Race, Class and Ethnicity in American History -- a La Sierra University Group Blog of Book Reviews
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
By: Kyle Lynch
Do you believe it to be true, that today’s youth is “dumber“than ever? Well, John Taylor Gatto believes so, and he says and feels strongly that it is all because of the school system. John Taylor Gatto, the author of the book “Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling” was actually a teacher for twenty six years. He taught at all different types of schools at all areas such as private schools, public schools, schools in rich areas as well as schools in rural areas. Now, his book was not just something he sat down and wrote in his free time, the stories in the book were actually printed copies of speeches he has made, publically. Gatto feels very strongly about the schooling system and how it is ruining the lives of the present generation. He makes the assumption that the world is left in our hands and basically it will crumble.
Gatto makes the statement that the present generation is not humble and basically throw our elders and younger children under the bus. He says that we tend to ignore the elderly people, not giving a care about what they say or what they may need. Also, we shun the little children out because we think what they have to say is irrelevant or just not important enough for our time. And the reason for this is… the schooling system. He also talks about how America has the most divorces in a year. America has the most suicides in a year. He also states that America is at the bottom of nineteen nations in reading and writing. This is all because of the schooling system. One of the reasons is because the textbooks aren’t challenging and everything in textbooks is “dumbed” down to the simplest form.
He goes on further in the book to explain how children now days don’t do things because they want to. For example, children in grade school, usually within the first three to four years of school, are taught that whenever they do something good, they should get an award. As they grow up, they still tend to believe that they need compensation for their actions if they do something good or they will not do it at all. I can even apply this to myself, I remember when I was a little child, and I would always try to finish first or be the neatest whatever it may be, just to get that gold star on the chart. It seemed to me at the time that those gold stars would be all that I lived for. He is saying that we do things mostly because we HAVE to, not because we WANT to. Even to this day I can apply that theory to myself. I do not like my job, and if I had the choice I would not work, however I need that paycheck every two weeks. So in a way Gatto’s theory is correct in a sense.
One thing that Gatto says is a main contributor in the actual school setting is school bells. Gatto uses the analogy that school bells are the “devil”. The reason for this is because once the school bell rings, the children are no longer in control of the teacher. The teacher can be in the middle of a lesson that can be very important and what do you know…. The bell rings. So not only does the students get left in the middle of a lecture, the teacher may not have left off where they wanted, preventing them from keeping up with the lesson plan. Thus putting the teacher and the students behind which can cause a rush in material later towards the end of the school year.
Overall, this book was a real eye opener, especially for me. The things that Gatto were explaining can correlate to what is happening today. The situation even got too much for Gatto to handle so he decided to retire after dedicating his life to teaching for twenty six years. I would recommend this book for; parents, students, teachers, everybody. I was actually grateful for receiving this book to read and I give John Taylor Gatto five stars.
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