Never let your schooling get in the way of your education!
Source: http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/04/05
Education Reform
Date:04-05-09
Host:George Noory
Guests:John Taylor Gatto
Appearing during the middle two hours, education reformer John Taylor Gatto offered a critique of the American school system. Compulsory education has been set up to render the population manageable, and instill a reflexive obedience to a factory/corporate hierarchical system, he said. Yet, this kind of modality has become hopelessly out of sync with what the world has become, he argued.
Standardized testing is a scam that reveals worthless information, rather than actual performance, Gatto commented. It's easier for students to learn in a more customized environment such as home schooling, he noted, adding that "open source learning" is a valid alternative to forced education. In open source learning, the student becomes the active initiator in their education, and chooses who they'll learn from and what they wish to study.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
Source: http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2004/12/06
Date:12-06-04
Host:George Noory
Guests:John Taylor Gatto
Legendary teacher and reformer John Taylor Gatto(1) presented a scathing critique of our compulsory education system. He told how in 1991 when he won the award of New York's Teacher of the Year, he audaciously quit the profession, saying that he could no longer abide by the faulty structure.
Schools turn out "incomplete people" who become indoctrinated into the work force, he declared. Citing the educational focus on memorization and short answer tests, these "weapons of mass instruction," turn out a more docile population, that has not learned the skill of thinking comprehensively, said Gatto.
Over the years, he has been impressed with many home schooling efforts. Freed from the strictures of the institutional settings, these students often show much more progress in intellectual and character development, he said. He recommended the book Hard Times in Paradise(2) by David and Micki Colfax for their insights into the home schooling process.
1. http://www.johntaylorgatto.com
2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446514896/ctoc
Related Articles
TV Addiction
"It wasn't until I became a teacher that I began to be driven crazy by TV," wrote John Taylor Gatto in an article(1) for American Enterprise. He claimed that kids who were heavy TV watchers were often "malicious to each other and sunk in chronic boredom."
The average person in the industrialized world watches three hours of TV per day, which amounts to about half of their leisure time. At that rate, if you live to 75, you'll spend a total of 9 years glued to the tube! Studies have associated TV's drawing power with our biological "orienting response," which is an instinctive attraction to certain types of visual stimuli. In an exploration of TV addiction, published in Scientific American(2), the authors found that people reported feeling more relaxed and passive while watching TV. But the relaxed feeling ended when the set was shut off and many participants said they felt as though their energy was sucked out of them.
A mountain community that previously had no TV, was studied to see how they changed after they were hooked up with cable. Over time it was found that both adults and children became less creative in problem solving and showed less perseverance at tasks. --L.L.(3)
1. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2185/is_2_10/ai_54062713
2. http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0005339B-A694-1CC5-B4A8809EC588EEDF
3. http://archive.coasttocoastam.com/info/about_lex.html
