The Underground History of American Education
by John Taylor Gatto
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Book Summary Information
Author: John Taylor GattoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Published: 2001
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 414
Publisher: The Oxford Village Press
Book Reviews of The Underground History of American Education
Book Review: Some good ideas buried under poor writing and a lack of focus
Summary: 1 Stars
First, some background on myself: I am a former high school math teacher in Colorado. I have dealt firsthand with nonsense in schools, including being ordered in a meeting with myself and another teacher to give passing grades to students in Algebra I who couldn't manage even a 58% score for the year.
That said, when I was told of this book by my brother, I was intrigued. How DID we get to where we are today? Months later, he gave me this book as a gift and I dove right in. And that's where the excitement stopped.
Gatto seems to have hit on a fantastic topic and he does ask some thought-provoking questions. Unfortunately, the good material comes about once every 20 pages, if that, and it's completely obscured by a lack of focus and organization. The book is divided up into hundreds of mini-essays, with the order for those essays (at times) seemingly random. The result is that the book wanders all over the place and Gatto's central point gets lost.
In addition, though he repeatedly states that there is "no conspiracy" in the development of the American education system, he systematically lays one out. He ties together wildly disparate groups and people, then paints them with titles like "Fabianist" even when he himself admits it doesn't apply. As my brother put it, "Yeah, he does go off into tin foil hat territory".
Further, Gatto seems to give far too much credence to obscure academic reports that couldn't possibly have been read or used by as many people as he implies.
And, finally, Gatto seems to long for a return of the one room schoolhouse and the education of yore. He claims that American had a literacy rate of 99.8% in the 1700s. That might be possible - if one excluded slaves as Gatto has obviously done (without mentioning it). Errors like this are found throughout.
Bottom line: Really not worth the effort and time, despite the good ideas that might be buried within.
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