John Taylor Gatto | |
---|---|
Born | December 1935 (age 88) Monongahela, PA, USA |
Nationality | American |
Education | Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, Yeshiva, Hunter College, Reed 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 a retired American school teacher with nearly 30 years experience in the classroom, and author of several books on education. He is an activist critical of compulsory schooling, of the perceived divide between the teen years and adulthood, and of what he characterizes as the hegemonic nature of discourse on education and the education professions.
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.[3]
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, Berkeley, 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.[4] 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.[5] In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled I Quit, I Think,[6] 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 and open source education. Wade A. Carpenter, associate professor of education at Berry College, has called his books "scathing" and "one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate"[7] and describes himself as in agreement with Gatto.[8]
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.[9]
In 2011 he had two major strokes and received hundreds of messages of support from friends and fans worldwide. He suffered financial hardship since his medical insurance did not cover all his medical bills for rehabilitation.[10]
Main thesis
What does the school do to children? Gatto states the following assertions in "Dumbing Us Down":
- It confuses the students. 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, it fills almost all the "free" time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
- It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
- It makes them indifferent.
- It makes them emotionally dependent.
- It makes them intellectually dependent.
- It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
- It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.[11]
He also draws a contrast between communities and “networks,” with the former being healthy, and schools being examples of the latter; in the United States, networks have become an unhealthy substitute for community.
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)
- 'Against School' (2003) (Complete Text Online)
- Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008). ISBN 0-86571-631-5
See also
- Critical pedagogy
- Deschooling Society (book by Ivan Illich)
- Hidden curriculum
- How Children Fail (book by John Holt)
- Total institution
Other critics of public education:
References
- ^ After learning he was regularly confused with another teacher named John Gatto, he added Taylor to his pen name.
- ^ Birthdatabase (.com)
- ^ New York's Teachers of the Year, New York State Education Department (accessed October 14, 2007).
- ^ "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).
- ^ http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue2.htm I Quit, I Think
- ^ 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): http://www.pilambda.org/styles/pilambda/defiles/v85-1.pdf?phpMyAdmin=7ef832b5771aeb8f8ed4cd00c2e37023&phpMyAdmin=-zoWw3mdi0AafcwcegVd7BGSXS5
- ^ The Fourth Purpose Documentary Series, Fourth Purpose Films (accessed March 21, 2008).
- ^ http://radiofreeschool.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-will-you-do-for-john-taylor-gatto.html
- ^ 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
- The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto (complete download)
- Collection of John Taylor Gatto quotes and videos
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)
- A set of quotes from Gatto and links to original essays
Multimedia
- Bartleby Project 2010 on YouTube
- 4th Purpose Promo – Trailer for The Fourth Purpose
- John Gatto Keynote Talks - Video: Five complete keynote talks by John Gatto (2004–2010)
- 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)
- The Lew Rockwell Show, Aug 25, 2010
- Collection of Gatto Files, mainly MP3s