Weapons of Mass Instruction

L

Lauranimal

Guest
Technically, this is not a suggestion for an article, so much as a suggestion for covering this material, and perhaps developing a podcast interview or a book review on the SOTT. Perhaps the author would even be willing to write or contribute an article to SOTT(???).

The book, "Weapons of Mass Instruction", illuminates much about the American education system, and it's use for programming.

"Weapons of Mass Instruction
John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of compulsory schooling which cripple imagination and discourage critical thinking.

Here is a demonstration that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy is to render the common population manageable, remove the obligation of child care from adult workers so they are free to fuel the industrial economy and to train the next generation into subservient obedience to the state.

John Gatto shows us that Ivy League schools do not produce the most successful graduates, some of the world’s richest entrepreneurs are high school drop outs and Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie didn’t finish elementary school. An education matters desperately, but spending a fortune on college fees will not get you one.

Filled with examples of people who have escaped the trap of compulsory schooling, Weapons of Mass Instruction shows us realization of personal potential is not possible within the system of compulsory schooling. That requires a different way of growing up and learning, one Gatto calls “open source learning.” In chapters such as “A Letter to Kristina, my Granddaughter”; “Fat Stanley”; and “Walkabout:London”, Gatto gives us a window into a different reality."
Click to expand...

Another important book by the same author is, "The Underground History of American Education", which is available to read on line here: _http://johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm -

He taps in to the history of the ponerogenesis of "public" education and it's real purpose ... and offers solutions. He would certainly contribute to our topic of "Creating a New World".

I only had time to read a few pages and scan through the text, but it looks like brilliant reading. And when I am finished with reading Political Ponerology, In search of the Miraculous, The Fire from Within, The Myth of Sanity, (and Robert Jordan's new book!), this is material I am looking forward to reading in much greater depth.)

Too bad I can't get a grant that allows me to quit my job and just READ!!!

I had posted a link to the SOTT article, "The War Against Free Thought", on the Stop Fascism Action Network, and in response, one of our new members turned me on to this web sight.

Other books by John Taylor Gatto: Dumbing Us Down, The Exhausted School, A different Kind of Teacher.

_http://johntaylorgatto.com/index.htm

This post could easily go into the books section, and I understand if a moderator shuttles it into a different slot, but I mention it here because, at least in my mind ... it seems worth covering on SOTT. Am I off base?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
~Lar
 
Lauranimal said:
Technically, this is not a suggestion for an article, so much as a suggestion for covering this material, and perhaps developing a podcast interview or a book review on the SOTT. Perhaps the author would even be willing to write or contribute an article to SOTT(???).

The book, "Weapons of Mass Instruction", illuminates much about the American education system, and it's use for programming.

"Weapons of Mass Instruction
John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of compulsory schooling which cripple imagination and discourage critical thinking.

Here is a demonstration that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy is to render the common population manageable, remove the obligation of child care from adult workers so they are free to fuel the industrial economy and to train the next generation into subservient obedience to the state.

John Gatto shows us that Ivy League schools do not produce the most successful graduates, some of the world’s richest entrepreneurs are high school drop outs and Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie didn’t finish elementary school. An education matters desperately, but spending a fortune on college fees will not get you one.

Filled with examples of people who have escaped the trap of compulsory schooling, Weapons of Mass Instruction shows us realization of personal potential is not possible within the system of compulsory schooling. That requires a different way of growing up and learning, one Gatto calls “open source learning.” In chapters such as “A Letter to Kristina, my Granddaughter”; “Fat Stanley”; and “Walkabout:London”, Gatto gives us a window into a different reality."
Click to expand...

Another important book by the same author is, "The Underground History of American Education", which is available to read on line here: _http://johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm -

He taps in to the history of the ponerogenesis of "public" education and it's real purpose ... and offers solutions. He would certainly contribute to our topic of "Creating a New World".

I only had time to read a few pages and scan through the text, but it looks like brilliant reading. And when I am finished with reading Political Ponerology, In search of the Miraculous, The Fire from Within, The Myth of Sanity, (and Robert Jordan's new book!), this is material I am looking forward to reading in much greater depth.)

Too bad I can't get a grant that allows me to quit my job and just READ!!!

I had posted a link to the SOTT article, "The War Against Free Thought", on the Stop Fascism Action Network, and in response, one of our new members turned me on to this web sight.

Other books by John Taylor Gatto: Dumbing Us Down, The Exhausted School, A different Kind of Teacher.

_http://johntaylorgatto.com/index.htm

This post could easily go into the books section, and I understand if a moderator shuttles it into a different slot, but I mention it here because, at least in my mind ... it seems worth covering on SOTT. Am I off base?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
~Lar
Click to expand...
No, you're not off base Lar, a quick search finds several reviews of this book published in the last few days. You're welcome to undertake some further research and post the best of the articles here for us to take a look at? Alternatively, once you've read the book post your thoughts in a thread in the book section and maybe even you could have a go at writing a review yourself.
 
Thanks POB. I may well do that in the future. For now, I think I'm gonna stay focused on studying the recommended materials and start digging a little deeper into the Work.
 
Lauranimal said:
Thanks POB. I may well do that in the future. For now, I think I'm gonna stay focused on studying the recommended materials and start digging a little deeper into the Work.
Click to expand...
Good idea, :)
 
Lauranimal,

It would be an excellent subject to discus; good one. :)

This reminded me of things G discussed about education in respect to his father’s teachings and a great many others (Remarkable Men perhaps) outside the present systems that were in the main in Europe and North America at that time; but I don’t have his words verbatim.

Speaking to elderly folks in youth; if one cared to listen - often resulted in such wonderful insights that were never attainable in curriculums. Listening to others experiences, one could receive the full spectrum of not only what they said but the emotional bearings which especially today is generally lost in our primal state education system, unless perhaps there was educational think tank ponerology as hidden intent or just via plain old unanimated teaching.

A young Japanese student was a guest in our home while attending school for a year and he would often ask for help with his North American studies. After reviewing what was given him, I was often perplexed and aghast at the content, the historization, and was sure to ask questions about what he comprehended in relation to what his own school taught as history. What became apparent were the huge gulfs that existed between systems, what was being told in either system was little, in opposition, or it seemed altogether diversionary.

However, once in a while, some are lucky enough to have insightful teachers who step aside the RAND sanctioned curriculums; OSISP (or so I subjectively ponder).
 
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