There were so many wonderful quotes here, and I kept thinking to myself, "Yes! This is exactly what I think, but didn't know how to articulate."

My only criticism is that Gatto seems to assume that individuals, left to their own devices, will somehow choose right and straighten themselves out, with "self-knowledge," etc. In reality, as shown over and over again in the Old Testament of the Bible, when people are left to their own devices and don't rely on God, havoc ensues. We cannot create our own purpose; we must acknowledge God's sovereignty and His purpose for our lives. We will find our purpose and sense of worth in the knowledge of His love. ( )

While I was prepared for the degree to which this book was an indictment of our public education system, I was unprepared for the degree to which it's an indictment of pretty much our whole society, including education, national government, mass media, etc...

I have to admit that I'm really still digesting the implications of the book and will probably need to re-read shortly. ( )

This book was okay. The only reason I’m giving it three stars is because it’s very hyperbolic and pretentious at times. I work in special education, so I’m with him that public education can be a nightmare in a lot of ways, and I agree that the federal government should have less power and the individual communities schools belong in should have more. But then he rages against television and fast food and gets all doom and gloom that everybody in America is a mindless idiot. That’s all a bit much. Couldn’t give it higher than 3 stars, despite agreeing with him on many points. ( )

Interesting ideas, quick read. If you think of it more as a transcribed speech than as well-thought-through-expose, and you'll be happy with it. ( )

I'm not sure what to think about this book; I found myself agreeing with Gatto's thesis despite all of his terrible arguments and proposed solutions for why the government monopoly education system is terrible. The book is in the form of several of Gatto's essays, but I would only suggest reading the first (The Psychopathic School -- coincidentally available online for free at http://theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/21PbAr/Ed/GattoPsyPathSchl.htm), as the rest of the book does little but harp on these same topics over and over.

The excerpts from the book that I liked can be found here:
http://sandymaguire.me/books/john-taylor-gatto-dumbing-us-down.html ( )

I am so glad I discovered this book. I think everyone should read this. I will be doing further research to educate myself on all sides after reading this. I completely see the correlations Gatto is making. I agree that school is a government serving institution and I believe it's important for children to learn on their own and in nature. I had honestly never thought about the fact that some of the most important and intelligent people of all time never attended a school. ( )

The only weak spot in this otherwise excellent treatise is the loooong chapter discussing the distinctions between networks and communities. It's a solid critique, but belabored. It drags down the momentum in the middle of the book.
Outside of that section, I found this immensely readable and inspiring. A classic in radical education for a reason. Prepare to question your allegiance to traditional schooling-- not just where it shows up in the public system but also where it shows up in your own thinking and priorities. ( )

Written by a man that taught in the monopoly called public school system, won awards for it, and lists what he taught;
confusion, class position, indifference, emotional dependency, intellectual dependency, and provisional self-esteem.
The national curriculum is a joke. And what is different from this book compared to others, he doesn't just list the things that are wrong with the system or bash the system. Mr. Gatto gives suggestions of tearing the institution apart and rebuilding it. Something I've yet to read anyone else do.
There's interesting historical information about children in Massachusetts in 1850 being forced to go to public school at gun point. Not a good start and it hasn't improved much. ( )

Though this book is several years old, it is still relevant today. Perhaps more so. Since the beginning of compulsory schooling, the literacy rates have gone down, while the bullying rate has gone up. Hmm. For a teacher in the trenches for 30 years, Gatto knows what he's talking about as he has seen it first hand.

It is quite sad to see how little education is taught in such a fashion and making kids still and quiet for so long, which is unnatural, of course. I'm surprised there aren't more incidents of pushback from students or parents.

This book makes me thankful, once again, that I chose to home school. It may not be for everyone, but it is definitely for me and my children.

( )

John Taylor Gatto is an award winning teacher that isn’t afraid to buck the trend.

Dumbing Us Down – The Hidden Curriculum Of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto is a masterly an in-depth view into how public schooling really works.

Sampling many of his best personal essays, Dumbing Us Down features the true reasons why education in our modern day system is failing: because it’s meant to be that way.

Gatto reinforces his main premise with a thorough examination of public schooling in America. He carries this out rather incisively given his no holds barred approach to the matter, and this is very refreshing.

While many others have tippy toed their way around the issue, Gatto harpoons the heart of the matter with statements such as:

“…schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders.”[1][Bold Emphasis Added]

“Schools are intended to produce, through the application of formulas, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled.”[2][Bold Emphasis Added]

“It is absurd and anti-life to be part of the system that compels you to sit in confinement with people of exactly the same age and social class. That system effectively cuts you off from the immense diversity of life and the synergy of variety; indeed it cuts you off from your own past and future, sealing you in a continuous present much the same way television does.”[3][Bold Emphasis Added]

Such scathing statements leave no question to Gatto’s courageous stance, and helps the reader understand the plight we face rather cogently.

Another component of this ongoing public schooling issue is how vital the community is, and more importantly, the family unit, in helping foster a healthier, more independent, more curious, and ultimately more self-sufficient individuals through proper education. While this might seem obvious in hindsight, it isn’t being employed that much at all in our modern environs.

Throughout the length of the book, Gatto fiercely touches upon the many different factors that have helped cause this growing dilemma. Some of these include the overwhelming amount of television being watched by society in general, and more specifically by children, while other components have to deal with the inherent designs of schooling such as the fragmentation of education, the removal of the family from an individual’s education, the poor life tenets individuals are taught, and much more.

One of the best parts of the book is what Gatto calls ‘The 7-Lesson School Teacher’, where the author shows what teachers are truly expected to inculcate into students. Once read, this particular lesson to the reader might seem facetious, but it’s really not. When one views what Gatto is stating with an open mind – while keeping cognizance of the fact that he worked decades for the system – then one completely gets to be aware of why failure in schooling isn’t the exception, but the rule.

In fact, more specifically, Gatto gets at the heart of why public schooling is destined to fail:

“Mass education cannot work to produce a fair society because its daily practice is practice in rigged competition, suppression and intimidation. The schools we’ve allowed to develop can’t work to teach nonmaterial values, the values which give meaning to everyone’s life, rich or poor, because the structure of schooling is held together by a Byzantine tapestry of reward and threat, of carrots and sticks. Official favor, grades, and other trinkets of subordination have no connection with education; they are the paraphernalia of servitude, not of freedom.”[69][Bold Emphasis Added]

Gatto has unbounded a phenomenal book in the field of public schooling and more importantly, what true education should encompass. Please keep in mind, schooling and education are not the same thing. Particularly, this differentiation and what each means is one of the main gems of this book.

To finalize, this book is a veritable fountain of information that is intense in precision and thought-provoking in its implications given that they filter into all aspects of our lives, and ultimately seep into the future. This is why it’s vitally important for individuals to become autodidacts, and help others become so through our interactions with our families and communities. Self-teaching is more important now than ever, especially with the deteriorating effects of public schooling.

Because of all the reasons mentioned above, and myriad more, this book is definitely a must read for everyone.

As the author saliently notes:

“Aristotle saw, a long time ago, that fully participating in a complex range of human affairs was the only way to become fully human…”[47][Bold Emphasis Added]

____________________________________________________
Sources & References:

[1] John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down – The Hidden Curriculum Of Compulsory Schooling, pg. 21.
[2] Ibid., pg. 23.
[3] Ibid., pg. 24.
[4] Ibid., pg. 69.
[5] Ibid., pg. 47. ( )

3.5 stars. 4 is too generous while 3 is unfair. The book brought up some interesting points, but nothing to write home about. ( )

‘Dumbing us down’ is subtitled, ‘The hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling’, and consists of the text of five speeches that the author has made. One of them, was somewhat ironically his acceptance speech after being given an award by his state for being ‘teacher of the year’. Thsi book is considered a classic in home educating circles.

The first chapter, ‘The seven-lesson school teacher’, outlines what the author perceives as the ‘lessons’ taught across the United States, no matter what the subject. The first lesson he mentions is ‘confusion’ - the non-connectedness of everything, something which often seems to be the case in standard schooling.

On the other hand, the second lesson, ‘Class position’, is something I didn’t relate to. Until secondary school, I don’t remember having grades at all; perhaps the UK has not yet gone so far down the 'dumbing' path as the US. Still, there's plenty to think about. Gatto argues that there are serious problems with the lack of privacy in schools and the need to learn what teachers decide rather than according to the student’s interests.

This book isn’t to attack education or classrooms as such; Gatto is, after all, a teacher himself. He merely wants to demonstrate the difficulties that can arise with the principle of classroom schooling as we know it, where the student has little say in what he learns. Obviously some schools are a great deal better than others.

Much of the book ties in with other books I’ve been reading on different topics, and issues in everyday life. I found myself several times seeing schooling as a metaphor for other aspects of human existence.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in education, whether at school or at home, and indeed to anyone interested in seeing how government restrictions can cause us to accept something that makes no sense at all when we think about it rationally. ( )

Fore pretty much everything this book has to offer and more I suggest his later work "Weapons of Mass Instruction." ( )

Although there were a few good points brought up in this book it really misses the mark as far as fixing things.

One of the problems the author singles out as an issue in the public schools is that children are learning how to be competitive in the school environment (grades, sports, and such). One solution offered is a type of homeschooling in which parents take bids from teachers who COMPETE with each other to earn the right to teach the child. Wait a minute...we don't want our children in a school environment that stresses competitiveness and part of the solution is employing a teacher using a competitive hiring system? It just seemed odd to me.

He mentions that this system should be operated much like the free market, you know, the one that recently collapsed and had to be bailed out by government. I don't think I would choose that as the prototype for the system I wish to educate my children with. Another issue with this system would be that families with more money would be able to "bid" more for teachers as opposed to a less financially stable family.

Another issue mentioned is that of the two wage earner family. I agree with his points in regards to this setup being detrimental to children. However this setup has evolved as a result of the economy as well as the government. In order to change education, you first have to change the economy and the way the government oversee's education. What good are reforms at the local or state level when the federal government can attempt override those changes if they so wish to?

Overall there were a lot of points that I agreed with the author on. I wish he had addressed the multitide of other factors that also need to be addressed if true educational reforms are to take place. ( )

Both love JTG but get squirrelly about his so-anti-establishment that he rounds the bend toward conservative thought bent. Introduction in this new edition is stellar.

Must read for anyone wanting to understand the grandfathers/sages of secular homeschooling . . . ( )

everyone should read this book. it will challenge your views on compulsory education and might compel you to question whether it is such a good idea (especially given its sinister historical roots). extremely thought-provoking! ( )

Mr. Gatto describes teaching as follows:

In theoretical, metaphorical terms, the idea I began to explore was this one: that teaching is nothing like the art of painting, where, by the addition of material to a surface, an image is synthetically produced, but more like the art of sculpture, where, by the subtraction of material, an image already locked in the stone is enabled to emerge. It is a crucial distinction.

And from that we infer a teacher's job is to magnify a child's inherent genius and diminish its inherent shortcomings.

To be such a sculptor of personality, bringing forth the beauty within a plain-looking child, a teacher needs freedom; he needs the licence to act according to a child's personal needs. But the education system doesn't allow that to happen.

Mr. Gatto makes a great observation when he says that children have no time to discover themselves:

My children attend school 30 hours a week, use about eight hours getting ready for and traveling to and from school, and spend an average of seven hours a week in homework — a total of 45 hours. During that time they are under constant surveillance. They have no pri-
vate time or private space and are disciplined if they try to assert individuality in the use of time or space. That leaves them 12 hours a week out of which to create a unique consciousness. Of course my kids eat, too, and that takes some time — not much because they’ve lost
the tradition of family dining — but if we allot three hours a week to evening meals, we arrive at a net amount of private time for each child of nine hours per week.

In such circumstances children are even afraid of intimacy:

The children I teach are uneasy with intimacy or candor. They cannot deal with genuine intimacy because of a lifelong habit of preserving a secret inner self inside a larger outer personality made up of artificial bits and pieces of behavior borrowed from television or acquired to manipulate teachers. Because they are not who they represent themselves to be, the disguise wears thin in the presence
of intimacy; so intimate relationships have to be avoided.

Another theme which Gatto explores is the separation of children and old people from the mainstream. He thinks you learn more when you are in harmony with differently-aged people than when you are with equals.

Children and old people are penned up and locked away from the business of the world to a degree without precedent: nobody talks to them anymore, and without children and old people mixing in daily life, a community has no future and no past, only a continuous present. In fact, the term “community” hardly applies to the way we interact with each other. We live in networks, not communities, and everyone I know is lonely because of that.

What is the solution?

Independent study, community service, adventures and experience, large doses of privacy and solitude, a thousand different apprenticeships — the one-day variety or longer — these are all powerful, cheap, and effective ways to start a real reform of schooling. But no largescale reform is ever going to work to repair our damaged children and our damaged society until we force open the idea of “school” to include family as the main engine of education.

This book explains extremely well what's wrong with the system but I'm not satisfied with the solutions and so I have given this book 4-stars. ( )

I wish there was a bibliography. There should be a chapter on what next.

A scathing description of the problems of our current educational system. A good read for any parent, and also for many students, to better understand why some illogical educational decisions only make sense in the context of building compliant workers rather than free thinkers. My only complaint is that Gatto offers homeschooling as a panacea without much deeper discussion into how difficult it can be to produce a great homeschooling environment. ( )

Dumbing us Down by John Gatto is a personal view on the curriculum goals of schools. It deeply describes the seven lessons that are taught in school, which are not related to education at all. It is a very sensitive subject in cases of teaching education, but John Gatto is an educator himself. The seven lessons that are explained in this book deal with life and society.

This book is a real eye opener for me. Since I plan to become an educator, it is relevant that I read this book and understand its message. Although alot of the content of this book is real, I still must believe that there is some hope in teaching the actual educational curriculum in school.

This book is meant for high school levels and above. I do not plan on sharing this book with elementary students but for a high school class, I would use this book and have them interpret their ideas on the curriculum and compare it to John Gatto's ideas.

A heartfelt read. It surely appears to have been a heartfelt write. John writes with a tone of urgency, and revolution, as if calling soldiers to arms in the defense of their country. He is calling us to bear witness to a national crisis: The crisis of education, particularly the acute crisis in our schools. In a larger sense he is writing about the dire condition of our communities as a whole. His message is no less pertinent today than it was seventeen years ago when he first published his essays. ( )

John Taylor Gatto eventually realized that "the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act." In this book, he quickly makes very convincing points. Among those that resonated most with me: that the grading and IQ scores held so important by schools don't matter much after that, that the institutional networks dominating our society are far less meaningful and supportive than actual community and family, and that learning was more effective before the era of compulsory, factory schooling. He closes with a section on the history of early Massachusetts and the dynamics which led very tight communities to learn and change. ( )

Everyone should be required to read this short book. It offers a devastating critique of institutional schooling by an award-winning teacher. You should know what the schools are really teaching before you trust them with your children! ( )

Gatto's Dumbing Us Down is an interesting combination of state-schooling critique and school-choice advocacy. What makes it something special is Gatto's penchant for taking off the gloves and ranting about the outright evils of bad schools, and the social/cultural attitudes they produce.

Gatto owes a lot to Ivan Illich, and his notion of 'deschooling', but he's not as willing as Illich to cop to how sheerly radical the things he's saying really are. He also isn't much on alternatives: his forays into pre-revolutionary New England congregationalism as a model for community and schooling aren't at all convincing, leaving his overall vision hollow. Gatto's therefore an odd duck: he criticizes the overbearing State like a paleoconservative, but wants desperately to believe in the inherent goodness of human nature, which is leftism/liberalism's signature.

Recommended, to get you thinking if nothing else. ( )

12/7/22