07 Dec John Taylor Gatto
“One of the universal marks of an educated man or woman is that they know how to challenge assumptions; they don’t believe everything strangers tell them. Schools are unable to help with this challenging of assumptions for fear that we might challenge the very assumption of forced schooling itself”
– John Taylor Gatto
Read up on this man. Fabulous stuff. He is the former NY City and NY State Teacher of the year, where he inspired his students to achieve some amazing results through his nontraditional methods of instruction. He taught 8th grade for 30 years in New York. He is now a proponent of home-schooling.
This mini-documentary from his teaching years, gives a good sense of his philosophy.
“paper and pencil tests are some Frankenstein monster we’ve created. There’s no complex task that will allow itself to be reduced to the particles of fill ins or multiple choice or true false questions.”
Listen to John talk on “What is an Education”
Read his books:
Dumbing Us Down
Weapons of Mass Instruction
The Underground History of American Education
Visit his website: https://www.johntaylorgatto.com