Student Sent Home Because Corona: Becomes an Independent Thinker

This is another reaction to the John Taylor Gatto assignment earlier: "Classrooms of the Heart".  It is one of the many unintended consequences of students getting sent home and doing work on their own, at their own pace.  The untapped and unshackled potential of the human mind was unleashed.  Whatever the reason for the one size fits all, totally out of proportion response to The Novel Coronavirus was, they certainly didn't anticipate reactions like this.  Here is a young Black woman who has clearer vision now that she's been left alone and allowed to blossom and think.

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"The minute he started talking it reminded me of the way you teach. He’s not teaching his kids by the book but with life lessons. You rarely find teachers who stray away from the institutionalized school system meant to fail us - and I mean all students. These students will be successful because they are learning about the life experiences. They are not learning about the 1950s but about their future.

His classroom, much like yours, forces the students to be analytical. They tap in to their intelligence and think for themselves. Being home has helped me think about things in a different way. I don’t have teachers telling me how I should think and how I should act in the world. I now hold the power to think for myself and take interest to the things I care about.

I like this video because it’s insightful and I’m learning more things from it. The way he’s teaching these kids is exceptional. He’s letting them shape their future he is not telling them how they should do it. They are able to be independent and not depend on a teacher to feel like they are learning. This type of teaching teaches the kids how to be independent thinkers. You learn by experience and that is what Gatto is doing. He is letting his students learn by their experience. School should be like this, but if it was, the agenda they are pushing would conflict with this type of teaching."

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I responded: This is well done. You pinpointed the main points: people learn by experience, independent thinking is key, and they are pushing an agenda. You really caught the deeper meaning here. Nice work.