John Taylor Gatto was the 1991 New York State teacher of the
year. He is also a confirmed critic of the education system and efforts to
reform it. His book, Dumbing us Down: The
Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education, is a series of essays on the matter.
He idealizes the self-education found in this country through its early years.
They are, in his view the foundation of democracy and progress. The republication of his 1992 classic
highlights the challenges of public education and proposed the elimination of
it as the only solution the challenges of poverty, teen suicide, drug addiction
and illiteracy.
His essay entitled “We Need Less Schooling Not More” was the
one that struck me most profoundly. He epitomizes the family as the ultimate
learning machine, the community as the fertile ground in which learning grows
and networks as the downfall of society. In his view communities are small
groups that regulate their participants and look after themselves. They are
small, deeply knit groups that work together for a common cause. Networks, on
the other hand are liable to be large, like schools, all-inclusive and thrive
on the lack of individualism and holistic nature of humankind. Networks dehumanize
people, reducing them to limited bites whose sole interest is what you can do
for me (p. 53). While the book contains an introduction and afterward written
for the modern reader, this essay is not based in modern times in which our
virtual networks and social media have further isolated us and our
interactions. One only has to go to a restaurant, public event or grocery store
to see the fodder that would support Gatto’s assertions here. People do not
talk to those they are with, they text and surf their cell phones. They may be
with people, like their children, spouses or friends, but their attention is
elsewhere. Networks have become substitutions for deep friendships and
relationships.
Gatto asserts that teacher unions are trying to persuade the
business community to hire and promote based on grades (p.60). Today we see
this as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) includes a statement that students who
pass the high school exams will be required to be exempt from remedial classes
in college. Since these tests will be required to graduate, the conclusion is
that all students will be ready for college upon graduation- something that is
not true today. Currently we Estimate between 20% for private four year schools
to 60% for community colleges of students take remedial classes. If our
graduates are going to meet the bar of being ready for college one of a few
things must happen:
·
Fewer students will graduate- the bar is raised,
students incapable of meeting the current bar will not be able to jump over a
raised one and they will leave school without a diploma.
·
New diploma tracks will be developed- passed the
CCSS test and graduate verses some form of a not yet there but has attended
school and is on track to eventually get there.
·
Colleges will reduce standards and require
passing a higher level course that students may need to take repeatedly to pass.
·
Fewer students will attend college.
These selections are all incompatible with the Common Core
standards. While the business community is unlikely to buy into the grades= money
phenomena, colleges might be mandated to do so.
Gatto sees schools as agents that divide and classify “people,
demanding that they compulsively compete with each other, and publicly labels
the losers by literally degrading them, identifying them as ‘low class’ losers”(p.
61). Clearly he sees the worst of school and society. I wonder, however, how he
reconciles this concept with his model Puritan village. They were quick to
degrade nonconformists, often embarrassing, killing or exiling those who were
different and thus “losers.” Even the Puritans competed with each other; there
was a hierarchy that was based in the quality of your family, the frequency of
your church going and the fiscal success of your enterprises.
He contrasts this modern vision of schooling with what sees
as the purpose of education, “discovering meaning for yourself as well as discovering
satisfying purpose for yourself” (p. 62). While self-discovery was important
for some of our early pioneer learners like Franklin and Lincoln, they had
access to books that had great storehouses of information. They had mentors who
helped them in their “self-discovery.” Teachers are our modern day mentors. We
will discount the many individuals throughout our early years that were
illiterate and poorly educated. Families that are supported by either two
working parents or single family households where the sole supporter is working
are not available for the omnipresent family development and support that Gatto
envisions as critical to self-discovery. Schools fill an interaction void that
modern life has created. The advent of constant electronic communication has
magnified this void since the largest periods of time kids spend face to face
talking is in schools. Some proponents of technology are advocating for
limiting this interaction by implementing increased amounts of screen time in
school. Will this lead to self-discovery and purpose- unlikely. Although some
of the CCSS methodologies emphasize self-discovery, there is a huge challenge
in this idea. Only so many hours are available for school to teach. In the
historic past of Gatto’s ideal, there was less to learn, and students did not
experience self-discovery in their one room school house epitomized by rote
learning.
Gatto effectively points out the contradictions of schools
in relation to families. He states that “schools stifle families” (p. 67). I
have seen this over and over as my children have marched through school. Most recently
at the high school midterm test schedules were emailed to students, not their
families. Students were expected to only be in school during their exams, and
were not to be present if they had no tests. I do believe a consequence of this
idea is that families need to help out with transporting their darlings, even
if they do not have the schedule that came out a full week before the testing was
to begin. We do not live in a community where kids walk to school or where
public transportation exists. Parents were required to struggle to provide
supervision of their children who were prohibited from being in school if they
had no exams. Although most high schoolers can spend time on their own, we know
that doing so results in an increase in vandalism, self-destructive behavior
like drug-use and screen time which results in increased violence and obesity.
Schools that want parents to be involved invite them into school and education
meaningfully. Our current system falls far short of this. I do not, however,
see the down time kids have as being used in a journey of self-discovery. I
think that perhaps this vision that Gatto has is just that, a vision or ideal,
much like the creators of the CCSS have toward the standards- lightly based in
reality but lacking the solid foundation of the real world.
Gatto’s writing has become a cornerstone of homeschooling
proponents who are looking for deep values and limited exposure to perceived “deviant”
influences. I understand that there are many unsavory things that children are
exposed to in schools. I would have been grateful if my son did not pick up
some of his colorful vocabulary there. If I do not want my children to live in
an isolsate environment and want them to engage in the wonderful, rich experiences
the world has to offer, however, they need to figure out how to navigate these
unsavory elements. It is my job to teach the values. I know that many parents
have abdicated that role, knowingly or unknowingly, but that is not an excuse
to decry public education. Families need to use the local control we have and
fight for the righting of school policies and “norms” that are in the best
interests of children and families. This decision is a local one, that will be
encased in debate, but that is the essence of democracy.
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