TheBreakaway
Zy Marquiez
February 20, 2017
“In our dreams, people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present education conventions of intellectual and character education fade from their minds, and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk.
We shall not try to make these people, or any of their children, into philosophers, or men of science. We have not to raise up from them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for great artists, painters, musicians nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen — of whom we have an ample supply. The task is simple. We will organize children and teach them in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.”[John Taylor Gatto, quoting John D. Rockefeller Sr., Occasional Letter Number One, General Education Board 1906, In Weapons Of Mass Destruction, p. 8]
John Taylor Gatto has been doing yeomen’s work in the field of education for quite some time, and with good reason. Gatto has fiercely spoken out at length countless times about the systematic issues that are inherent within the bowels of the corrupt public schooling system.
The passage that follows is from his incisive book, Weapons Of Mass Instruction, which details one of these very disturbing and growing issues.
In his words:
“I remember the shock I felt the first time I discovered, quite by accident, that I could personally negotiate larger discounts on book purchases (or anything else) than the school district could. It didn’t seem to make sense. The most personally troubling occasion was the moment I decided to use my own funds to purchase classroom sets of good books for student use rather than rely on the “approved” list of books for which school funds could’ve used, and which required many months, if not a full year, to pass through the acquisition protocols to be shipped. Traveling to a book wholesaler, open to anybody, to secure its standard 40% discount, as I stood at the cash register with a hundred copies of Moby Dick and a hundred copies of Shakespeare’s Plays in shopping carts, the checkout clerk asked me, “Are you a school teacher?” Without thinking I nodded affirmatively, after which she rang the books up at 25% discount.
“You’ve made a mistake,” I told her. “The discount is 40%.”
“Not for schoolteachers,” she replied curtly. And when I bellowed in angry protest, she became indignant. “Look,” she said, “that’s the discount your Board of Education negotiated. If you don’t like it, take it up with them.”
Now why on Earth would my employer sell out my rights to a standard discount? Can you think of any reason that isn’t crooked? And, of course, it wasn’t only my right to full discount the school authorities had stolen, but every teacher’s right in New York City. Perhaps, this will help you understand why I tilted this chapter “Everything You Know About Schools Is Wrong.”[1][Bold Emphasis Added]
Not only is modern public schooling about indoctrination, conformity and downright nonsense [as we can see in previous example #1, example #2, example #3] but as seen above, it’s also about lining the pockets of Big Business with money. After all, why else would you not allow school personnel the right to purchase products at discount, and force those people to forgo their rights? That doesn’t even begin to cover all the other moral implications.
There is so much wrong with this, that much more can be said. We will digress for now, however, as more examples will follow in the upcoming days.
For additional reading about this disturbing trend please research the following books reviewed below from teachers that are either still working within the public schooling system, or worked within the public school system at one time:
Book Review: Rotten To The Common Core by Dr. Joseph P. Farrell Ph.D.& Gary Lawrence
Book Review: Dumbing Us Down – The Hidden Curriculum Of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
Book Review: A Different Kind Of Teacher – Solving The Crisis Of American Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
Book Review: Weapons Of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto
Book Review: Drilling Through The Core, by Sandra Stotsky & Contributors
The following books are crucial tools for individuals who wish to become autodidacts & self-directed learners, homeschoolers and anyone else interested in learning valuable skills not mandatory in public schooling:
Book Review: Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft Ph.D.
Book Review: How To Read A Book – The Classic Guide To Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren
The Trivium – The Liberal Arts Of Logic, Grammer & Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph Ph.D.
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[1] John Taylor Gatto, Weapons Of Mass Instruction, pp. 20-21.
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