge applicable to daily life.
    • Promoting Self-Direction: Empower individuals to take ownership of their education and pursue their passions.
    • Honoring Individual Freedom: Respect the right of individuals and communities to choose alternative educational paths aligned with their values.

Conclusion: A Call for Educational Transformation

  • Gatto urges a reevaluation of the current schooling system, advocating for a shift towards:
    • Personalized learning experiences
    • Community-based education
    • A focus on practical skills and self-reliance
    • The fostering of critical thinking, creativity, and a lifelong love of learning

Chapter 4: David Sarnoff’s Classroom

Introduction and Context

  • The letter is written by Gatto in School District 3, Manhattan, to their assistant principal, Murray.
  • Gatto has 28 years of experience in the district.
  • The letter expresses deep dissatisfaction with the state of education in their district, arguing that it fails to equip students with essential skills and competencies.
  • Gatto draws a stark contrast between the inadequate education system and the self-driven success story of David Sarnoff, a prominent figure in the history of technology.
  • The letter serves as a scathing critique of the bureaucratic structures, flawed policies, and prevailing attitudes that Gatto believes are actively harming students’ futures.

A Critique of School District 3’s Educational Approach

The Failure to Teach Essential Skills

  • Gatto argues that School District 3 fails to teach students the essential skills needed to thrive in the evolving global economy.
    • Evidence: A brochure from Harvard University outlining nine essential skills for success in the new international economy is cited as a benchmark.

      • Nine Essential Skills:

        • Ability to ask hard questions of data from various sources.
        • Ability to define problems independently.
        • Ability to extract useful information from irrelevant data.
        • Ability to conceptualize.
        • Ability to reorganize information for new perspectives.
        • Possessing a mind fluent in different modes of thought (deductive, inductive, heuristic, intuitive).
        • Facility in collaboration.
        • Skill in discussing issues, problems, or techniques.
        • Skill in rhetoric and persuasion.
  • Gatto contends that the district actively avoids teaching these skills to maintain existing power structures.
  • Gatto laments the abandonment of practical skills training (e.g., shop, cooking) that were once common and valuable.

The David Sarnoff Example: A Case for Self-Driven Education

  • Gatto presents David Sarnoff’s life as a counterpoint to the failures of the education system.
    • David Sarnoff’s Accomplishments:
      • Learned English and became a successful newsboy within five months of arriving in New York City at age nine, after his father died.
      • Owned his own newsstand at fourteen, using newspapers as his primary learning source.
      • Became an office boy at Marconi Wireless at fourteen through sheer initiative.
      • Taught himself telegraphy, leading to a successful career in the burgeoning field of radio technology.
      • Became president of RCA at age 39.
  • Key Takeaway: Sarnoff’s success was a result of self-directed learning, initiative, and real-world experience, not formal education.
  • Gatto implies that the current school system stifles these qualities in students.

The Mask of School Reform

  • Gatto recounts a visit to a well-regarded alternative school in East Harlem, led by the respected educator Debbie Meyer.
  • Despite the school’s positive reputation, Gatto observes significant shortcomings stemming from bureaucratic constraints and traditional attitudes.
    • Constraints and Shortcomings:
      • A pervasive culture of negativity and limitations (“you can’t do this, you can’t do that”).
      • Excessive emphasis on standardized tests.
      • Suppression of imagination and creativity among both students and teachers.
      • A trivialized community service program (two hours per week), rendering it meaningless.
  • Gatto concludes that even this supposedly innovative school falls short of providing a truly valuable education, especially when compared to the self-driven model embodied by David Sarnoff.

Statistical Evidence of Failure

  • Gatto cites a report by the State Commission of Education ranking School District 3 last in New York State in key educational metrics.
    • Key Statistics:
      • Last place out of 736 school districts in third-grade math and reading.
      • Near the bottom in fifth-grade writing, sixth-grade reading, math, and social studies.
      • Poor performance in seventh-grade honor math and honor biology.
  • Gatto points out the irony of such poor performance given the district’s affluent location and access to resources.
  • Gatto uses the report to emphasize the severity of the district’s failure, arguing that “last isn’t an easy degree of failure to achieve.”

A Culture of Complacency and Corruption

  • Gatto argues that a culture of complacency, self-preservation, and corruption within the district perpetuates its failures.
    • Evidence:
      • High teacher turnover rate (22% annually) is attributed to a “caste system” that rewards favored teachers with desirable assignments while burdening others with impossible workloads.
      • Inflated administrative bureaucracy and a “shadow economy” divert resources away from teaching and contribute to a deceptive student-teacher ratio.
      • Administrators prioritize their careers and maintaining the status quo over meaningful educational reform.
      • A principal’s statement that students’ futures are predetermined, highlighting a defeatist attitude toward disadvantaged students.
  • Key Argument: Gatto suggests that the system is intentionally designed to disadvantage students from less privileged backgrounds, arguing that “we’re both involved in a social engineering project whose mission is to weaken children’s minds and give them bad characters.”

The Roots of Educational Failure

  • Gatto identifies two specific district policies that have had a detrimental impact on students’ ability to learn and thrive.
    • Policy 1: Tolerance of Disruptive Behavior:
      • The decision, influenced by the Ford Foundation, to not control disruptive classroom behavior out of concern for students’ self-esteem is criticized as misguided and harmful.
      • Gatto contends that this policy has created a chaotic learning environment that hinders all students, including those who are well-behaved.
    • Policy 2: Recruitment of Disruptive Students:
      • The district’s practice of recruiting disruptive students from other areas to mask declining enrollment is condemned as a cynical maneuver that exacerbates the existing problems.
  • Outcome: These policies, combined with a lack of accountability for administrators, have resulted in a decline in educational standards and a system that fails to serve its students.

The Perpetuation of Passivity

  • Gatto argues that the current education system functions as a “narcotic,” addicting children to passivity, entertainment, and a detachment from reality.
    • Evidence:
      • Students’ lack of interest in exploration, play, and personal growth.
      • Excessive consumption of television, music videos, and computer games.
      • The observation that children from stable, two-parent households where the mother does not work engage in far less passive entertainment.
  • Conclusion: The education system, instead of fostering critical thinking and engagement with the world, cultivates a dependence on superficial stimulation and an inability to cope with the demands of a meaningful life.

A Call to Action and a Bleak Outlook

  • Gatto announces their intention to circulate the letter to the new school board, hoping, albeit with skepticism, to spark reflection and change.
  • Gatto expresses a sense of hopelessness about the likelihood of real reform, believing that self-preservation and entrenched interests will always prevail over genuine efforts to improve the education system.
  • The letter ends on a pessimistic note, implying that the cycle of failure will continue unless those in power are willing to prioritize the well-being and future of the students above all else.

Chapter 5. Hector Isn’t the Problem

I Quit: A Teacher’s Disillusionment

  • Gatto, a 30-year veteran teacher in Manhattan’s Community School District 3, recounts their extensive experience:
    • Teaching in all five district secondary schools.
    • Facing repeated attempts by administrations to remove them.
    • Experiencing two license suspensions for insubordination and covert termination during medical leave.
    • Achieving success as a lecturer at CUNY’s education department, ranking first in student-faculty ratings.
    • Implementing successful initiatives:
      • New York City’s most successful permanent school fundraiser.
      • 30,000 hours of volunteer community service by an eighth-grade class.
      • A student-run food cooperative.
      • Securing over 1,000 apprenticeships.
      • Directing the collection of tens of thousands of books for student libraries.
      • Producing four talking job dictionaries for the blind.
      • Writing two original student musicals.
    • Being named New York State Teacher of the Year.
  • Despite these achievements, Gatto reached a point of overwhelming disgust and frustration, leading them to quit.

I Quit, I Think: A Scathing Critique of Schooling

  • Gatto’s essay, “I Quit, I Think,” published in the Wall Street Journal, outlines their reasons for leaving the profession:
    • Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history, killing the family by:
      • Monopolizing childhood’s best times.
      • Teaching disrespect for home and parents.
    • The structure of schooling is rooted in an Egyptian, not Greek or Roman, blueprint, based on the belief that:
      • Human value is scarce, symbolized by a pyramid’s narrow peak.
      • This idea, passed down through the Puritans, found scientific expression in the bell curve, which suggests talent is biologically determined.
      • School serves as the church of this religious notion, with rituals to maintain orthodoxy.
    • Professional educators benefit from making the simple seem complex, subordinating the public to their expertise.
    • School, as a jobs program, contract provider, and guardian of the social order, resists reform.
    • Reform efforts fail to fundamentally change the system.
    • Standardized measures like age grading and testing are arbitrary and harmful:
      • Children develop at different paces, and judging them by uniform standards is illogical.
      • Gatto uses the example of David (reading at age 4) and Rachel (reading at age 9), who show no difference in reading ability at age 13.
      • School, however, would label Rachel as learning disabled and hold David back, creating artificial categories and dependencies.
    • Gatto argues that learning disabilities and giftedness are “sacred myths,” perpetuating the school system.
    • True education is not standardized; there are countless ways to learn, like fingerprints.
    • State-certified teachers are not essential for education and may hinder it.
    • Good schools need free-market choices and variety, not more money or time.
    • National curriculum and testing are based on ignorance of how people learn.
    • Gatto concludes, unable to participate in a system that harms children, and seeks alternative work.

A Religion of Schooling and the Myth of Dumbness

  • Gatto reflects on their 30-year career, questioning how they participated in an indoctrinating and sorting machine that steals children’s potential.
  • School, they argue, is a religion; understanding its “holy mission” is crucial to understanding its workings.
  • While human failings exist within the system, they are not the root cause; schooling itself is designed to produce “dumbness.”
  • This new dumbness is not mere ignorance but a categorization of relative stupidity, creating artificial hierarchies like:
    • Gifted and talented
    • Mainstream
    • Special Ed
  • These categories ration learning, benefiting the system and social order.
  • The “new dumb” are perceived as dangerous and require conditioning with “commercially prepared disinformation.”
  • This dumbness particularly harms middle and upper-middle-class children, already pressured to conform, leaving them vulnerable to existential crises later in life.
  • Gatto cites English historian Alan Bullock: “Evil is a state of incompetence.” Schooling, they argue, has filled the 20th century with evil by breaking children to a system that rewards compliance over critical thinking.
  • This system produces individuals dependent on group approval, exemplified by a National Merit Scholar in Gatto’s family who aspired to be “a small part in a great machine.”
  • The “dumbed down” cannot think independently, constantly seeking external validation and vulnerable to manipulation.
  • Gatto challenges prevalent explanations for “dumbness”:
    • Biological determinism (the bell curve)
    • Capitalist oppression (neo-Marxism)
    • Moral failing (Calvinism)
    • Natural selection (Darwinism)
    • Social utility (pragmatic elitism)
    • Karmic retribution (Buddhism)
  • All these explanations, Gatto contends, justify the existence of a vast bureaucracy to manage the “problem” of the “dumb.”
  • Gatto’s proposition: mass dumbness is a fabrication, not a reality. It was invented to serve the system.

Hector, the Horse Tamer: A Case Study

  • Gatto introduces Hector Rodriguez, a 13-year-old student, observed one November day:
    • Small, olive-skinned, with large black eyes.
    • Trying to slip past the Central Park skating rink gate despite having a paid ticket.
  • Hector’s actions, puzzling at first, demonstrate his experimental nature—testing the gate’s security with a safety net (the ticket).
  • School records reveal Hector’s history:
    • Labeled an “outlaw” for minor infractions that would not have been criminalized in the past.
    • Attending one of New York State’s lowest-rated schools, facing potential state takeover.
    • Placed in the “Mainstream D” category, the lowest of the low, above only Special Ed.
    • Standardized test scores placed him three years behind his peers.
  • Despite this, Hector displays initiative and a desire to challenge norms, as seen in his gate-crashing experiment.
  • His “criminal” record includes:
    • Being caught with a fake gun in his former elementary school during Christmas break.
    • Intending to “free the slaves” (the younger children) like a modern-day Spartacus.
  • This incident highlights the school’s perception of Hector as a problem, as expressed by the principal: “Gatto, what have you done to me?”
  • A year later, Hector’s high school record shows:
    • Failing every subject.
    • Excessive absences and truancy.
  • The system paints a picture of Hector as a lost cause:
    • Poor, small, minority, ignored, “dumb,” a trouble-maker, a failure.
  • Gatto asks: What is society to do with its Hectors?
  • Hector represents millions of children deemed problematic by the education system.
  • Gatto argues that schooling was reimagined to control children like Hector, turning it into:
    • A warehouse
    • A behavior modification clinic
    • A tool for attitude adjustment
  • This system is justified as a defense against chaos, with Hector representing the chaos that needs taming.
  • The principal, in the documentary about Gatto’s class, acknowledges the system’s flaws but defends it as better than chaos.
  • Gatto challenges this notion: Is chaos the only alternative to a stifling system?
  • The real demon, Gatto argues, is the misperception that Hector is the problem.
  • Forced schooling, presented as a bulwark against chaos, is actually the source of the problem.
  • The belief that human nature’s irrationality must be suppressed is presented as a dangerous dogma driving the education system.

Chapter 6: The Camino de Santiago

Confessions of a TV Free America Advisor

  • Gatto, a school teacher and advisor for TV Free America, observed negative behavioral patterns in TV-addicted children:
    • Irresponsibility
    • Childishness
    • Dishonesty
    • Maliciousness
    • Lack of purpose
  • These children seemed to lose the ability to behave with integrity and grow up, as if their spirits were dwarfed by consuming too many fabricated stories and explanations.
  • Gatto felt that computers often worsened the problem, leading to:
    • Exposure to pornography
    • Playing against programs instead of other people
    • Passive consumption rather than active participation
    • Crossing the line into a passive state even with the internet, unless good discipline was exercised.

Suppression of Natural Feedback Circuits

  • Gatto sought a solution to counteract the negative effects of excessive media consumption, recognizing that traditional preaching was ineffective.
  • Gatto believed that relief could be found by encouraging physical activity and real-life experiences, as opposed to passively consuming media.
  • The core issue identified was the suppression of natural feedback circuits, which are essential for learning from mistakes.
  • Gatto uses the example of learning to sail:
    • A novice sailor will inevitably make mistakes, such as tacking too far left or right.
    • However, through practice and feedback, the sailor learns to adjust and improve.
  • Similarly, mastering speech requires significant practice and feedback.
  • Gatto argues that bureaucracies, including school systems, often fail because they cannot efficiently respond to feedback.
    • They are bound by rigid rules and resistant to input from parents, teachers, students, or outside sources.
  • Gatto observed that the rigid structure of traditional schooling limited students’ opportunities for growth through feedback.

A Guerrilla Curriculum Inspired by the Camino de Santiago

  • Gatto’s solution was a guerrilla curriculum designed to restore natural feedback circuits in children.
  • This curriculum targeted inactivity and activities that did not significantly engage feedback mechanisms.
  • Gatto believed that sufficient activity, regardless of its specific nature, would motivate children to reduce their screen time.
  • The goal was to shift children from being passive spectators to active participants in their own lives.
  • Inspiration from the Camino de Santiago:
    • The Camino de Santiago is a medieval pilgrimage route across northern Spain, ending at the burial place of the Apostle James in Santiago de Compostela.
    • Thousands of people undertake this pilgrimage annually, seeking personal growth, self-reliance, connection with nature, and time for reflection.
    • Gatto drew inspiration from the Camino, recognizing that a similar pilgrimage could help children reconnect with themselves, their families, and the natural world.

The New York City Pilgrimage

  • Gatto, with the support of parents, sent 13-year-old students on solo journeys on foot through New York City’s five boroughs.
  • These expeditions involved:
    • Walking the circumference of Manhattan (approximately 30 miles)
    • Exploring different neighborhoods, observing and analyzing their characteristics
    • Mapping Central Park, university campuses, business districts, churches, and museums
    • Visiting government departments, such as the Board of Education or police headquarters, individually
  • Students documented their observations, conducted interviews, researched, and created guide pamphlets.
  • Gatto encouraged solo expeditions as they offered the most significant learning opportunities, but students could also opt for shorter trips.
  • The key requirement was a willingness to walk alone and engage in meaningful exploration and study.

A Visitor’s Key to Iceland and Its Influence

  • Gatto found further inspiration for the curriculum in “A Visitor’s Key to Iceland,” a unique guidebook.
  • The guidebook meticulously describes every road in Iceland, bringing the land and its history to life through vivid anecdotes.
  • Inspired by this approach, Gatto’s students created their own “visitors’ keys” to various aspects of New York City:
    • Safe spots for playing hooky
    • Notable pizza parlors
    • Architectural features of brownstone buildings
    • Swimming pools in the five boroughs, including sociological analyses of their cultural context
  • Many projects involved gathering knowledge and perspectives from elderly individuals, both those confined to homes and those spending time in public spaces.
  • As students engaged in these production-oriented activities, the allure of screens diminished.

Results and Reflections

  • Gatto observed that engaging with reality through intellectually stimulating work activated feedback circuits in most students, leading to substantial personal growth.
  • By April, many students who had initially displayed negative behaviors transformed into interesting and productive individuals.
  • Gatto emphasizes that embracing challenges is fundamental to self-mastery and competence, a concept likely discovered in humanity’s early days.
  • Gatto was surprised by how easily this transformation was achieved, requiring neither exceptional talent nor financial resources.
  • While implementing the curriculum with 130 students annually was challenging, Gatto believes it would be significantly easier in a system that prioritized learning over social control.
  • Gatto received numerous awards from the school establishment, which was unaware of the curriculum’s unconventional nature.
  • Gatto emphasizes the importance of allowing children to learn through real-life experiences rather than imposing limitations.

Urgent Appointments with Reality

  • Gatto argues that everyone has “appointments to keep with reality,” including:
    • Real work to do
    • Real skills to learn
    • Real battles to fight
    • Real risks to take
    • Real ideas to grapple with
    • A constant awareness of death’s inevitability
  • According to Gatto, television, computers, and government schooling have diverted children from these essential experiences, resulting in a generation of emotionally and developmentally stunted individuals.
  • Gatto believes that restoring opportunities for real-life engagement will alleviate these problems and allow children to mature naturally.

Breaking Free from the Electronic Trance

  • While acknowledging the potential benefits of technology, Gatto cautions against becoming overly reliant on it.
  • Gatto suggests that reducing reliance on screens can be as simple as physically unplugging.
  • Exposing young people to the richness of real life can naturally diminish their dependence on television.
  • Gatto highlights the importance of showing, rather than telling, children the value of experiences beyond the screen.
  • Gatto expresses concerns about the potential negative impacts of excessive computer use, similar to those associated with television.

The Camino de Santiago as a Model for Education Reform

  • Gatto proposes a radical education reform:
    • Eliminate two years of high school and use the funds to send every student on their own “Camino de Santiago.”
  • This experience, inspired by the pilgrimage, would involve significant personal journeys, fostering self-reliance, exploration, and reflection.
  • Gatto emphasizes that these journeys do not need to be as physically demanding as those undertaken by adventurers like George Mee or Tani Abe.
  • Gatto firmly believes that all young people should experience a significant personal “Camino” as part of their education.
  • Gatto encourages individuals to take on this responsibility themselves if governments fail to implement such a program.

Chapter 7: Weapons of Mass Instruction

The Decline of Critical Thinking and Value of Higher Education

  • Only 31% of college-educated Americans can fully comprehend a newspaper story, down from 40% a decade ago.
    • Source: National Commission on the Future of Higher Education, August 2006.
  • 35% of young people regret their university experience and don’t consider the time and money invested worth it.
    • More than half said they learned nothing of use.
    • Source: Wilson Quarterly, Autumn, 2006

A Moral Odor: School as a Breeding Ground for Negativity

  • Jacques Lusserin, a blind French teenager, led an underground resistance group during WWII.
    • His autobiography, And Then There Was Light, describes his experience.
  • Lusserin’s critique of schooling: He called the classroom experience a moral disaster.
    • Moral odor: Lusserin believed that forced confinement in a classroom creates a negative atmosphere.
    • Suppressed emotions: He highlighted the accumulation of suppressed anger, humiliated independence, frustrated vagrancy, and impotent curiosity in students.
  • Connection to violence: Lusserin’s ability to commit violent acts shortly after leaving school is attributed to the disconnect between school and the real world with its moral complexities.
  • “We become what we behold.”
    • Relevance to the Columbine High School massacre.

School as a Weapon: Historical and Cultural Perspectives on School’s Negative Impact

  • Historical accounts of schooling are overwhelmingly negative.
    • This raises questions about why schooling has persisted with minimal changes.
  • Potential trade-offs: Schooling weakens family and social relationships, but there may be unseen benefits to this disconnection.
  • Emphasis on winning over learning: School prioritizes winning, leading to scandals when students’ lack of knowledge is exposed.
  • Cultural implications: Sending children to strangers for instruction reflects a significant statement about modern culture that deserves reflection.
  • Examples of negative portrayals of school:
    • Horace’s ode on the torments of schooling.
    • Pompeii mosaics depicting harsh school discipline.
    • Washington Irving’s Story of the Headless Horseman as a revenge fantasy against a schoolmaster.
    • The WWI song “School Days” linking learning to corporal punishment.
    • The film Teaching Miss Tingle about students kidnapping and torturing a teacher.
    • Websites dedicated to disrupting school routines.
  • Lack of positive attribution: People rarely credit their success to their school experience.
  • School as a dangerous place: The concept is well-established, though the metaphor of school as a weapon is not yet widespread.
  • Gatto’s perspective: School inflicts damage, though the mechanisms are not fully understood.
    • This chapter aims to identify specific aspects of school’s harmful machinery.
  • School is not a good place for children, even if they are successful there.
    • Gatto’s teaching experience revealed the diminishment of intellectual power, creativity, and character in the classroom.
    • He felt like a clerk in a penitentiary, with rules and procedures acting as guards.

A Personal Formula: Countering the Negative Effects of Schooling

  • Sabotaging the system: Gatto sought to peacefully disrupt the school system, inspired by Lusserin’s resistance.
  • Personalized curriculum:
    • Step 1: Assembling a student biography: Gathering detailed information about each student’s life, relationships, experiences, and achievements from various sources.
    • Step 2: Identifying wishes and weaknesses: Asking students to list three things they want to learn and three weaknesses they want to overcome.
    • No censorship: Respecting student priorities and incorporating them into the curriculum.
    • Parental involvement and confidentiality: Enlisting parental support and ensuring discretion.
  • Implementation: This approach required willpower, imagination, resourcefulness, and a disregard for obstructive rules.
  • Benefits: Motivated students, increased effort, and recruitment of outside resources.
  • Researching the origins of schooling: Gatto embarked on a research project to understand the historical development, global spread, and resilience of institutional schooling.
    • The Underground History of American Education: Gatto’s book exploring these issues.
      • The book was commissioned but ultimately suppressed by a major publisher.
  • Field exercises: Conducting research and experiments outside the classroom to challenge school practices and promote independent learning.
    • Gatos-gorillas: Teams that infiltrated public events and conducted surveys.
    • Traveling dramatic troops: Engaging in verbal performances to promote critical thinking and self-expression.
  • Goals of the field exercises:
    • Promoting independence, self-reliance, strategic planning, and communication skills.
    • Fostering courage, curiosity, and the ability to shape one’s own life.
    • Examining school-created barriers to intellectual and behavioral development.
    • Identifying and discussing harmful school practices.
  • Impact: Students became more willing to take responsibility for their own education.

Bad Intentions: The Public Assumptions of Schooling

  • Examining the system: Gatto used his English classes to explore the flaws of the school system.
  • Challenging inevitability: He demonstrated that poor educational outcomes were not inherent but resulted from established procedures.
  • Systemic self-preservation: Educational systems have built-in mechanisms to resist change and maintain their integrity.
    • Deviant behavior is discouraged.
    • All elements must conform to central directives.
    • Feedback and internal dialectic are suppressed.
    • Management operations are hidden from public scrutiny.
  • Institutional resistance to change: Schools are designed to be resistant to improvement or even meaningful evaluation.
  • No conspiracies, just self-preservation: School personnel act like those in other institutions, prioritizing system stability over individual needs or performance improvements.
  • Historical parallels: Medieval craft guilds also resisted innovation and punished independent practitioners.
  • Michel’s Iron Law of Oligarchy: Bureaucracies prioritize their own survival above their stated missions.
  • School as a tool for managed illusions: Similar to other institutions in American society (e.g., the economy, the military, the entertainment industry), schools rely on managed illusions to maintain control.
    • The economy relies on financial bubbles.
    • Wars are used to fill economic voids.
    • Entertainment industries distract from the emptiness of modern life.

Deliberate Deprivations: Adam Smith on Education vs. Schooling

  • Adam Smith’s distinction: In The Wealth of Nations, Smith differentiated between education and schooling.
    • He did not link education to national prosperity, only free trade, competition, and division of labor.
  • Education as compensation: Smith believed education was necessary to counter the negative psychological effects of capitalism.
  • Capitalism’s psychological damage:
    • Makes workers cowardly.
    • Makes workers stupid.
    • Makes workers sluggish.
    • Makes workers indifferent to everything except basic needs.
  • Educational schooling: Smith advocated for education that heals the damage caused by capitalism to community and individuality.
  • Potential of all children: Smith believed all children possess the same inherent talents, regardless of social class.
    • Differences are created by deliberate deprivation of intellectual stimulation.
  • Consequences of deprivation: Deformed minds, inability to think critically, and loss of judgment.
  • Relevance to modern schooling: Smith’s description resonates with the state of public education today.
  • Gatto’s counterattack: Gatto’s personalized curriculum aimed to address cowardice, stupidity, sluggishness, and indifference.
  • Focus on partnerships: Working with motivated students to achieve their individual goals.
  • Schooling the unmotivated: Those who were not interested in education were subjected to traditional schooling methods.
  • Smith’s insight: The differences between “bright” and “stupid” students are largely manufactured through deliberate deprivation.

The House of Mirrors: William Playfair’s Argument for Limited Education

  • Playfair’s critique of Smith: William Playfair, Smith’s publisher, criticized Smith’s naive view of education.
  • Maintaining social order: Playfair argued that social order relies on limiting information access for the lower classes.
  • “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”: Playfair coined this phrase to justify restricting education for the masses.
  • Recipe for modern schooling: Playfair’s ideas laid the groundwork for the current school system.
  • Public instruction as a threat: Playfair believed education would harm national prosperity, defined in purely economic terms.
  • Conditioning for deference: He advocated for replacing education with psychological conditioning to instill deference, envy, appetite, and self-mistrust.
  • The danger of an educated populace: Playfair feared that widespread understanding would destabilize society.
  • The Policy of Keeping People Dumb: Playfair’s philosophy echoed the ancient Chinese principle of limiting knowledge to maintain control.
  • Modern shift in rhetoric: Leaders no longer openly advocate for keeping people dumb, but the principle persists through subtler means.

The Lincoln Elective Program: Illusion of Choice

  • Lincoln Academy: A public junior high school in New York City, situated near a housing project but in a prestigious district.
  • The Upper West Side: An area known for its intellectual and cultural institutions.
  • Failure despite favorable environment: Even in this advantageous setting, Lincoln Academy faced problems like violence and a lack of safety.
  • Moral odor of bureaucracy: The school district exhibited a disconnect between its progressive rhetoric and the reality of its schools.
  • Aggressive reform rhetoric: The school district touted new programs and partnerships, but little changed.
  • The elective program: An initiative aimed at giving students a voice in their education.
  • Gatto’s elective: An epic poetry course that was met with student resistance.
  • Student explanations for their enrollment: Students revealed that they were forced into the elective, often without their knowledge or consent.
  • “Sunt lacrimi rerum et mentum mortalia tangem”: A Latin quote from Virgil’s Aeneid, expressing empathy for human suffering and the universality of the human condition.

Contempt: School-Based Programs Induce Contempt

  • Indiana University study on anti-smoking programs: A 2005 study found that school-based anti-smoking programs are universally ineffective.
  • Dr. Sarah Wee’s conclusion: Dr. Wee suggested that any program delivered through schools is likely to induce contempt in students.
  • Implications: This raises concerns about the effectiveness of any school-based intervention.
  • Contempt for study itself?: If school induces contempt, does that extend to the very act of learning?
  • Roger Gaufrin’s story: An eight-year-old French boy who survived the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre because he disobeyed his teachers and avoided the town square.
    • His contempt for school saved his life.

Irrelevance: The Political Nature of Schooling Leads to Irrelevant Content

  • The political nature of schooling: Bureaucracies inherently serve political interests.
  • Student awareness of irrelevance: Young people understand that school often prioritizes the interests of others over their own needs and curiosities.
  • Questioning the purpose: Students question the value of tests and assignments that seem disconnected from their lives.
  • Political censorship: School curricula are shaped by political agendas, omitting or downplaying information that might challenge the status quo.
  • The gulf between rhetoric and reality: The disconnect between idealistic educational goals and the practical limitations of schooling breeds cynicism.
  • The Australian example:
    • Environmental degradation: Australia’s ecosystem is threatened by unsustainable practices like sheep farming.
    • Political influence: The powerful sheep lobby prevents schools from addressing these environmental issues.
    • Relevance to curriculum: If critical environmental issues are deemed unsuitable for study, then seemingly irrelevant topics like the Leaning Tower of Pisa are equally questionable.
  • Identifying local examples of censorship: Parents are encouraged to investigate their own schools’ curricula for evidence of political bias and omission of important topics.
    • Fast food industry influence.
    • Coverage of religious conflicts.
    • Emphasis on spoken language skills.
    • Statistical prediction in math curricula.
  • Alfred North Whitehead’s argument for statistics: Whitehead believed statistical prediction is the most essential form of advanced math for modern society.
    • It is practical and accessible to junior high students.

Social Engineering: School as a Tool for Social Control

  • The impact of social networks: The rise of the Internet and social media has weakened school’s power to disconnect individuals.
    • These platforms enable connections, information sharing, and creativity outside of institutional control.
  • Challenges to traditional power structures: The Internet has empowered individuals and destabilized conventional markets and national loyalties.
  • Verification of official truth: Online platforms allow for decentralized scrutiny of information and challenge established narratives.
  • The decline of expert-driven schooling: The Internet’s accessibility undermines the traditional model of education controlled by experts.

Living by Omission: Concealing Information to Shape Understanding

  • Bruno’s inquiry: A Portuguese college student’s questions about Darwin and Wallace’s theories of evolution.
  • Lying by omission: Schools often manipulate understanding by omitting crucial information.
  • Darwin vs. Wallace:
    • Darwin’s theory: Biological advance through competition and elimination of the weak.
    • Wallace’s theory: Adaptation and cooperation as drivers of evolution.
  • The politics of science: The reasons for Darwin’s fame and Wallace’s relative obscurity are rooted in social and political factors.
  • Darwin’s advantages: Wealth, social connections, and training as a priest.
  • Wallace’s disadvantages: Lowly background, sympathy for the working class, and criticism of the establishment.
  • Wallace’s seditious ideas:
    • Land reform: Advocating for land redistribution.
    • Criticism of the scientific establishment: Challenging the elitism of British science.
    • Opposition to free trade: Highlighting its negative impact on workers.
    • Support for female suffrage: Promoting women’s right to vote.
  • The threat of cooperation: Wallace’s theory of cooperation challenged the justifications for imperialism and the existing social order.
  • Darwin’s alignment with power: Darwin’s theory of competition resonated with the dominant ideology of the British Empire.
  • Christianity vs. competition: Wallace’s emphasis on cooperation aligned with Christian values, which were seen as a threat to social control.
  • Consequences of Darwin’s dominance: Darwin’s ideas provided justification for disregarding human rights and treating people as expendable resources.
  • Social Darwinism: Darwin himself laid the groundwork for social Darwinism, which was further developed by his cousin, Francis Galton, through eugenics.
  • Wallace’s obscurity: His criticism of military spending and other establishment positions contributed to his marginalization.
  • The importance of understanding these narratives: The example of Darwin and Wallace illustrates how schools manipulate knowledge to maintain power structures.

Building Bombs: Access to Information and the Erosion of Trust

  • Historical access to bomb-making information: The 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica contained instructions for making explosives.
  • Wide availability of information: Bomb-making knowledge was readily accessible to the public.
  • Modern examples:
    • Oklahoma City bombing: The formula for the bomb used was readily available.
    • London Underground bombing: The formula for the TATP bomb was published in the Financial Times.
  • Bomb-making materials are difficult to restrict.
  • Reasons for seeking such information:
    • Self-reliance and liberty: Explosives were once essential tools for various tasks, including potentially defending one’s freedom.
    • Historical context: The American Revolution involved armed resistance against tyranny.
  • Shifting perspectives on power: The question of who should control access to potentially dangerous information reflects a change in societal values.
  • Carol Quigley’s argument: Quigley argued that citizen access to arms is essential for preserving liberty.
  • Hitler’s ban on firearms: Hitler’s disarmament of the German population is cited as an example of the dangers of restricting access to weapons.
  • The importance of critical thinking: The ability to access and evaluate information is crucial for informed decision-making and resisting manipulation.
  • “Nullius in Verba”: The motto of the Royal Scientific Society, emphasizing independent thought and verification.
  • School’s contradictory message: Schools encourage reliance on authority rather than independent thinking.

The Decisive Ratio: Power Imbalance Created by Schooling

  • The Prussian model: Modern schooling reinforces a power imbalance similar to that of ancient Greece, Tudor England, and Prussia.
  • Puppets and puppet masters: A small elite controls the education and lives of the majority.
  • Student resentment: Children intuitively sense their disempowerment in the school system, leading to resentment.

Physical Ugliness: School’s Role in Promoting Physical and Psychological Ugliness

  • School as a workshop for ugliness: School practices contribute to physical and psychological ugliness.
  • Importance of appearance: Physical appearance is a significant factor in social and professional success, especially at elite institutions.
  • School’s avoidance of the topic: Schools rarely address the importance of physical appearance and its impact on opportunities.
  • Direct methods of promoting ugliness:
    • Enforced immobility: Prolonged sitting and lack of physical activity contribute to poor health and obesity.
    • Stressful environment: Bells, threats, and pressure create anxiety.
    • Unhealthy diet: School lunches and readily available junk food promote weight gain.
  • Consequences of obesity: Overweight individuals face prejudice, reduced opportunities, and social isolation.
  • School’s role in the obesity epidemic: School practices directly contribute to the obesity epidemic, which has far-reaching negative consequences.
  • The importance of vitality: While academic deficiencies might be overlooked, physical unattractiveness and low vitality are not easily forgiven.
  • Eugenics at elite universities: Elite universities prioritize physical appearance and athleticism in admissions, suggesting a subtle form of eugenics.
  • Historical context of eugenics: The eugenics movement in the early 20th century promoted the sterilization of individuals deemed “biologically defective.”
  • School’s silence on eugenics: The history and implications of eugenics are often ignored in school curricula.
  • Immunity from lawsuits: School officials are largely protected from legal action for the physical harm caused by school practices.
  • The pragmatic view of justice: The legal system often prioritizes efficiency and stability over individual rights.

Irrelevance Revisited: Langdon Winner’s Critique of Technological Society

  • Langdon Winner’s Autonomous Technology: Winner’s book explores the limitations of a society overly reliant on technology.
  • Deficiencies of even the “best” students: Winner argues that even highly educated individuals lack understanding of the technology that shapes their lives.
  • Dependence on faith: People accept complex technological systems on faith rather than through genuine understanding.
  • Bewilderment in the face of complexity: Individuals struggle to comprehend the intricacies of the technological world.
  • The need for flexibility: A complex society demands adaptable individuals, but schools reward rigid rule-followers.
  • Discouragement of independent learning: School’s emphasis on memorization and testing hinders genuine learning.
  • Learning despite school: True education often occurs outside the formal school environment.
  • Winning over learning: School prioritizes competition and achievement over the development of deep understanding.

Reaching the Winner’s Circle: The Limitations of Schooling

  • Observations from Huxley and Gauguin:
    • Aldous Huxley: Noted the lack of practical skills and the emphasis on abstract knowledge in his education.
    • Paul Gauguin: Expressed frustration with the disconnect between school learning and real-world skills.
  • Seymour Papert’s Mindstorms: Papert argued that learning can be natural and effortless, as demonstrated by language acquisition.
  • The future of schooling: Papert predicted that traditional schools would either transform or be replaced.
  • Alternatives to schooling: Homeschooling and dropping out have become increasingly common.
  • Declining engagement: In urban schools, student attendance and attention often wane after lunch.

The Dark World of Compulsory Schooling: Questioning the Intent of Irrelevance

  • The possibility of deliberate irrelevance: The pervasiveness of irrelevant content in school curricula raises questions about the motives behind it.
  • Confusion or design?: Is the irrelevance a result of incompetence or a deliberate strategy?
  • Systemic constraints: Even well-intentioned educators face limitations within the rigid structure of the school system.
  • Social engineering as a motive: The possibility that schooling is used for social control cannot be dismissed.
  • Walter Lippmann’s indictment of modern education: Lippmann argued that schools have abandoned Western culture, producing graduates who lack understanding of their own society.
  • Carol Quigley’s Tragedy and Hope: Quigley’s book details the deliberate efforts to undermine Western culture and promote a new social order.
  • Suppression of Quigley’s book: The publisher’s destruction of the printing plates and refusal to reprint suggests the controversial nature of Quigley’s work.
  • Quigley’s influence: Quigley was President Clinton’s tutor and is mentioned in Clinton’s acceptance speech.

Scientific Management and Subordination: The Goal of Schooling

  • Frederick Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management: Taylor’s book outlined a system for maximizing efficiency and control in various industries, including education.
  • Perfect subordination as the primary goal: Scientific management prioritizes unquestioning obedience above all else.
  • Hierarchy and productivity: Bureaucracies value conformity and control over genuine productivity.
  • Educated and principled individuals as threats: Independent thinkers and those with strong moral convictions are seen as disruptive to the system.
  • Controlling creativity: Highly creative individuals are also viewed with suspicion and kept under close supervision.
  • The ideal employee: Scientific management seeks employees who are obedient, enthusiastic about following orders, and eager to please.
  • Training for obedience: Schooling begins the process of conditioning for obedience from the first grade.
  • The “don’t” drill: Primary school emphasizes limitations and restrictions, stifling natural curiosity and self-expression.
  • Consequences of negativity: The constant barrage of “don’ts” leads to indifference, apathy, and a reliance on escapism through negative behaviors.
  • Gatto’s experience: Gatto’s teaching career provided firsthand observation of these negative effects.
  • The Queen Elizabeth School permission form: A Canadian school’s overly cautious permission form exemplifies the discouragement of risk-taking and direct experience.
  • Psychological impact of negativity: The constant emphasis on potential dangers creates a culture of fear and inhibits exploration.

Connections and Disconnections Revisited: Categorization vs. Individualization

  • William Torrey Harris’s influence: Harris, the first US Commissioner of Education, advocated for alienating children from their individuality to promote group identity.
  • Categorization of students: Schools treat children as members of categories rather than as unique individuals.
  • The rhetoric of collectivization: Focusing on group averages leads to a disregard for individual needs and hinders effective education.
  • The Head Start example: The gains from Head Start, a collectivist approach, tend to diminish over time.
  • Disconnecting children from their context: Schooling seeks to sever children’s connections to their families, traditions, communities, and personal interests.
  • The Pit and the Pendulum analogy: The logic of collectivization inevitably leads to a focus on the lowest common denominator.
  • New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s approach: Despite increased spending and resources, Bloomberg’s attempt to address educational failure by lowering standards proved ineffective.
  • The connected mind: True education fosters connections to diverse ideas, experiences, and people.
  • Self-knowledge as the foundation: Understanding oneself is essential for intellectual and personal growth, as emphasized by philosophers throughout history.
  • School as a tool for disconnection: Schooling actively disconnects children from their own identities, families, communities, and the Western intellectual tradition.

The Talking Choo-Choo Syndrome: Artificial Extension of Childhood

  • Gatto’s experience at a private school: While impressed by the school’s positive atmosphere, Gatto noted a lack of student involvement in decision-making and a simplified curriculum.
  • The Odyssey example: The use of a simplified version of Homer’s Odyssey raised concerns about intellectual engagement and the value of original texts.
  • The talking choo-choo workbook: An elementary school workbook relying on a cartoon character as a guide.
  • The German disease: The artificial extension of childhood, originating in 19th-century Germany, has become a dominant force in education.
  • The kindergarten movement: The early kindergarten movement introduced the concept of using playful methods to teach young children.
  • Cartoons over real-world ideas: The use of cartoons and simplified narratives to extend childhood has become increasingly prevalent.
  • Stanford University’s role: The Dean of Teacher Education at Stanford played a part in promoting this approach.
  • Consequences of extended childhood: The “talking choo-choo” approach inhibits intellectual development and fosters a culture of childishness.
  • Examples of childishness: Slasher films, pornography, junk food, tabloid news, blockbuster movies, Peter Pan syndrome, and the Toys R Us slogan.
  • The intellectual and economic consequences: The prevalence of childishness undermines intellectual discourse and economic understanding.
  • Historical roots: The concept of artificially extending childhood can be traced back to Calvin, Spinoza, and Fichte.
  • The dark side of the welfare state: The welfare state can be seen as a tool for social control through dependence.
  • Beatrix Potter’s critique of “goody-goody” books: Potter recognized the importance of addressing darkness, violence, and realism in children’s literature.
  • Potter’s appeal to children: Children’s continued fascination with Potter’s work suggests a natural inclination towards complex and challenging narratives.
  • Potter’s own education: Potter was well-educated and rejected the “talking choo-choo” approach to learning.

Detach the Training Wheels: Elena Delle Donne’s Example

  • Elena Delle Donne’s early independence: At age three, Delle Donne removed the training wheels from her bicycle without assistance.
  • Rejecting the limitations of childhood: Delle Donne’s act demonstrated a refusal to accept the constraints imposed by the concept of childhood.
  • The importance of individualization: Schooling’s reliance on standardized methods hinders the development of such self-reliance and initiative.
  • Examples of individuals who thrived outside the school system: Richard Branson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Octavia Walker, and David Farragut.
  • Rejecting the illusion of extended childhood: Parents are encouraged to treat their children as capable individuals and not buy into the artificial extension of childhood.
  • The myth of adolescence: Adolescence is a relatively recent social construct designed to prolong dependence and control.
  • Recognizing the potential of young people: Children should be encouraged to develop self-sufficiency, purposefulness, and independence.

John Latsis’ Success Story: An Alternative Path

  • John Latsis’ background: Latsis, a Greek shipping magnate, achieved immense success despite a lack of formal education.
  • Early hardships: Latsis began working as a laborer at age twelve and had limited schooling.
  • From deckhand to tycoon: Latsis started as a deckhand and built a vast shipping empire through hard work and entrepreneurial spirit.
  • Diversification and sophistication: He expanded into other industries and developed a keen understanding of business without formal training.
  • The importance of real-world connections: Latsis’ success stemmed from his direct engagement with the world of affairs.
  • School’s neglect of alternative paths: Schools rarely highlight success stories like Latsis’, focusing instead on traditional career paths.

Tanya Eby and George Meehan: Triumphs of the Unschooled Spirit

  • Tanya Eby’s solo circumnavigation: Eby became the first woman to sail around the world alone, despite limited experience and initial failures.
  • Overcoming challenges: Eby faced difficulties in school and dropped out, but her determination led her to achieve a remarkable feat.
  • George Meehan’s longest walk: Meehan, with minimal education and resources, completed the longest walk in human history, from Tierra del Fuego to Point Barrow, Alaska.
  • Perseverance and resourcefulness: Meehan’s journey demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit.
  • Lessons from unschooled individuals: Eby and Meehan’s achievements challenge the conventional notion that formal education is essential for success.
  • The limitations of school-based learning: Schools rarely teach the kind of self-reliance, resourcefulness, and determination exemplified by Eby and Meehan.

Dewey Beach, Delaware: Regression to Childishness

  • The ritual of regression: Young professionals in Washington, D.C., engage in weekly escapism and childish behavior in Dewey Beach.
  • Paul’s message in Corinthians: Paul advocated for adults to abandon childish things, a message seemingly ignored by the Dewey Beach crowd.
  • Examples of regressive behavior: Excessive drinking, public sexual encounters, and physical altercations.

The Trapped Flea Principle: Conditioning for Limited Expectations

  • The question of passivity: Why are schoolchildren often passive and indifferent towards important matters?
  • Andrew Hsu’s explanation: An eleven-year-old homeschooler explained the principle of flea training.
  • Flea training analogy: Fleas are conditioned to limit their jumping height by repeatedly hitting a lid, eventually accepting their confinement even when the lid is removed.
  • School as the lid: Schooling can be seen as a system for conditioning individuals to accept limitations and lower their expectations.
  • Gatto’s realization: Gatto recognized his role as a teacher in reinforcing this process of limitation.

How to Drive a Horse Slightly Insane: Oversimplification and the Retreat into Self

  • The danger of internal retreat: Individuals who withdraw into their inner lives pose a threat to the social order because they are less susceptible to external control.
  • The horse breeder’s insight: Methods for driving horses slightly insane can be applied to humans to discourage independent action.
  • Conditions for equine mental instability:
    • Idleness.
    • Isolation from other horses.
  • Consequences: Timidity, unpredictability, and undesirable behaviors.
  • Loss of herd wisdom and self-knowledge: Horses deprived of natural social interaction and environmental stimulation lose their sense of belonging and self-understanding.
  • Consumers vs. contributors: The goal is to create individuals who are primarily consumers rather than active participants in society.
  • The role of boredom: Boredom, coupled with a weakened imagination and inner life, fuels consumption.
  • The talking choo-choo as a tool for social control: The “talking choo-choo” approach to education contributes to this process of pacification and consumerism.

The Cauldron of Broken Time: The Destruction of Uninterrupted Time

  • The importance of uninterrupted time: Focused attention and deep thinking require uninterrupted time for reflection and synthesis.
  • The illusion of attention: In a fragmented environment, people learn to feign attention rather than genuinely engage with ideas.
  • Memorization vs. understanding: Broken time allows for memorization but hinders the development of true understanding.
  • The need for uninterrupted sleep and waking time: Both are crucial for cognitive function.
  • School’s fragmented environment: Schools are characterized by constant interruptions and distractions.
  • Psychological impact of broken time: The constant disruption of thought processes leads to mental fatigue and a diminished capacity for learning.
  • Gatto’s experience: Gatto found it difficult to maintain focus and deliver effective lessons in the face of constant interruptions.
  • The importance of personal time: Uninterrupted time is essential for developing theories, testing hypotheses, and making connections between ideas.
  • Coleridge’s Kublai Khan example: A single interruption derailed Coleridge’s creative process.

Chapter 8: What is Education?

Salter’s Perspective: Europe as an Unfathomable Classroom

  • James Salter, a travel writer, admired Europe and its unique ability to answer Kant’s questions.
  • Salter believed Europe provided education:
    • Not traditional school lessons, but a deeper understanding of life.
    • A guide on:
      • How to endure.
      • How to appreciate:
        • Leisure
        • Food
        • Love
        • Conversation
        • Nakedness
        • Architecture
        • Streets
    • A new way of thinking, fresh and insightful.
  • Europe’s Impact:
    • History’s Shadow: Being surrounded by Europe’s rich history makes one aware of their small place in time.
    • Knowing nothing is equivalent to having done nothing.
    • Self-obsession is like “worshipping a dust moat.”
    • Europe is an “immense and unfathomable classroom,” beyond any catalog or description.
  • Salter’s Comparison: Salter contrasts the vastness of European education with the limitations of traditional schooling.
  • Challenge to the Reader: Look at America as Salter did Europe. Did your schooling teach you how we arrived at our current state?

Gatto’s Testimony: A Scathing Critique of the School System

  • Date: October 23, 1991
  • Occasion: Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Relations
  • Topic: The future of schools in the year 2000
  • Gatto’s Pessimistic View:
    • Schools in 2000 will likely mirror those of 1990 and 1890.
    • Schools have resisted meaningful change for over a century.
    • The current system is deeply flawed.

A Historical Perspective: 1790 vs. Today

  • 1790:
    • Education was readily attainable in America.
    • Schooling was:
      • Voluntary
      • Short in duration
      • Did not monopolize a child’s time
      • Did not burden families
      • Did not instill servile habits in the young
      • Did not indoctrinate with pre-determined thoughts
    • Fewer people claiming to provide education resulted in greater freedom to learn.
  • Gatto’s Example: In Massachusetts, literacy rates were higher when schooling was voluntary.
  • Today:
    • The possibility of obtaining a quality education is threatened by compulsory schooling.
    • Political roadblocks hinder change:
      • The current system financially benefits those in power.
      • Schools provide lucrative contracts and jobs, creating conflicts of interest for politicians.
      • Politicians are beholden to donors with vested interests in maintaining the status quo.
    • Gatto’s Assertion: Genuine change must come from individuals (parents, students, and teachers) who challenge the system.
    • Homeschooling is a prime example of this rebellion.
    • The system has had a century to prove itself and has failed.

Reimagining Education: A Call for Fundamental Change

  • Step 1: Define an Educated Person:
    • A nationwide debate is needed to establish a clear definition of what constitutes an educated person.
    • Professional pedagogy has failed to provide a concrete definition beyond vague generalizations.
    • A shared understanding of educational goals is crucial for meaningful reform.
  • Exposing the Fallacy of Standardized Testing:
    • Current educational emphasis on standardized test scores is misguided.
    • High test scores do not necessarily translate to real-world competence or success.
    • Example:** Many successful individuals (including U.S. presidents and corporate executives) have achieved success despite mediocre test scores.
    • Inconsistency: While consumers demand performance data in other areas (e.g., horse racing), they are denied this information when it comes to educators.
    • Distinction: High standards are not synonymous with standardized testing.
    • Newspeak Manipulation: The public has been conditioned to equate the two.
    • Gatto’s Proposal: Schools should guarantee the development of valuable human competencies or lose their power to enforce attendance.

Gatto’s Definition of an Educated Person: Key Characteristics

  • Time Management: Educated individuals utilize time effectively and find solace in solitude.
  • Relationships: They form meaningful connections due to their understanding of relationship dynamics.
  • Mortality: They possess a deep understanding and acceptance of their own mortality, learning and growing from each stage of life.
  • Values: They develop a strong personal value system, critically evaluating external influences.
  • Cultural Awareness: They are knowledgeable about their own culture and the values of other cultures.
  • Creativity: They possess the power to generate new ideas and experiences.
  • Truth Seekers: They discover truth independently through critical thinking and evidence, rather than blindly accepting the opinions of others.
  • Empathy and Service: They are attuned to the needs of others and find fulfillment in meeting those needs.
  • Financial Independence: While capable of earning a living, they do not rely solely on material wealth for happiness.
  • Balance: They embrace variety and seek new experiences while recognizing the importance of a stable home and responsibilities.

A Curriculum for True Education: Essential Life Themes

  1. Birth and Self-Discovery:
    • Understanding one’s origins, family history, and cultural influences is crucial.
    • Key Questions:
      • “Who am I?”
      • “What are my limits and possibilities?”
      • “What motivates those around me?”
  2. Exploration of the Physical World:
    • Direct, hands-on experience is essential.
    • Compulsory schooling hinders this exploration by confining children and relying on abstract concepts.
    • Missed opportunities for exploration have lasting consequences.
  3. The Art of Human Connection:
    • Experiencing various forms of relationships firsthand is vital:
      • Family
      • Friendships
      • Companionships
      • Love
      • Hate
      • Community
      • Networking
    • Each form has its own benefits and risks.
    • Lack of experience leads to emotional stunting.
    • Criticism of School Socialization: Schools often confine children to networks, the weakest form of human connection.
  4. Vocational Exploration:
    • Central Question: How can one contribute to society while earning a living?
  5. The Transition to Adulthood:
    • Key Questions:
      • What differentiates an adult from a child?
      • What responsibilities accompany adulthood?
      • What leads to maturity and independence?
  6. Confronting Mortality:
    • Death is the final stage in the cycle of life.
    • Awareness of death gives meaning to life.
    • Finite time makes choices meaningful.
    • Legacy: It is our duty to leave the world as good or better than we found it.

Dismantling the “Cathedral” of Education

  • To truly educate, schools must:
    • Abandon:
      • The “walled compound” mentality
      • Reliance on a “priesthood” of certified teachers who prioritize obedience and political correctness
      • Dependence on the state and its economic interests
    • Embrace:
      • Decentralization
      • Diversity of thought
      • Individual empowerment
  • Short-Term Gain vs. Long-Term Loss: While the current system benefits those in control, it ultimately weakens society, hindering adaptability and progress.
  • Historical Parallel: The Soviet Union’s collapse serves as a cautionary tale.

A Vision for a New School: Decentralized, Flexible, and Empowering

  • Breaking the Monopoly: Ending compulsory schooling would disrupt the current educational monopoly and:
    • Reduce corruption
    • Encourage innovation
    • Empower parents and students
    • Foster a free market of learning opportunities
  • Key Features:
    • Location: Learning can take place anywhere, not just within traditional school walls.
    • Decertified Teaching: Anyone with valuable skills can share their knowledge, regardless of formal credentials.
    • Financial Control: Taxpayer money would be redirected to families, allowing them to choose educational services.
    • Flexible Learning:
      • Time commitments
      • Learning spaces
      • Study options
      • Sequencing
    • Elimination of Standardized Testing:
      • Focus on Authentic Assessment: Replace standardized tests with more meaningful measures of learning.
      • Reasons for Elimination:
        • Tests do not accurately reflect real-world skills or character.
        • They stifle imagination and creativity.
        • They perpetuate dishonesty.
        • They are a relic of authoritarian cultures.
        • They create artificial problems and waste resources.
  • Addressing the Reading “Problem”:
    • Natural Learning: Learning to read is a natural process that typically requires around 30 hours under the right conditions.
    • Obstacles to Literacy: The current system, with its emphasis on:
      • Age-segregated classrooms
      • Forced instruction
      • Pressure and ranking
      • Creates a negative association with reading, leading to indifference or aversion.
  • Solution: A more natural and individualized approach is needed.

Embracing the Power of Informal Learning

  • The Information Age Paradox: Despite a lack of formal schooling, millions have learned to navigate the complexities of computers and technology.
  • Real-World Learning: Skills like computer literacy and driving are often acquired through self-directed learning, experimentation, and observation.
  • Lessons from Driving:
    • Driving involves complex physical and cognitive skills yet is successfully learned by most without formal schooling.
    • Drivers are not graded; they either pass or fail a competency-based test.
    • This system highlights trust in individual competence over formal credentials.
  • The Illusion of Control: Schools often take credit for advancements that occur independently.

Conclusion: A Call to Action

  • The Path Forward:
    • Recognize the limitations of the current system.
    • Embrace a more decentralized and individualized approach to education.
    • Empower parents and students as active participants in the learning process.
  • A Call to Leadership: Gatto challenges Senators to demonstrate courage by challenging the status quo and advocating for meaningful reform.
  • The Power of “Productive Sabotage”: Parents, students, and even teachers must work to dismantle the system from within, like “noble termites.”

A Grandfather’s Wish: Education for Christina

  • Education should foster individuality and strength of character.
  • It should equip individuals to face challenges and embrace their unique paths.
  • It should provide guiding principles and the courage to confront adversity.
  • It should foster a deep understanding of life, death, and what truly matters.

Chapter 9: A Letter to My Granddaughter About Dartmouth

Family Matters

  • Gatto’s granddaughter, Christina, is a rebellious and accomplished individual.
    • Rode her bike on Fifth Avenue in defiance of a city ban.
    • Captain of a national champion debating team.
    • Legally changed her name from Gudrun to Christina.
  • Gatto comes from a long line of “boat rockers” and contrarians.
    • His wife Janet’s family was outlawed by the British Crown.
    • His great-great-grandmother from Glenorchy wore a top hat, a symbol of unconventionality.
    • The outlaw Rob Roy considered Gatto’s wife’s clan to be his own.
  • Gatto and his wife Janet were married in a Buddhist temple near Columbia University in New York City.
    • They chose this location because they were both unemployed, broke, and underage for a civil marriage.
    • The Buddhist temple offered free marriage ceremonies, unlike other religious institutions they approached.
    • Janet was pregnant with Gatto’s daughter (Christina’s mother) at the time of their marriage.
  • Gatto recounts the struggles and triumphs of his ancestors:
    • His grandmother: Fired from a job for attempting to organize a union.
    • Gatto: Fired from a job on Madison Avenue for incompetence.
    • His great-great-grandfather Giovanni (Italian side):
      • A Presbyterian, journalist, and Freemason, he faced persecution in early 20th century Italy.
      • Forced to flee Italy with his wife, Lucrezia, who lost her inheritance and title for marrying him.
      • Found success in Pittsburgh working for Mellon Bank but died young from an extravagant lifestyle.
      • Buried in an unmarked grave by Lucrezia for having a mistress.
    • His great-grandfather Harry Taylor Zimmer (German side):
      • Town printer and traveling circus owner in Monongahela, Pennsylvania.
      • A staunch Republican in a predominantly Democratic town.
      • Ran for mayor multiple times, using his printing press to launch scathing attacks on opponents.
      • Openly supported German victory during World War II, making Gatto’s childhood walks to school eventful.
  • Gatto highlights the protective presence of his uncle, Bud Zimmer:
    • The toughest man in town, Bud’s reputation shielded Gatto from bullies.
    • Bud served as a field officer in World War II, his unit featured in newsreels.
    • His wartime service earned him a management position at Rockwell’s plant, despite lacking a college degree.

Dartmouth College

  • Gatto advises his granddaughter, Christina, to reconsider her pursuit of an Ivy League education at Dartmouth.
    • He believes that such institutions promote an illusion of social privilege and limit personal growth.
  • He criticizes the modern education system:
    • Promotes a hierarchical view of education: Elite colleges are falsely touted as the sole gateways to success.
    • Instills a false sense of urgency: Students feel pressured to gain acceptance into prestigious colleges, leading to unhealthy competition and anxiety.
    • Perpetuates social inequality: Gatto uses George Orwell’s Animal Farm analogy to criticize the elitist mindset prevalent in prestigious institutions.
  • He challenges the notion that college guarantees success:
    • Financial success can be achieved through alternative paths.
    • True fulfillment comes from finding purpose and adding value to society.
  • He argues that true education is a personal journey of self-discovery:
    • It’s about developing critical thinking skills and navigating the complexities of the world.
  • He outlines eight essential elements of true learning:
    1. Self-knowledge: Understanding one’s character, strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies.
    2. Observation: Cultivating sharp observational skills to gather accurate information.
    3. Feedback: Learning to receive and evaluate criticism effectively.
    4. Analysis: Developing the ability to break down complex problems into manageable components.
    5. Mirroring: Cultivating empathy and the ability to understand diverse perspectives.
    6. Expression: Mastering clear and effective communication in both written and spoken forms.
    7. Judgment: Developing the ability to discern truth from falsehood and make sound decisions.
    8. Adding Value: Contributing meaningfully to society and every interaction.
  • Gatto emphasizes that true learning extends beyond the confines of formal education and requires active engagement with the world.

The New Atlantis

  • Gatto argues that the current education system, particularly in elite institutions like Dartmouth, is modeled after Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis.
  • He outlines the core principles of Bacon’s vision:
    • Utility over Reflection: Education should primarily focus on training a workforce for the needs of corporations and government institutions.
    • Social Control: Universities should function as instruments to maintain social order and stability.
    • Surveillance and Control: Implement systems to monitor and regulate the behavior and aspirations of the masses.
    • Managed Morality: Promote a culture of permissiveness in personal morals while emphasizing conformity in professional life.
    • Co-option of Potential Leaders: Identify and absorb talented individuals from lower classes into the ruling structure to prevent dissent.
  • Gatto argues that this system has led to several negative consequences:
    • Social Unrest: A growing sense of disillusionment and distrust in leadership due to increasing inequality and lack of opportunity.
    • Economic Inequality: The widening gap between the rich and the poor, fueled by corporate greed and the exploitation of workers.
    • Contingent Labor: The rise of temporary and insecure employment, creating a precarious workforce without benefits or long-term security.
    • Lean Production: The relentless pursuit of efficiency and profit maximization at the expense of worker well-being and job satisfaction.
  • Gatto concludes by emphasizing that addressing these issues requires political action and a fundamental shift in societal values rather than relying solely on traditional education systems.
    • He urges his granddaughter to be an agent of change and fight for a more just and equitable society.

Chapter 10: Incident at Highland High

The Illusion of Education and the Reality of Schooling

  • Gatto’s central argument is that schooling, as it exists, is not synonymous with education.
  • He urges readers to:
    • Question their own schooling experiences: Examine the costs and compromises made in the name of education.
    • See through the illusions schooling perpetuates: Recognize the disconnect between the promises of schooling and its actual outcomes.
    • Understand the lasting influence of schooling: Acknowledge how its structures and ideologies continue to shape our thinking long after formal education ends.

Schooling’s Imperial Ambition

  • Schooling’s Expansion:
    • Originating as a limited endeavor in colonial America (2 hours/day, a few months/year), schooling has steadily expanded its reach.
    • It now encroaches upon personal time and resists boundaries like summer vacation.
    • The concept of “lifelong learning” often translates to “lifelong schooling,” promoting the idea that more schooling is always the solution.
  • Schooling as a False Solution:
    • Gatto argues that societal issues (incoherence, aimlessness, incompetence, class hatred) often attributed to a lack of schooling are, in fact, exacerbated by it.
    • More schooling, he contends, cannot fix problems created by the institution itself.
  • Schooling’s Assault on Alternative Forms of Development:
    • Schooling undermines and seeks to supplant other vital sources of growth and learning:
      • Family: Dismissed as a “retrograde institution” to be replaced by idealized, expert-designed models.
      • Church: Seen as a threat to Gattoity of expert opinion and therefore targeted for removal.
      • Tradition, Ethnic Loyalty, Loyalty to Place: Deemed obstacles to progress and slated for eradication.
    • This systematic dismantling of alternative influences, Gatto argues, cripples individual sovereignty, erodes ideals of liberty, and disrupts the natural transmission of knowledge and values across generations.

Schooling vs. Education: Key Distinctions

  • Gatto presents several key distinctions between schooling and education:
    • Source of Organization:
      • Schooling: Controlled externally through command and control structures.
      • Education: Self-directed and driven by internal motivation.
    • Connection to Learning Sources:
      • Schooling: Isolates students from diverse learning opportunities to maintain administrative efficiency.
      • Education: Actively seeks out a rich network of connections – random, intentional, varied, and often unexpected – recognizing that resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and innovation thrive on diverse inputs.
    • Role of Feedback:
      • Schooling: Relies on external rules and evaluations, limiting opportunities for independent judgment and self-correction.
      • Education: Emphasizes the crucial role of natural feedback loops. Students learn to attend to these loops, not to conform to external dictates, fostering self-reliance and personalized learning pathways.
    • Focus of Learning:
      • Schooling: Prioritizes subject knowledge and specialization, aiming to produce efficient clerks for predefined roles within existing systems.
      • Education: Values broad contexts and connections between disciplines, recognizing that true understanding and innovation often emerge from cross-fertilization of ideas.
        • Example: John Cancius, a non-specialist and college dropout, developed a breakthrough cancer treatment precisely because he wasn’t confined by specialized knowledge.
    • Approach to Knowledge:
      • Schooling: Emphasizes memorization and acceptance of established truths, discouraging critical thinking.
      • Education: Cultivates a state of internal debate and questioning, constantly seeking to challenge and refine existing knowledge.
        • This echoes Schumpeter’s concept of “creative destruction” – the driving force of capitalism – where questioning established norms and seeking better alternatives fuels progress.
    • Impact on Well-being:
      • Gatto cites the International Happiness Survey, which consistently identifies three key factors for a happy life:
        • Good relationships.
        • Good health.
        • Satisfying work.
      • Schooling, however, often undermines these factors:
        • It promotes unhealthy lifestyles and offers little support for developing strong relationships.
        • Tracking systems and segregation by background exacerbate class prejudice, hindering relationships across difference.
        • The work imposed rarely connects with the genuine interests and passions of young people.

A Dark Force at Work?

  • Gatto acknowledges the potential for criticism: Are his views exaggerated? Is schooling not an essential institution with flaws that can be rationally addressed?
  • He counters by suggesting the presence of a “dark force” – a deliberate, hidden agenda operating within the institution of schooling.
  • He argues that without exposing and confronting this hidden force, any talk of “school reform” is futile.
  • To support his claim, he presents three “hair-raising school stories” designed to illustrate the seemingly irrational and even sinister nature of schooling’s influence:
    • The incidents described are meant to raise questions about the true motives and mechanisms of power at play within the education system.

Incident at Nuremberg: Homeschooling as a Threat

  • Date: January 29, 2008
  • Location: Nuremberg, Germany
  • Victim: Melissa Busekros, a 16-year-old girl
  • Event:
    • Melissa is forcibly removed from her home by 15 police officers and city officials.
    • Her “crime” is homeschooling, a practice outlawed in Germany since 1937 under the Nazi regime.
  • Author’s Response:
    • He expresses his disgust by writing to the German ambassador in Washington, highlighting the disturbing parallels between contemporary Germany and its Nazi past.
  • Details of the Incident:
    • Despite no history of behavioral issues, Melissa is subjected to a 240-minute psychiatric interrogation focused solely on her reasons for homeschooling.
    • The interrogation concludes that Melissa suffers from “school phobia,” a dubious diagnosis used to justify the forceful intervention.
    • German authorities cite Melissa’s “delayed development” by one year as evidence of harm, despite lacking any internationally recognized standard for such assessment.
    • The court order authorizes the forceful removal of Melissa, deeming it necessary to protect her from her parents’ “illegal conduct” of homeschooling.
    • The German Education Authority vows to “bring convictions of the family into line,” employing language reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.
  • Author’s Analysis:
    • He questions the reasoning, philosophy, and values driving such extreme measures against a peaceful family exercising their right to choose an alternative educational path.
    • He draws parallels between this incident and Germany’s dark history of persecution, from witch hunts to the Holocaust, suggesting a dangerous pattern of suppressing individual liberty and enforcing conformity through state power.
    • He criticizes the German education system’s rigid adherence to rules and its stifling of individual initiative, citing the ThyssenKrupp steel plant debacle as evidence of its negative economic consequences.
  • Outcome:
    • Gatto’s letter to the German ambassador receives no reply.
    • The incident highlights the extreme measures employed to enforce compulsory schooling and the silencing of dissenting voices.

Incident at Highland High: Suppressing Inconvenient Truths

  • Date: March 25, 2004
  • Location: Highland High School, Rockland County, New York
  • Event:
    • Gatto is invited to speak at Highland High by school board member John Jankowicz, who is concerned about the negative effects of the school’s rigid, test-driven approach to education.
  • Gatto’s Observations:
    • He notes the affluence of the school and the students’ sense of entitlement, masking a deeper lack of intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills.
    • He recognizes the pervasive climate of fear and dishonesty surrounding college admissions, used as a tool to control student behavior.
  • Gatto’s Talk:
    • He decides to address the students’ anxieties by deconstructing the myths surrounding college admissions, using real-world examples to challenge their assumptions.
    • He presents evidence that many successful individuals, including industry leaders, writers, and even politicians, did not conform to the traditional model of academic success.
    • He cites examples of college dropouts who have achieved extraordinary things, challenging the notion that elite college acceptance is the only path to a meaningful life.
    • He encourages students to question Gattoity of school officials and to demand transparency regarding their own educators’ academic records.
    • He shares information about the admission policies of prestigious universities, emphasizing that factors beyond grades and test scores, such as initiative, creativity, and real-world experience, are highly valued.
    • He presents Richard Branson’s entrepreneurial success as an example of a high school dropout who defied expectations and achieved extraordinary things.
  • Police Intervention:
    • In the midst of Gatto’s calm and factual presentation, a police detail suddenly enters the auditorium and orders everyone to leave.
    • The officer in charge uses a bullhorn to assert control, creating a deliberately intimidating atmosphere.
  • Aftermath:
    • Gatto learns that the superintendent, McCarthy, deemed the talk “inflammatory” and called the police to shut it down.
    • This extreme reaction, despite Gatto’s calm demeanor and factual content, suggests a deep-seated resistance to any challenge of the established schooling narrative.
    • Gatto’s scheduled evening talk for parents is also canceled, further demonstrating the school’s determination to suppress dissenting views.
  • Media Coverage and Silence:
    • The local newspaper, the Mid-Hudson Highland Post, publishes a sanitized account of the incident, omitting any mention of the police intervention.
    • The superintendent falsely claims that Gatto showed a “violent film,” further highlighting the school’s dishonest attempts to control the narrative.
    • Gatto’s subsequent attempts to gather perspectives from the superintendent, principal, parents’ association, and student newspaper are met with complete silence.
  • Analysis:
    • The incident at Highland High demonstrates the power of fear and control within the school system.
    • It shows how easily authorities can silence dissenting voices and suppress information that challenges the status quo.
    • The lack of transparency and accountability further reinforces the idea of a hidden agenda at work.

Incident at Walden: Crushing Local Control and Common Sense

  • Date: 1991
  • Location: Walden, Vermont, a rural town with four historic one-room schoolhouses
  • Event:
    • The state of Vermont threatens to close Walden’s beloved one-room schools, citing the cost of making them wheelchair accessible as prohibitive.
    • This is despite the schools’ strong academic performance, the community’s satisfaction, and the children’s evident well-being.
    • A plan is put forward to build a centralized concrete block school and bus students from up to 50 miles away.
  • Author’s Involvement:
    • He is invited to Walden to advocate for the preservation of the one-room schools.
    • He reviews the state’s proposal and finds the estimated costs for renovations to be grossly inflated.
    • He seeks expert testimony from a renowned architect familiar with construction costs in Vermont.
  • Expert Opinion and Fear:
    • The architect confirms that the state’s estimates are ten times higher than the actual cost, suggesting a deliberate attempt to mislead the community.
    • He reveals that the contract for the new school has likely already been promised to a specific firm, further highlighting the corruption at play.
    • However, the architect refuses to testify publicly, fearing professional repercussions from the state government.
  • Outcome:
    • Despite Gatto’s best efforts and the community’s desire to preserve their schools, the state’s repeated threats and the climate of fear prove too powerful.
    • Walden reluctantly approves the bond issue, goes into debt, and builds the centralized school, sacrificing their unique educational environment and sense of community control.
  • Analysis:
    • The Walden incident demonstrates how a powerful entity like the state government can exploit its authority and financial leverage to impose its will on a community.
    • It highlights the corrupt practices often used to justify decisions made behind closed doors, benefiting select interests at the expense of local needs and desires.
    • The architect’s fear of speaking out reveals the insidious reach of such systems and the potential for silencing dissent even within professional circles.

Conclusion: The Urgent Need for Subversion

  • Gatto uses these three incidents to illustrate the pervasive and often hidden forces at play within the institution of schooling.
  • He argues that these forces prioritize control, conformity, and the maintenance of power over the genuine needs and well-being of students.
  • He concludes that true education requires a conscious effort to subvert the harmful aspects of schooling, to question its assumptions, and to seek out alternative paths to knowledge and personal fulfillment.
  • Gatto issues a call to action:
    • Recognize the dark side of schooling and its impact on individuals and society.
    • Actively resist its attempts to limit thinking, creativity, and individual potential.
    • Seek out alternative educational experiences that nurture curiosity, critical thinking, and a love of learning.
  • Gatto believes that by understanding and challenging the hidden agendas of schooling, individuals can reclaim their right to a meaningful and empowering education. He leaves the reader with the responsibility to carry on this fight:

    • “But you’ll have to convince yourself of the substance of my allegation, that some sort of dark matter, some powerful but invisible force is at work in schooling. If you are to become strong enough to defend yourself and your family, I can’t do the work for you. You can’t memorize my conclusions.”

    • “Because you choose not to see the dark world school represents, because you only pay attention to its stupidities, it gets worse all the time.”

    • “Do I mean to imply that Highland School is the worst school in America? Hardly. For all I know, it is one of the best. Certainly it’s one of the richest. What you need to ask yourself is how many school districts from coast to coast find truth unbearable because it gets in the way of their real mission.”

    • “Unless the ends of the operation are put on public trial, and its sexual relationship with economics and social management exposed to the light and ended, each reform effort will only be another illusion, another room added to the National House of Mirrors.”

    • “Our government thinks some companies are too big to be allowed to fail, and that schooling is too important to allow education to get in its way.”

Afterword: Invitation to an Open Conspiracy

Afterward

  • Verse: Mark 9:42
  • Content: Whoever causes a child to sin would be better off thrown into the sea with a millstone around their neck.

Invitation to an Open Conspiracy: The Bartleby Project

  • Source: Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto (2008)

The Purpose of the Bartleby Project

  • Goal: Destroy the standardized testing industry.
  • Method: Open conspiracy with individuals acting as independent unit commanders.
  • Reasoning:
    • Standardized testing is more damaging than beneficial to individuals and society.
    • Test destruction, not reform, is the only solution.

The Problems With Standardized Testing

  • Ineffectiveness:
    • Information generated is unreliable and misleading.
    • Data is unused in adult life.
    • No correlation between test performance and future success.
  • Damaging Effects:
    • Significant personal and social harm to students.
    • Ranking system creates winners and losers, fostering a sense of inferiority.
  • Tool of Social Control:
    • Weaponized by social engineers to control institutional schooling.
    • Used to classify individuals as human resources.
  • Waste of Resources:
    • Hundreds of millions of school days lost to test preparation, administration, and recovery.
    • Tens of billions of dollars diverted to private companies.

The Outlaw Ethic of Institutional Schooling

  • Example: New York City Public Schools’ failure to provide mandated physical education.
    • Only 1 in 25 students receive the legal minimum of 24 minutes of physical education per day (New York Sun, May 8, 2008).
    • Parents concerned about lack of physical education, but have no significant voice in school decisions.
  • Consequences:
    • National epidemic of childhood obesity and diabetes.
    • Physical and psychological harm to students.
  • Institutional Hypocrisy:
    • NYC Board of Education claims to be “beginning to realize” the importance of student health after a century of control (New York Sun, May 8, 2008).
    • Schools continue to prioritize confinement over physical activity.
  • Conclusion:
    • Institutional schooling operates with an outlaw ethic, disregarding student well-being.
    • Schools will act against student and faculty interests under pressure.

The Decline of American Education

  • Post-World War II: Schooling replaced education.
    • Standardization based on the German model.
    • Standardized testing implemented and gradually gained importance (fully implemented by 1963).
  • 1950s: Curriculum dumbed down, teachers became less connected to the community.
  • 1960s: Test scores become the primary measure of excellence.
  • 1970s: Schools become a lucrative business, further incentivizing the status quo.
    • Eccentricity in teaching is persecuted.
    • Tracking systems solidify the division of students based on perceived ability.
    • Curriculum for affluent students is equivalent to that of working-class students in the 1940s-50s.

The Assumption of Inherent Inferiority

  • Prevalent Belief: The majority of the population is inherently incapable of intellectual growth beyond a mental age of 12.
  • Proponents:
    • Abraham Lincoln ridiculed this view in 1859 (Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life).
    • Edward Thorndike, inventor of educational psychology at Columbia Teachers College.
    • H.H. Goddard, Chairman of the Psychology Department at Princeton.
    • James Bryant Conant, President of Harvard.
    • Major private foundations (e.g., Rockefeller, Carnegie).
    • Historical figures like Plato, John Calvin, Benedict Spinoza, Johann Fichte, Charles Darwin, and Francis Galton.
  • Consequences:
    • Justification for limited educational expectations.
    • Acceptance of rigid social class systems.
  • American Exceptionalism (Pre-Civil War):
    • Ordinary citizens controlled education.
    • Egalitarian ethic prevailed.
    • Self-education thrived, enabling social mobility.
  • Post-WWII Shift:
    • The German model eroded opportunities for escape from the system.
    • Decline in national prospects and material wealth due to the suppression of individual potential.

The Power of Citizen Action and The Bartleby Solution

  • Foundational Rights: American founding documents guarantee inalienable rights, including liberty, that are undermined by compulsory schooling.
  • Need for Drastic Action: Revitalizing education requires a complete rejection of government control (Alexander Sholzhenitsyn, “How to Revitalize Russia,” Pravda, September 18, 1988).
  • The Bartleby Solution:
    • Inspired by Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1853).
      • Bartleby, a copyist, exercises passive resistance by responding to requests with, “I would prefer not to.”
      • This simple act disrupts the workplace and exposes the limitations of control.
    • Students are called upon to peacefully refuse standardized tests.
    • Write “I would prefer not to take this test” on the test forms.

Implementing the Bartleby Project

  • Decentralized Structure:
    • No formal organization or leadership to prevent co-option or corruption.
    • Individuals act independently, guided by the shared goal.
  • Target Audience: 60 million American students.
  • Messaging:
    • Tests are unnecessary and harmful to education.
    • Students have the right to refuse.
  • Anticipated Challenges:
    • Intimidation and threats of retribution from authorities.
    • Denial of college admissions (unlikely due to colleges needing students).

The Success of “Bartleby Moments”

  • Historical Examples of Citizen-Led Change:
    • The end of the Vietnam War.
    • The fall of the Berlin Wall.
    • The collapse of the Soviet Union.
  • Common Thread: Peaceful, persistent resistance by ordinary people.

The Future of Education: Embracing the Bartleby Spirit

  • Smith College’s Decision (May 27, 2008):
    • No longer requiring SAT scores for admission.
    • Prioritizing writing, character, talent, and extracurricular achievements.
    • No decline in academic ability observed.
  • Call to Action:
    • Reject compromise.
    • Embrace the power of “I would prefer not to.”
    • Students must lead the way in dismantling the testing empire and reclaiming true education.
About Me:

I’m Christian Mills, a deep learning consultant specializing in practical AI implementations. I help clients leverage cutting-edge AI technologies to solve real-world problems.

Interested in working together? Fill out my Quick AI Project Assessment form or learn more about me.