The Ultimate History Lesson - A Day with John Taylor Gatto

This is quite an amazing interview (so far) with John Taylor Gatto, where he goes in-depth into the history of modern schooling, how it came about and how the stratification of society has destroyed imagination. That's just my own summary - there's MUCH more in there than that. The whole interview is 5 hours long. I'm at the end of hour two, have just been playing it while I work.

The interview with Gatto starts at about 17 minutes in - though the intro is interesting as well.

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQiW_l848t8&feature=channel&list=UL

Gatto seems to dance around psychopathy a few times while talking about the movers and shakers who established the modern schooling system, though he hasn't so far explicitly mentioned psychopathy, we'll see if he does during the rest of the interview. It may take a couple of days to finish it by listening off and on...

Also, highly recommended to history buffs :) Watching Gatto's recall of history is amazing. Each reference he mentions is cited at the bottom of the screen while he's talking about it too - it's kind of a neat method I haven't personally seen yet with video interviews.

edit: spelling

Big thanks for posting this Jonathan! I remember hearing on a Trivium podcast that Hope and Tragedy Magazine was going to be interviewing John Taylor Gatto, but I didn't know they were going all in for a 5 hour interview. Gatto's analysis of schooling really helps to identify the programming that goes on there, and his historical expertise is overwhelming, it's like Secret History of the World Lite

Losing the illusions of modern day schooling leaves us more open, I think, to a greater appreciation for the type of education embodied here in the forum and encapsulated in "Life is Lessons." I am loving this series, so thanks again.

Yes thanks for that! It has so far been 4 entertaining hours of (his)storytelling. Especially interesting I found his findings of what the unknown elite schools have preserved of good education that he himself tested on his students. Excerpt from his 'The Underground History of American Education', starts midway through the 4th hour. Knowledge that has been eradicated from normal education like; developing active litteracies (masterful writing, public speaking), familiarizing students with human motivation and mastery of social form. He also mentions the lost art of developing patterns of speach by knowing metrical feet (prosody).

A puzzling point is that he indicates in passing (3:30'ish) that arabs where behind 9/11, how could he buy into this with all that he knows?

parallel said:

A puzzling point is that he indicates in passing (3:30'ish) that arabs where behind 9/11, how could he buy into this with all that he knows?

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This is something that stood out to me as well. I think it's important to remember, in the context of ponerization, that many highly intelligent people can be led astray on key points. It is very unfortunate, given Gatto's apparent drive to uncover the truth.

A certain member of my family has also shown this characteristic at times - he is an extremely intelligent and compassionate person, well learned, all that - and when we speak of the "war on terror" he reiterates talking points from FAUX news. It can be frustrating, but in those moments I must remember that intelligence is not an antidote to ponerization and/or mass mind control.

Regarding what I said in my first post about psychopathy, I finished the interview and neither Gatto nor the interviewer mention it at all. Gatto alludes at one point to noticing how politicians can meld and mold their discourse to fit the audience they're talking to, and he comes *this* close to alluding to psychopathy, but does not. Perhaps he would benefit from a copy of Political Ponerology. It may connect a few more of the dots for him.

Thanks for the link. I like the Gatto books I've read previously so this should be interesting. As to the 9/11 comment ...I've noticed this too. There are so many brilliant researchers out there who just don't have the big picture. 9/11 and the whole smoking issue are big ones.

He's got quite a few "deep" conspiracy books on the shelf behind him, so I'd say he knows but doesn't want to tell. This is a commercial venture and the man is a respected teacher in America. Probably just doesn't want to rock the boat too much.

Good series nonetheless. Some things I'd never even heard about there, very interesting.