John Taylor Gatto | |
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Born | |
Died | October 25, 2018 New York City, US | (aged 82)
Nationality | American |
Other names | John Gatto |
Education | Cornell University[citation needed] University of Pittsburgh[citation needed] Yeshiva University[citation needed] Hunter College[citation needed] Reed College[citation needed] University of California, Berkeley[citation needed] |
Occupations |
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Known for |
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Spouse | Janet Gatto[citation needed] |
Website | www |
John Taylor Gatto[2] (December 15, 1935[3] – October 25, 2018[4]) was an American author and school teacher. After teaching for nearly 30 years he authored several books on modern education, criticizing its ideology, history, and consequences. He is best known for his books Dumbing Us Down: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, and The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling, which is considered to be his magnum opus by Vincent Kelley.[4]
Biography
Gatto was born to Andrew Michael Mario and Frances Virginia (née Zimmer) Gatto in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, a steel town near Pittsburgh. In his youth he attended public schools throughout the Pittsburgh Metro Area including Swissvale, Monongahela, and Uniontown as well as a Catholic boarding school in Latrobe. He did undergraduate work at Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia, then served in the U.S. Army medical corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Following army service he did graduate work at the City University of New York, Hunter College, Yeshiva University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell.[citation needed]
He worked as a writer and held several odd jobs before borrowing his roommate's license to investigate teaching.[citation needed] Gatto also ran for the New York State Senate, 29th District in 1985 and 1988 as a member of the Conservative Party of New York against incumbent David Paterson.[5] He was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991[citation needed] and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.[6] In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled I Quit, I Think, to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, saying that he no longer wished to "hurt kids to make a living."[7] He then began a public speaking and writing career, and has received awards from libertarian organizations, including the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Excellence in Advancement of Educational Freedom in 1997.[8]
Gatto promoted homeschooling, and specifically unschooling and open source learning. Wade A. Carpenter, associate professor of education at Berry College, has called his books "scathing" and "one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate"[9] and describes himself as in agreement with Gatto.[10]
Gatto was featured in the 2011 documentary film, IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America.[citation needed]
In 2011, Gatto had two major strokes[citation needed] which occurred after he completed the filming of The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto which was released in early 2012 by Tragedy and Hope Communications.[11][12]
Main thesis
Gatto asserts the following regarding what school does to children in Dumbing Us Down:
- It confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials, this programming is similar to the television; it fills almost all the "free" time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
- It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
- It makes them indifferent.
- It makes them emotionally dependent.
- It makes them intellectually dependent.
- It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
- It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.[4][13]
He also draws a contrast between communities and “networks,” with the former being healthy, and schools being examples of the latter. He says networks have become an unhealthy substitute for community in the United States.[14]
Gatto's book aimed to inspire education advocates and the inception of Praxis tests. This testing measured academic competence and knowledge of specific subjects required for teaching. Praxis tests are taken by potential educators as part of certification required by state and professional licensing entities.[15]
Gatto demystifies the apparent confusion and meaninglessness of public schooling system by exposing its real purpose and function. According to Gatto, the purpose of public education can be boiled down the six functions described by Alexander Inglis in his 1918 book Principles of Secondary Education:[16][17]
- The adjustive or adaptive function. Schools are designed to establish fixed habits of response to authority.
- The integrating function. The purpose of this function is to make kids as like as possible.
- The diagnostic and directive function. Schools determine each student's proper social role.
- The differentiating function. Students are trained no more than to meet the standards of determined social role.
- The selective function. Unadopted students are treated like inferiors in order to prevent their reproduction.
- The propaedeutic function. Small fraction of selected students is created in order to continue the schooling system.
Selected bibliography
Articles and essays
- "Against School." Harper’s Magazine (September 2003), pp. 33–38. "How public education cripples our kids, and why."
Books
- Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: A Critical Commentary. New York: Monarch Press (1975). ISBN 978-0671009663. OCLC 5687233.
- Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers (1992). Foreword by Thomas Moore. ISBN 0865714487. OCLC 926842308.
- The Exhausted School: The First National Grassroots Speakout on the Right to School Choice: Carnegie Hall, New York City. New York: Oxford Village Press (1993). Preface by Patrick Farenga. ISBN 978-0945700029. OCLC 1010741721.
- A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling. Berkeley, Calif.: Berkeley Hills Books (2002). ISBN 978-1893163218. OCLC 1043481859.
- The Underground History of American Education. New York: Oxford Village Press (2001). ISBN 978-0945700043. OCLC 45004688.
- Revised edition (2017) by Oxford Scholars Press (New York) features a foreword is by U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, an introduction by David Ruenzel, and an afterword by Richard Grove of Tragedy & Hope media.[18]
- Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling. Gabriola Island, B.C. (Canada): New Society Publishers (2008). ISBN 978-0865716315. OCLC 1073186340.
- The Adventures of Snider, the CIA Spider. Lost Tools Press (2017). Illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert. ISBN 978-0989280037.
Filmography
Documentaries
- Human Resources Documentary (2010)
- IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity (2011)
- Thrive: What on Earth Will It Take? (2011)
- The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto (2012)
See also
- Critical pedagogy
- Deschooling Society (book by Ivan Illich)
- Hidden curriculum
- How Children Fail (book by John Holt)
- Total institution
Other critics of public education:
References
- ^ "John Taylor Gatto". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
- ^ After learning he was regularly confused with another teacher named John Gatto, he added Taylor to his pen name.
- ^ "Birthdatabase (.com)". Stephenmorse.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
- ^ a b c Kelley, Vincent (October 25, 2019). "John Taylor Gatto Challenged the Ideas Inherent in US Mass Schooling". Truthout. Archived from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
- ^ "THE ELECTIONS; New York State Senate Archived 2009-03-01 at the Wayback Machine". New York Times. November 10, 1988.
- ^ New York's Teachers of the Year, New York State Education Department (accessed April 5, 2014). Archived February 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Gatto, John Taylor (1991-07-25). "I Quit, I Think". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
- ^ "[1] Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine". Alexis de Tocqueville Award. April 5, 2014.
- ^ Wade A. Carpenter (2007). "For Those We Won't Reach: An Alternative" (PDF). Educational Horizons. 85 (3): 153n8. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 22, 2011.
- ^ Wade A. Carpenter. "Behind Every Silver Lining: The Other Side of No Child Left Behind" (PDF). Educational Horizons. 85 (1). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 21, 2011.
- ^ "The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto (Intro + Hour 1 of 5)". YouTube. January 1, 2012. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
- ^ "The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto". Tragedyandhope.com. February 3, 2012. Archived from the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
- ^ See John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down. The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, Iceland Gabriola: New Society Publishers, 2005, p. 2–11
- ^ John Taylor Gatto, "Why Schools Don't Educate", The Natural Child Project https://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto.html Archived 2018-09-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Praxis". www.ets.org. Archived from the original on June 18, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
- ^ Gatto, John Taylor (2009), Weapons of Mass Instruction, pp. xviii–xix
- ^ "Against School". wesjones. September 2003. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- ^ The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteachers's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling. Archived 2021-07-28 at the Wayback Machine WorldCat. OCLC 992978582.
External links
- Official website
- The Underground History of American Education at Internet Archive
- Dumbing Us Down at Internet Archive
- "The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher" – originally published in Whole Earth Review, Fall 1991
- The Seven Lesson School Teacher
- "Why Schools Don't Educate - Teacher of the Year acceptance speech"
- I Quit, I Think letter
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- John Taylor Gatto at IMDb
- Works by or about John Taylor Gatto in libraries (WorldCat catalog)