February 28, 2003

Dumbing Us Down: 
The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
by John Taylor Gatto

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Reader Reviews

A Different Perspective on Education, November 7, 2002

This thin book changed my views on some aspects of education. I wasn't expecting what Gatto had to say, but it really made sense. It reads quickly and offers a different perspective on education that is really eye opening. I highly recommend this book!

This book provides cogent arguments for homeschooling., November 6, 1997

John Taylor Gatto was an award-winning public school teacher when he wrote much of the text for this book. He reveals the curriculum of public schools nationwide under the headings: Confusion, Class Position, Indifference, Emotional Dependency, Intellectual Dependency, Provisional Self-Esteem, and One Can't Hide. He asserts that the true goal of childhood learning should be to discover some meaning in life...a passion or an enthusiasm that will drive subsequent learning pursuits. Instead, schools cram irrelevant facts into young minds, substituting book-knowledge for self-knowledge. This book explains a lot for anyone who got good grades, went to college, and then didn't have any idea what to do with his life. It's also a wake-up call to parents with school-age children. Do we really want our children to grow up to be good factory workers and do as they're told? Do we really want them to buy into the "Good grades=good jobs" myth? Do we want them to believe that the goal in life is to acquire more and more stuff to fuel consumerism? Or should we give them more reflective, unstructured time in childhood to find out who they are, what they like, and how they can contribute to their communities? Dumbing Us Down is a quick, worthwhile read.

Thank you, Mr. Gatto!, July 11, 1999

In Dumbing Us Down, Mr. Gatto gives his first person perspective on the tragic waste of human potential induced by coerced 12-year confinement of the young to the artificial and anesthetizing environment of the classroom. The book is both enlightening and frightening. Personally, I felt a sense of vindication while reading the book. It put into words my negative feelings about education resulting from my unsuccessful 15 year struggle to encourage my own children to love learning. Mr. Gatto's writing has encouraged me to think that perhaps it was a GOOD thing that school was not able to press them into its mold! At the same time, I found it immensely disturbing that a brilliant, dedicated and award-winning teacher found it impossible to convince his own colleagues that grading, grouping, numbering and force-feeding irrelevant facts to captive children has no correlation to true learning, and does, in fact, suppress any natural curiosity they may have once had. I would like to recommend the book Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich for those interested in looking at the larger social implications of compulsory schooling. If I had it to do over? Home schooling.

Education vs. Schooling, November 8, 2002

We surely need more thinkers like Gatto in American education. While I was lucky enough to get good grades throughout my life in public education, I have realized that I was at my dumbest point when I was in school. Gatto shows me why, and as an award-winning teacher he definitely knows what he's talking about. American public education is a huge bureaucracy that is more concerned with preserving itself and growing to ever-larger proportions. The focus is not "education" (critical and independent thinking); but "schooling" (sending faceless kids through the system). As in any bureaucracy that deals with millions of entities, school kids are managed to the point of anonymity where everyone moves toward sheer averageness. Thus the outcome is conformity and indoctrination; plus a realm of social problems, the poor showing of American kids compared to other "advanced" nations, and even that distinctly American contempt of mavericks and free thinkers (which is found nowhere else on Earth except under Communism). The system even forces out visionaries like Gatto (usually by condemning them as whistleblowers) in favor of bureaucrats who preserve the status quo. Gatto's writing does have a few drawbacks, as he has the habit of rattling off lists of social problems and blaming them wholesale on poor schooling. Meanwhile his main solution, at least in this book, draws inspiration from the Congregationalist ethic of colonial New England, which may have worked but Gatto can't make it fit into the modern urban world, especially in terms of transportation and employment. (Note that Gatto's later books surely have much more articulate and solid recommendations). These flaws can be forgiven however, because Gatto has already performed a critical service by bringing the miserable problems of the educational system to light in the first place - a truly courageous and intelligent act.

This book doesn't get five stars merely for production reasons. It's basically a collection of essays and speeches created by Gatto at different times, in which he made the same points to different audiences - making this book rather repetitive. Also, at just over 100 pages, it's too short to really explore either the roots of the problem or possible solutions. This challenge is solved in Gatto's later books. Therefore this book can be used either as an introduction or summary, but it does not give the full spectrum of Gatto's vision.

Discontent is good. Discontent creates change., August 23, 2002

Achieving maximum learning requires freedom. The author states learning is maximized by taking on a 1000 internships, active participation in the community, and periods of isolated reflection. The principles of democracy are essential in education. A broad range of freedom needs to given to the student to explore ideas. Internship implies sharing information and knowledge with a potential employee, aimed at increasing their professional capability, before employment. Learning is increased as knowledge is put into action. Servicing and learning are tightly integrated and provide purpose to the learning. Service is the key to creating a connectedness with the community. Periods of isolated reflection allow the student to meditate on the principles and information they have learned. Abstraction, synthesis, and integration mental process allow the information to evolve into other ideas or principles. Think of the sculpture of the thinking man, deeply focused in thought, reflecting and studying what he knew, sitting on a rock in isolation.

The author makes the follow observations. 1. Schools are networks not communities. 2. Our kids are taught to anonymous 3. Its better to lie or partial lie to avoid being caught 4. Telling the truth or reporting wrong doings is wrong 5. Schools claim social engineering values such as providing a better environment for the poor. Social advantages such as: food, shelter, medical, and recreation 5. The education system values: competition, intimidation, and control more than principles of democracy. 6. Students are taught "more is better." More money creates more happiness. 7. Kids are taught to network, making contacts with individuals in the network, and keeping information exclusive. 8. Many of the social problems of teen pregancy, drugs, and violence are associated with the rich rather than the poor. 9. The system often mis-diagnose the smart kids as dumb. Time in the class is often filled with tests and verbal reading.

The sad truth is school values translate into individual values. If your child thinks its ok, to spend hours down in their room listening to their music, refusing to eat at the dinner table, or participate in family activities, you start to wonder. If your child spend countless hours in homework and very little time interacting with the family, you wonder. If your child is brilliant and you watch her struggle with grades, you wonder. If your child was previously curious about things and often worked on individual projects and research but suddenly stop, you wonder. If you go for periods of time without noticing your child, you wonder. We are becoming a society of individuals, networked, without identity, and without value to the community. This is very disturbing.

Discontent is good. Discontent creates change. Change is healthy. The machinery of public education needs reinvention. This book is helpful step in helping people to think about 1. why change is necessary 2. why more parental involvement with the children’s education is needed 3. and why the current education system has fail us.