I’ve just read John Taylor Gatto’s “Dumbing Us Down, the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling.” I’ve heard Brett Veinotte on the School Sucks Podcast talk about Gatto’s exposition of the origins of the North American school system. Given that, I expected a lot more from this particular book. Instead this book is a largely a collection of speeches, converted into essay form, as opposed to a systematic deconstruction of the school system.
I did enjoy those essays, but my reaction included a lot of “Sir, you are preaching to the choir.” I am guessing that the book that I really wanted was his “The Underground History of American Education“, which weighs in at ~450 pages.
PJ, you are CORRECT, sir, and while Underground is a big heavy read…it is worth every page.
Your take on Dumbing” is the same as mine — a lot of Gatto’s work has been sufficiently popularized to become commonplace.
The Underground History…is the background, context and tentacles of the beast. Very personal. Very radical. If you don’t like it after 20-30 pages, put it down without regrets. But i think you will…