School reform

[drscott]

Various discussions with nashobabear and items in the news had me looking at Joanne Jacobs' excellent blog on educational reform issues, where I discovered John Taylor Gatto's book The Underground History of American Education has been put up on the Web. His major point is that public education as we know it is oppressive, demeaning, socially damaging, and retards actual education. He does not posit a conspiracy to implement this system of social control, but suggests that it suits a Leviathan state to cripple its subjects by indoctrinating them in boredom and submission.

Here's a few of his Web-available writings:

A Short Angry History of American Forced Schooling
The Public School Nightmare: Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought?
The Underground History of American Education

While I don't agree that things are as bad as he states, reading this material is a useful antidote to the constant praise for public schools, as if education were like some commodity that can be purchased and injected into children if only enough money were spent on it. I am already sympathetic to his point of view because I suffered severely in public schools -- not only the usual tortures of bullying and abuse, but also from the forced study of things I was uninterested in which constantly broke the natural flow of learning about other topics I was curious about.

Comments

Public vs. Private Education

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

From grades 7-12, I attended a small (about 100 students total, K-12) private school.

It was a "Christian Academy." There was not a lot of bullying. I enjoyed it for the most part.

But there was lots of "forced study" of things: Old Testament History. New Testament History. Not too practical. It certainly "broke the natural flow" of learning about other topics in which I was curious. It definitely did not prepare me for the real world, and I received a poorer education. The days were filled with fundamentalist rhetoric. Unabashed indoctrination. Individual thought? You've got to be kidding.

My point is that you can't pick on the public schools without picking on the private schools. Most private schools in the U.S. are church schools.

Re: Public vs. Private Education

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Well, ugh! That does sound awful. Blame your parents.

But having two ideologies (Church and State) contending over how to best cripple young minds doesn't mean the public version should be tolerated. At first parents, and then children themselves as they mature, must take responsibility for the education of the young.

I do realize that many people think any support for alternative education means funding church schools, and is thus another battle in a two-sided culture war, but I say let diversity bloom and let parents decide how educational money is to be spent. Some poor souls (like you) will have to endure religious training they don't want, but many, many others (especially in those powerless groups Bob is talking about) will find they can get a real school for their child rather than a juvenile detention facility.

[ex-nashobabe711.livejournal.com]

Things tend to look worse than they really are, when one is in the middle of the maelstrom. On the other hand, no sense in waiting until the house has burned to the ground before deciding a phone call to the fire department might not be a bad idea...

Public, Vs Private

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I went to a public school, and granted, it was one of the better public school districts in and around Tacoma.

I agree that neither is inharently better or worse than the other, but what I do see is how children are taught. It stiffles creativity, often teaches things that not relivant to real life and many kids graduate without a solid grounding in the basics.

Cognitive thinking, problem solving are rarely taught in grade school. Usually the child, when he/she enters college get taught that, but I feel it needs to be taught from at least Jr High on.

I was not a good student in grade school, much less in my early years in college. I was often lucky to get a "C" in most classes. I do distinctly recall in HS asking why we had to diagram sentences when we don't even do that in real life.

Strangely, I write pretty well despite it all. I think what I learned, I mostly did on my own, or through osmosis. :-)

I don't have answers, but I do think that the teacher/student interaction and how teachers teach needs a good rethinking if we are to produced fairly well rounded (hopefully) young adults upon graduation.