[ExI] "Dumbing Us Down" by John Taylor Gatto

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Jul 9, 2018, at 5:39 AM, SR Ballard <sen.otaku at gmail.com> wrote:
> Perhaps somewhat tangential to many of the things currently discussed
> on the list, but has anyone ready the book "Dumbing Us Down" by John
> Taylor Gatto?
> 
> An overly abbreviated premise of the book is that compulsory K-12
> education basically removes humanity from people, destroys the family,
> and obliterates all meaningful community. The solution is
> homeschooling (?) and/or the radical reduction of structured schooling
> to only include "The Three R's" so to speak, after a child shows an
> interest in learning them.
> 
> Does anyone have any thoughts of this book? As much as Mr. Gatto
> claims that schools instill anti-intellectualism in children, his
> repeated digs at evolution, and his seeming worship of a horrifically
> polluted river he grew up near, combined with his theories that public
> schooling is the only reason we need modern medicine, seem to me to be
> equally anti-intellectual.
> 
> It's a short book which I found while house-sitting for my cousin.
> It's the first book in quite a few years which has made me feel
> irrationally angry. Perhaps I have just misunderstood some central
> argument or opinion which would make the whole thing more tolerable.

Maybe you might sublimate your anger into a longer review essay... By the way, what about this book:

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11225.html

Regards,

Dan
   Sample my Kindle books at:
http://author.to/DanUst
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