It’s an education carnival
or more accurately…it’s the 22nd Carnival of Education. My series on An Underground History of American Education is linked.
The Underground History of American Education
Gatto – A final word
I hope ya’ll enjoyed the process as much as I did. The pressure of having “readers” definately motivated me to slog through the final few chapters. He does get a bit repetitive at the end. I had so much fun with this that I want to pick another book and do it again. Does anybody [...]
Gatto Chapter 18 – Breaking out of the trap (Part II)
If you’ve stuck with me this far, you know the origins of the public school system and you understand just how well it has achieved its initial goals. I might go as far to say it’s the most successful conspiracy applied to a mass audience in the history of mankind. At the heart of any [...]
Gatto Chapter 18 – Breaking out of the trap
After the torture of trying to read about the politics of schools in chapter 17, I was quite happy to dive in the 18th and final chapter of the book. In chapter 18, Gatto ties it all together for us. An overview of what we’ve learned, interlaced with examples of real life kids that succeeded [...]
Gatto Chapter 17 – The Politics of Schooling
I just can’t do it. I tried, I really tried. I read the first few pages, then I skimmed the rest. I can’t read it in depth. It’s too depressing. It’s also the longest chapter in the book. That alone says enough. This was the paragraph that pushed me over the edge and killed my [...]
Gatto Chapter 16 – A conspiracy against ourselves
The real conspirators were ourselves. When we sold our liberty for the promise of automatic security, we became like children in a conspiracy against growing up, sad children who conspire against their own children, consigning them over and over to the denaturing vats of compulsory state factory schooling. We were warned a long time ago…any [...]
Gatto Chapter 15 – The Psychopathy of Everyday Schooling
In this chapter, Gatto talks in the present for the first time. This is not a history lesson anymore, this is what the schools are doing to your kids today. If you’ve been keeping up, none of this will be a surprise. To understand how this happens, you have to grok the nature of bureaucracies. [...]
Gatto Chapter 14 – Absolute Absolution
Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. That is really all I can say after reading this chapter. In chapter 14 Gatto connects the history of Western spirituality and forced schooling in a way that I would not have believed possible 30 minutes ago. I can’t possibly do this chapter justice here. It’s way too deep [...]
Gatto Chapter 13 – The Empty Child
In chapter 13, Gatto explores the influence on BF Skinner and Behavioralism in the school system. To refresh your memory, behavioralism is the theory that we are all born as blank slates, and what we become is merely the sum total of our experiences. The connection to the schools should be obvious. If we are [...]
Gatto Chapter 12 – Daughters of the Baron of Runnymeade
I found this chapter fascinating on several levels. I’m really just now starting to comprehend the corporate influences that led to forced schooling. It really wasn’t a nefarious government plot. It was a nefarious, racist, elitist plot funded by corporate money and pushed through a sympathetic government that was too busy cashing the checks to [...]
Gatto Chapter 11 – The Crunch
In chapter 11, Gatto examines the role of racism is the early days of forced schooling. In the thirty years between 1890 and 1920, the original idea of America as a cosmopolitan association of peoples, each with its own integrity, gave way to urgent calls for national unity. Even before WWI added its own shrill [...]
Gatto Chapter 10 – The Character of a Village
Chapter 10 is all about Gatto’s childhood and how it impacted his teaching methodology and ultimately his repudiation of the teaching profession. I found it a nice little story, but it didn’t really connect with me, probably because I grew up a military brat and can not relate at all to spending my first 18 [...]
Gatto Chapter 9:The Cult of Scientific Management
I’m not sure if I’ve really got my brain wrapped around this chapter yet. I may have to read again to really get it. Gatto squarely lays the blame for public education, and the state of our current society in general, at the feet of two people most of us know fairly well. Frederick Taylor [...]
Gatto Chapter 8 – A Coal-Fired Dream World
In this chapter, Gatto explores the specific reasons and events behind forced schooling, or the mass production of people. The great industrialists on the late 19th and early 20th century correctly foresaw that coal, and later oil, could bring about great changes to American society. Coal put the potential for great power in the hands [...]
Gatto Chapter 7 – The Prussian Connection
The Prussian connection to American forced schooling has been hinted at previously. In this chapter, Gatto lays it out in detail. The connection can not be denied. It all starts at Jena in 1806, when Napoleon defeated a superior Prussian Army. Prussia, basically being a mercenary state, decided that centralized government education of the kids [...]
