<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><div>On Jul 9, 2018, at 5:39 AM, SR Ballard <<a href="mailto:sen.otaku@gmail.com">sen.otaku@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>Perhaps somewhat tangential to many of the things currently discussed</span><br><span>on the list, but has anyone ready the book "Dumbing Us Down" by John</span><br><span>Taylor Gatto?</span><br><span></span><br><span>An overly abbreviated premise of the book is that compulsory K-12</span><br><span>education basically removes humanity from people, destroys the family,</span><br><span>and obliterates all meaningful community. The solution is</span><br><span>homeschooling (?) and/or the radical reduction of structured schooling</span><br><span>to only include "The Three R's" so to speak, after a child shows an</span><br><span>interest in learning them.</span><br><span></span><br><span>Does anyone have any thoughts of this book? As much as Mr. Gatto</span><br><span>claims that schools instill anti-intellectualism in children, his</span><br><span>repeated digs at evolution, and his seeming worship of a horrifically</span><br><span>polluted river he grew up near, combined with his theories that public</span><br><span>schooling is the only reason we need modern medicine, seem to me to be</span><br><span>equally anti-intellectual.</span><br><span></span><br><span>It's a short book which I found while house-sitting for my cousin.</span><br><span>It's the first book in quite a few years which has made me feel</span><br><span>irrationally angry. Perhaps I have just misunderstood some central</span><br><span>argument or opinion which would make the whole thing more tolerable.</span><br></div></blockquote><br></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Maybe you might sublimate your anger into a longer review essay... By the way, what about this book:</span><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><font color="#000000"><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11225.html">https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11225.html</a><br><br></span></font><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sample my Kindle books at:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://author.to/DanUst">http://author.to/DanUst</a></span></p></div></div></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>