The 6 Lesson Schoolteacher

[masaka___]

http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html

For those of you with the time and inclination, please follow the link above and then post your thoughts on this essay by John Taylor Gatto.

Because I'm not a democrat and because I have no strong feelings for public education, I was able to accept much of this essay. However, I wonder what people who our strongly in favor of public education think of this essay?

[SharonAnn]

1. Hmm, sounds like something put together by conservatives for

their education students "Rules for Teaching the conservative Way".

[BBradley]

2. As someone who just graduated from High School last year

That is how I perceived school. Control. Get them while they're young, and they'll become good slaves to society.

[Maple]

3. This is teaching

for the industrial age...factory jobs and so on. Show up on time, do your work, please your boss, don't ask questions, move when you hear a bell ring...the school becomes a factory producing assembly line graduates in fact.

It isn't particularly American. I went to similar schools in Canada half a century ago. English schools were the same at the time. I don't know of any schools this regimented now.

[liberalhistorian]

5. Neither do I; my parents

are retired teachers and this is not at all their experience. Of course, I'm a strong believer in and proponent of public education, and I also know the history of American education, so I think this essay is bullshit and has no real meaning to the current American classroom.

Republicans have been trying for forever to dismantle public education because the last thing they want is for the riff-raff common man to be educated.

[On the Road]

4. I Don't Think It's a Public-Private Divide

It's a reflection of the way school is taught in 90% of classrooms in this country. And in most countries.

It's one reason my daughter went to Montessori school when she was young. It breaks every one of these rules and results in better students when the kids get older.

BTW, I like the essay very much. It deals with the frame rather than the picture, which is often less important.

[masaka___]

6. I see a lot of mixed opinions on this...

...which is interesting.

I'm at least glad that it wasn't blasted outright, because based on my own experience as a student in the public school system, a lot of this essay rung true.

[SmokingJacket]

7. I believe in public education because without it...

the poor and disadvantaged would get NO education. And in order to make public education as good as it can be, even the children of the wealthy and over-educated should participate.

Yes -- Gatto shows education -- and NOT just public education: many private schools are very authortarian -- at its worst.

So -- don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Make it better.