Ever hear of John Taylor Gatto?

[cavalier973]

I just learned about this guy from reading the comments section of Eric Peter's take on the Aurora, CO liberty massacre.

"What does the school do with the children? Gatto states the following assertions in "Dumbing Us Down":
 1.It makes the children confused. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that 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.
 2.It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
 3.It makes them indifferent.
 4.It makes them emotionally dependent.
 5.It makes them intellectually dependent.
 6.It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
 7.It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.[8]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto

[cavalier973]

"The empire struck back, of course; childish adults regularly conflate opposition with disloyalty. I once returned from a medical leave to discover that all evidence of my having been granted the leave had been purposely destroyed, that my job had been terminated, and that I no longer possessed even a teaching license. After nine months of tormented effort I was able to retrieve the license when a school secretary testified to witnessing the plot unfold. In the meantime my family suffered more than I care to remember. By the time I finally retired in 1991, I had more than enough reason to think of our schools - with their long-term, cell-block-style, forced confinement of both students and teachers - as virtual factories of childishness."

http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm

[moustachefart]

never heard of gatto. from the little bit i read i don't see anything inaccurate or absurd in what he's said.

hopefully his background will give some credibility to the subject. thankfully he hasn't used the canard that it's a state conspiracy to keep your children dumb by keeping them in public schools. that sort of thing really discredits the real problem i think we have.

the emotional development in public schools seem to be completely retarded though (not in the pejorative sense.)
a really good documentary that illustrates this point is called "Children Full of Life." these japanese kids are probably more emotionally mature in fourth grade than i am now. definitely check it out:

Children Full of Life (1 of 5)