A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
Author: John Taylor Gatto
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN:
Category: Education
Page: 240
View: 984
The transformation of schooling from a twelve-year jail sentence to freedom to learn. John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction , now available in paperback, focuses on mechanisms of traditional education which cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down , introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling. Gatto demonstrates that the harm school inflicts is rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy, he argues, is to render the common population manageable. To that end, young people must be conditioned to rely upon experts, to remain divided from natural alliances and to accept disconnections from their own lived experiences. They must at all costs be discouraged from developing self-reliance and independence. Escaping this trap requires a strategy Gatto calls "open source learning" which imposes no artificial divisions between learning and life. Through this alternative approach our children can avoid being indoctrinated-only then can they achieve self-knowledge, good judgment, and courage.
Selected Speeches and Essays on Politics, Art and Leadership
Author: Iyorwuese Harry Hagher
Publisher: Spectrum Books Limited
ISBN:
Category: Social Science
Page: 242
View: 481
These speeches and published essays, dating from 1983 to 2003, are products of the author's investment n the transformational powers of education, political power and art during rapidly changing times in Nigeria. As a totality, his writings reveal the urban, critical mind of the post-modern and global African intellectual, integrated with traditional African wisdom. Some topics addressed in the papers are: language, expressions and culture in the 21st century; the role of the humanities; the role of literature and culture in the promotion of human development; the position of the writer in the discourse on sustainable democracy; African and national ideologies; and the theatre as a mode of instruction in the Nigerian environment.
Since September 11, 2001, Pakistan's madrassas have come under scrutiny as sources for the interpretation and propagation of militant versions of Islam. The madrassas are not unique to Pakistan, but are found throughout the Muslim world. However, Pakistan is a particularly interesting case since it was the staging ground for the C.I.A.-led opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. During this period, from 1979--1989, the C.I.A. worked closely with Pakistan's I.S.I. to provide arms and training to holy warriors or mujahideen who crossed the border into Afghanistan to engage Soviet troops. This proxy war was funded by the United States and the Persian Gulf countries, most notably Saudi Arabia. In the years since this war ended, the madrassas funded by Saudi Arabia have continued to promote an austere interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism that has a tendency to produce graduates with few marketable skills and an anti-Western worldview. This thesis attempts to analyze these madrassas from a historical perspective in order to understand their character, purpose and influence, and then offers recommendations for both the United States and Pakistan in dealing with this complex and delicate phenomenon.
Marilyn Reynolds shares techniques she has used to turn unmotivated students into lifelong readers and offers teachers advice on how they can do the same for their students.
The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling - 25th Anniversary Edition
Author: John Taylor Gatto
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN:
Category: Education
Page: 144
View: 253
Throw off the shackles of formal schooling and embark upon a rich journey of self-directed, life-long learning After over 100 years of mandatory schooling in the U.S., literacy rates have dropped, families are fragmented, learning "disabilities" are skyrocketing, and children and youth are increasingly disaffected. Thirty years of teaching in the public school system led John Taylor Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory governmental schooling is to blame, accomplishing little but to teach young people to follow orders like cogs in an industrial machine. He became a fierce advocate of families and young people taking back education and learning, arguing that "genius is as common as dirt," but that conventional schooling is driving out the natural curiosity and problem-solving skills we're born with, replacing it with rule-following, fragmented time, and disillusionment. Gatto's radical treatise on public education, a New Society Publishers bestseller for 25 years, continues to bang the drum for an unshackling of children and learning from formal schooling. Now, in an ever-more-rapidly changing world with an explosion of alternative routes to learning, it's poised to continue to shake the world of institutional education for many more years. Featuring a new foreword from Zachary Slayback, an Ivy League dropout and cofounder of tech start-up career foundry Praxis, this 25th anniversary edition will inspire new generations of parents and students to take control of learning and kickstart an empowered society of self-directed lifetime-learners.