Friday, June 12, 2015

Reflections on the History of Schooling - by the Best Source Imaginable

I don't know of any teacher who would sit through this and watch it. It destroys too many worldviews.

Gatto, in the first 12 minutes, explains how the school district of Benson VT siphons off tradition, money and intellect. Where do these resources go? To the tenured school bureacrats who teach no students, can't be fired, and are wholly unaccountable. The cost is prohibitive. Not just the money, which is twice what a private school education would cost, but three old schoolhouses that were working just fine. In their place is a factory school, devoid of character and class. I looked up Benson VT school district to see what they have there. The building looks like an aluminum barn.

What Gatto does is connect what happened to Benson VT with what the creators of modern schooling wanted. This is the part that most educators avoid. Gatto explains what the school system was intended to do and matches it with what has happened in Benson and other places in the U.S. The industrialists behind forced mass schooling were very clear. They wanted to stifle the huge amount of creativity that the American people were showing in all parts of life, including business. Those people were a threat. The future Edisons and Carnegies had to be strangled in the crib, and schooling would destroy their inherent creativity.

This isn't a conspiracy theory - they wrote exactly what they wanted to do. They were up front about it. The evidence is there, easy to find. Don't work too hard trying to explain this to an adult. They have their worldview and they're sticking to it. You, however, have much to gain by learning what is being done to you and how to avoid it.

Allow your creativity to thrive. Learn, in this hour long video, more than your teachers do about schooling and its sinister history. Knowledge really is power.