Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
Book Review: So idealistic and impractical
Summary: 3 Stars
This little piece of propaganda will resonate well with upper middle class, white, Christian parents. With few facts and lots of fudged logic, Gatto paints a world in which we'd all be better off by learning from respected elders within our own communities.
Having said that, though, it's a must read for any educator.
-Professor of Statistics
Book Review: Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Summary: 5 Stars
Do you value the freedom to make your wise decisions for your children's education? Read it!
That is all that matters in this review.
Book Review: Heed the words from this experienced insider
Summary: 5 Stars
Similar to Mr. Gatto, I too have spent years as a secondary teacher in the compulsory, public school system (and finally able to leave it) and I wholeheartedly agree that typical public schools, as well as typical private schools, are unhealthy places for a young person's mental and emotional development.
Regarding curriculum, the non-wholistic, fragmentation of subjects naturally leads to a fragmented understanding of the world and self. And the top-down, authoritarian nature of classrooms stifles independent thinking and personal initiative in learning.
Regarding emotional and social development of young people, our compulsory, age-segregated school model inhibits interaction and healthy relationships with most people (that is, anyone who is not of your own age. The negative repercussions of this becomes more evident when you consider it for a while) Jr. high and high schools are perhaps the worst places for young people to develop socialization skills and healthy relationships. They are herded with hundreds and most often, thousands, of other individuals in the same general age group which creates group/mob mentalities and inevitably leads to the creation of cliques. Psychologists, and many of our own personal or observed experiences, informs us that adolescence is a life stage characterized by a heightened need for approval and acceptance. Jr. and high school settings compound this into a strong sense of insecurity whereby most teens closely conform to their cliques in thought, action, and even personal appearance. Most of us are aware that these cliques are characterized by harsh judgement of others who are "different" from themselves- in thought, action, age, and even choice of clothing. (Again, the repercussions of this carries long into one's lifetime.) Consequently, jr. and high schools especially inhibit understanding of, and compassion for, people who are not 'exactly like you.' In effect, schools hardly prepare people for the real world of interpersonal and professional relationships. Compulsory schools do however, achieve what they intended to do since their inception a hundred years ago-- to instill unquestioned obedience to authority, which serves governments and corporate elitists quite well and keeps the current social machine turning. But it does little for the life and mind of the individual. Gatto's book and other writings discuss all of this well with insight of character and historical evidence.
Book Review: Repetitive, unsubstantiated assertions that may yet be true.
Summary: 2 Stars
This collection of essays and speeches work as an effective, if repetitive polemic anthem against the supposed systemic flaws of compulsory public education (or "schooling," as Gatto would insist on putting it).
My chief criticism of it would be that Gatto mercilessly appeals to the emotion and intuition of the reader, offering little in the way of empirical evidence, hard facts or even insightful anecdotes (which one would expect from a former teacher with 30 years experience in the system), leaving it up to the reader to make some fairly large leaps of logic to reach the conclusion championed by Gatto -- that public school system cannot be effectively reformed and privatization of education is the only viable option remaining.
The details of how this option would be implemented, on a large or even very limited scale is not explored in any amount of depth. The closest he comes to describing such a system are brief mentions made to short-lived programs of his own devising (where he encourages or requires his students to engage in apprenticeship and community service about the area) and the apparent successes in education and healthy community arising from the dialectic Congregationalism of colonial New England.
This book may pique your interest (assuming it had not already been piqued) favorably regarding privatization of the school system (or homeschooling), but temper your expectations. A better referenced work of greater rigor will probably be required if you're really interested in exploring the problems and solutions of education in America.
Book Review: Institutionalized schooling, a prererequisite for the modern workplace
Summary: 5 Stars
John Taylor Gatto's assessment of modern public schooling methods is all the more pertinent in light of the many years he spent as a teacher. This book essentially consists of several speeches he presented at award ceremonies at which he was presented with teaching awards.
Gatto points out that the public schooling apparatus serves to teach bureaucratic structure, rather than content. The form and structure always take precedence over the individual. Students exit the public schooling assembly line even more intellectually and psychologically dependent than when they entered it. This isn't an accident.
While students learn things like how to read, perform arithmetic, etc., what they truly learn, above all else, is how to adjust in order to fit into a vastly dehumanizing system, as well as how to dehumanize others "below" them within the power food chain. They learn to put aside individual interests, talents and the innate human love of learning to make room for absorbing what others would direct them to learn and parrot. They learn to organize their daily lives into little slivers deemed valuable by those in authority, to passively submit to an unjustified authoritarian hierarchy and to substitute lived experience and understanding with carbon copies. In short, students learn how to be a externally-directed people with no individual, personal understanding or sense of intrinsic human worth outside of "the system." In fact, the objective of modern institutionalized schooling, according to Gatto, is production of valuable worker bee drones with "marketable skills" for the modern workplace-- people who submit to systematized authority without asking questions or rocking the boat.
One reviewer referred to Gatto as "cynical." I am not sure how encouraging a restoration of faith in the individual and the child, as opposed to rigid synthetic systems and institutions, could possibly be considered "cynical" on a human level. However, there is no doubt that this book is an assessment of the issue, as opposed to a book of feel-good solutions. This book is an excellent first step to understanding the inherently flawed institutionalized schooling system that produces citizens who are unable to think critically and ask important questions.