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Gatto was born in the [[Pittsburgh]]-area steel town of [[Monongahela, Pennsylvania]]. In his youth he attended public schools throughout the [[Pittsburgh Metro Area]] including [[Swissvale, Pennsylvania|Swissvale]], [[Monongahela]], and [[Uniontown, Pennsylvania|Uniontown]] as well as a Catholic boarding school in [[Latrobe, Pennsylvania|Latrobe]]. He did undergraduate work at [[Cornell University|Cornell]], the [[University of Pittsburgh]], and [[Columbia University|Columbia]], then served in the [[U.S. Army]] medical corps at [[Fort Knox]], [[Kentucky]], and [[Fort Sam Houston]], [[Texas]]. Following army service he did graduate work at the [[City University of New York]], [[Hunter College]], [[Yeshiva University]], the [[University of California]], and Cornell. |
Gatto was born in the [[Pittsburgh]]-area steel town of [[Monongahela, Pennsylvania]]. In his youth he attended public schools throughout the [[Pittsburgh Metro Area]] including [[Swissvale, Pennsylvania|Swissvale]], [[Monongahela]], and [[Uniontown, Pennsylvania|Uniontown]] as well as a Catholic boarding school in [[Latrobe, Pennsylvania|Latrobe]]. He did undergraduate work at [[Cornell University|Cornell]], the [[University of Pittsburgh]], and [[Columbia University|Columbia]], then served in the [[U.S. Army]] medical corps at [[Fort Knox]], [[Kentucky]], and [[Fort Sam Houston]], [[Texas]]. Following army service he did graduate work at the [[City University of New York]], [[Hunter College]], [[Yeshiva University]], the [[University of California]], and Cornell. |
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He worked as a writer and held several odd jobs before borrowing his roommate's license to investigate teaching. Gatto also ran for the [[New York]] [[New York State Senate|State Senate]], 29th District in 1985 and 1988 as a member of the [[Conservative Party of New York]] against incumbent [[David Paterson]].<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DC1639F933A25752C1A96E948260 THE ELECTIONS; New York State Senate]". ''[[New York Times]]''. November 10, 1988.</ref> He was named New York City Teacher of the year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.<ref>[http://www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/TEACHING/new_york_state_teachers_of_theye.htm New York's Teachers of the Year], New York State Education Department (accessed October 14, 2007).</ref> In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled [http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue2.htm I Quit, I Think], to the op-ed pages of the ''[[Wall Street Journal]],'' saying that he no longer wished to "hurt kids to make a living." He then began a public speaking and writing career, and has received several awards from [[libertarian]] organizations, including the ''[[Alexis de Tocqueville Award]] for Excellence in Advancement of Educational Freedom'' in 1997. He promotes [[homeschooling]], and specifically [[unschooling]]. One professor of education has called his books "scathing" and "one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate"<ref>Wade A. Carpenter, "[http://www.pilambda.org/horizons/v85-3/silverline.pdf For Those We Won't Reach: An Alternative]," ''Educational Horizons'' 85, no. 3 (2007): 153n8.</ref> but later agreed with him.<ref>Wade A. Carpenter, "Behind Every Silver Lining: The Other Side of No Child Left Behind" Educational Horizons 85 (1): 7–11.http://www.pilambda.org/horizons/v85-1/silverline.pdf</ref> |
He worked as a writer and held several odd jobs before borrowing his roommate's license to investigate teaching. Gatto also ran for the [[New York]] [[New York State Senate|State Senate]], 29th District in 1985 and 1988 as a member of the [[Conservative Party of New York]] against incumbent [[David Paterson]].<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DC1639F933A25752C1A96E948260 THE ELECTIONS; New York State Senate]". ''[[New York Times]]''. November 10, 1988.</ref> He was named New York City Teacher of the year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.<ref>[http://www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/TEACHING/new_york_state_teachers_of_theye.htm New York's Teachers of the Year], New York State Education Department (accessed October 14, 2007).</ref> In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled [http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue2.htm I Quit, I Think], to the op-ed pages of the ''[[Wall Street Journal]],'' saying that he no longer wished to "hurt kids to make a living." He then began a public speaking and writing career, and has received several awards from [[libertarian]] organizations, including the ''[[Alexis de Tocqueville Award]] for Excellence in Advancement of Educational Freedom'' in 1997. |
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He promotes [[homeschooling]], and specifically [[unschooling]]. One professor of education has called his books "scathing" and "one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate"<ref>Wade A. Carpenter, "[http://www.pilambda.org/horizons/v85-3/silverline.pdf For Those We Won't Reach: An Alternative]," ''Educational Horizons'' 85, no. 3 (2007): 153n8.</ref> but later agreed with him.<ref>Wade A. Carpenter, "Behind Every Silver Lining: The Other Side of No Child Left Behind" Educational Horizons 85 (1): 7–11.http://www.pilambda.org/horizons/v85-1/silverline.pdf</ref> |
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Gatto is currently working on a 3-part documentary about compulsory schooling, titled ''The Fourth Purpose''. He says he was inspired by [[Ken Burns]]'s ''[[The Civil War (documentary)|Civil War]]''.<ref>[http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/fourthpurpose/gatto.htm The Fourth Purpose Documentary Series], Fourth Purpose Films (accessed March 21, 2008).</ref> |
Gatto is currently working on a 3-part documentary about compulsory schooling, titled ''The Fourth Purpose''. He says he was inspired by [[Ken Burns]]'s ''[[The Civil War (documentary)|Civil War]]''.<ref>[http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/fourthpurpose/gatto.htm The Fourth Purpose Documentary Series], Fourth Purpose Films (accessed March 21, 2008).</ref> |
Revision as of 18:07, 13 May 2010
John Taylor Gatto | |
---|---|
Born | December 1935 (age 88) Monongahela, PA, USA |
Nationality | American |
Education | Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, Yeshiva, Hunter College and the University of California |
Known for | Educational activist, New York State Teacher of the Year |
Website | http://www.johntaylorgatto.com |
John Taylor Gatto[1] (born December 15, 1935[2]) is an American retired school teacher of 29 years and 8 months and author of several books on education. He is an activist critical of compulsory schooling and of what he characterizes as the hegemonic nature of discourse on education and the education professions.
Biography
Gatto was born in the Pittsburgh-area steel town of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. In his youth he attended public schools throughout the Pittsburgh Metro Area including Swissvale, Monongahela, and Uniontown as well as a Catholic boarding school in Latrobe. He did undergraduate work at Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia, then served in the U.S. Army medical corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Following army service he did graduate work at the City University of New York, Hunter College, Yeshiva University, the University of California, and Cornell.
He worked as a writer and held several odd jobs before borrowing his roommate's license to investigate teaching. Gatto also ran for the New York State Senate, 29th District in 1985 and 1988 as a member of the Conservative Party of New York against incumbent David Paterson.[3] He was named New York City Teacher of the year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.[4] In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled I Quit, I Think, to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, saying that he no longer wished to "hurt kids to make a living." He then began a public speaking and writing career, and has received several awards from libertarian organizations, including the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Excellence in Advancement of Educational Freedom in 1997.
He promotes homeschooling, and specifically unschooling. One professor of education has called his books "scathing" and "one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate"[5] but later agreed with him.[6]
Gatto is currently working on a 3-part documentary about compulsory schooling, titled The Fourth Purpose. He says he was inspired by Ken Burns's Civil War.[7]
Main theses
What does the school do with the children? Gatto takes this in "Dumbing Us Down", the following propositions:
1. Makes the children confused. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize, to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that programming is similar to the television, fills almost the whole, "free" time of the children. One sees and hears something, to forget it again.
2. It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
3. It makes them indifferent.
4. It makes them emotionally dependent.
5. It teaches them a kind of self-confidence, which require constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
6. It makes it clear to them that they can not hide, because they are always supervised.[8]
Bibliography
- Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992).
- The Exhausted School (1993).
- A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling (2000). ISBN 1-893163-21-0
- The Underground History of American Education (2001). (Complete Text online)
- Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008). ISBN 0-865716-31-5
- 'Against School' (2001) (Complete Text Online)
See also
- Critical pedagogy
- Deschooling Society (book by Ivan Illich)
- Hidden curriculum
- How Children Fail (book by John Holt)
- Total institution
References
- ^ After learning he was regularly confused with another teacher named John Gatto, he added Taylor to his pen name.
- ^ Birthdatabase (.com)
- ^ "THE ELECTIONS; New York State Senate". New York Times. November 10, 1988.
- ^ New York's Teachers of the Year, New York State Education Department (accessed October 14, 2007).
- ^ Wade A. Carpenter, "For Those We Won't Reach: An Alternative," Educational Horizons 85, no. 3 (2007): 153n8.
- ^ Wade A. Carpenter, "Behind Every Silver Lining: The Other Side of No Child Left Behind" Educational Horizons 85 (1): 7–11.http://www.pilambda.org/horizons/v85-1/silverline.pdf
- ^ The Fourth Purpose Documentary Series, Fourth Purpose Films (accessed March 21, 2008).
- ^ See John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down. The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, Iceland Gabriola: New Society Publishers, 2005, p. 2-11
External links
- Official Website
- Kinza Academy, Homeschooling with the Classics. Gatto is on the Advisory Board.
- Collection of essays Gatto is a regular columnist for The Link Homeschool Newspaper
- Transcript of radio interview with Jerry Brown
- Gatto's November 2007 visit to Netherlands: audio, video and articles
- Book reviews by Layla AR
Writings and lectures
- "Against School" - originally published in Harper's Magazine, September 2003
- "The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher" - originally published in Whole Earth Review, Fall 1991
- A set of quotes from Gatto and links to original essays
- "Institutional Schooling Must Be Destroyed"
- "The Tyranny Of Compulsory Schooling"
- "The Public School Nightmare: Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought?", article published by Diablo Valley School
- "Why Schools Don't Educate"
- "Teacher of the Year acceptance speech"
- "A Short Angry History of American Forced Schooling"
- Book reviews by Layla AR
- Everything We Think About Schooling Is Wrong! - Interview with Gatto (PDF file download)
Multimedia
- Bartleby Project 2010 - YouTube
- 4th Purpose Promo - Trailer for The Fourth Purpose
- Altruists.org - download audio files of some of Gatto's talks
- Video of Gatto interview, broken into topic sections
- Speech at a home schooling Conference by Radio for Peace (MP3)
- Collection of Gatto Files, mainly MP3s
Other writings by John Taylor Gatto
- "Against School" - originally published in Harper's Magazine, September 2003
- "The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher" - originally published in Whole Earth Review, Fall 1991
- A set of quotes from Gatto and links to original essays
- "Institutional Schooling Must Be Destroyed"
- "The Tyranny Of Compulsory Schooling"