John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018)
I read his book, "The Underground History of American Education," about ten years ago. It was a real page-turner. It was then that I REALLY realized that calling public schools, "child prisons" was not an exaggeration.
To this day I cringe when I see adult voters demand MORE government involvement in raising their kids, including "free" universal daycare. It's like watching someone eat glass.
I don't think it would be a stretch to imagine that if the government "education" system were to get hold of children the instant they emerged from the womb they would never learn to walk and talk. (With the insanity coming out of left field these days, it wouldn't even be that much of a stretch to imagine that the faster learners were making the other students "feel bad," and that therefore, they should be held back. To hell with the "white supremacist" meritocracy. Let's all just crawl and grunt. A true socialist utopia.)
My suspicion of public ed grew before I had much familiarity with Gatto, as my own kids served out their mandatory sentences in that system.
One thing I noticed was how tired they always looked when they got home with those zombie eyes. These were the same kids I had watched learn to walk, run, jump, and talk, and rip their fingers across a computer keyboard faster than I. All without a single hour of government instruction. (To them, keyboarding was just the "next level" in the game of learning.) Up until JK, they had already learned series of highly complex skills. And they had done so joyfully, which lead me to believe that the desire to learn is as natural as the desire to breathe.
After exposing them to the public school prisons for a few years and that joy in learning had been almost completely extinguished. Only the strongest survive. (Maybe that's the actual reason I got the strap almost every year and never won a "Citizenship Ward.")
I also remember the time when my son was in grade 8. I asked him what he was taking in science. I expected him to tell me about basic stuff, like precipitation, evaporation, and sublimation.
When he answered, "global warming" I almost blew a gasket. Those slimy Liberals were using their power over their young captive's minds to push political propaganda. They were cultivating little Liberals. Around the same time, I had a similar experience with my daughter. We were in the car and Al Gore's name was mentioned on the radio. I asked her if she'd ever heard of him. "Yes, we saw his movie in school."
OMFG! Public money was being used to enrich that climate shyster Al Gore.
It's time to turf this destructive notion that Government Inc. ought to play a key role in the business of education. Phase it out.
John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018): Remembering America's Most Courageous Teacher
The Underground History Of American Education
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