CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES: THE TYRANNY OF COMPULSORY SCHOOLING

Spinning Globe ^ | John Gatto Taylor

[Clintonfatigued]

Let me speak to you about dumbness because that is what schools teach best. Old-fashioned dumbness used to be simple ignorance: you didn't know something, but there were ways to find out if you wanted to. Government-controlled schooling didn't eliminate dumbness - in fact, we now know that people read more fluently before we had forced schooling - but dumbness was transformed.

Now dumb people aren't just ignorant; they're the victims of the non-thought of secondhand ideas. Dumb people are now well-informed about the opinions of Time magazine and CBS, The New York Times and the President; their job is to choose which pre-thought thoughts, which received opinions, they like best. The élite in this new empire of ignorance are those who know the most pre-thought thoughts.

Mass dumbness is vital to modem society. The dumb person is wonderfully flexible clay for psychological shaping by market research, government policymakers; public-opinion leaders, and any other interest group. The more pre-thought thoughts a person has memorized, the easier it is to predict what choices he or she will make. What dumb people cannot do is think for themselves or ever be alone for very long without feeling crazy. That is the whole point of national forced schooling; we aren't supposed to be able to think for ourselves because independent thinking gets in the way of "professional" think-ing, which is believed to follow rules of scientific precision.

[Clintonfatigued]

Here is an excerpt of Gatto's which is worth memorizing"

"The new dumbness - the non thought of received ideas - is much more dangerous than simple ignorance, because it's really about thought control. In school, a washing away of the innate power of individual mind takes place, a "cleansing" so comprehensive that original thinking becomes difficult. If you don't believe this development was part of the intentional design of schooling, you should read William Torrey Harris's The Philosophy of Education. Harris was the U.S. Commissioner of Education at the turn of the century and the man most influential in standardizing our schools. Listen to the man.

"Ninety-nine [students] out of a hundred," writes Harris, "are automata, careful to walk in prescribed paths, careful to follow the prescribed custom." This is not all accident, Harris explains, but the "result of substantial education, which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual." Scientific education subsumes the individual until his or her behavior becomes robotic. Those are the thoughts of the most influential U.S. Commissioner of Education we've had so far.

The great theological scholar Dietrich Bonhoeffer raised this issue of the new dumbness in his brilliant analysis of Nazism, in which he sought to comprehend how the best-schooled nation in the world, Germany, could fall under its sway. He concluded that Nazism could be understood only as the psychological product of good schooling. The sheer weight of received ideas, pre-thought thoughts, was so overwhelming that individuals gave up trying to assess things for themselves. Why struggle- to invent a map of the world or of the human conscience when schools and media offer thousands of ready-made maps, pre-thought thoughts?"

[Skip Ripley]

The American educational system is great at teaching kids how to answer questions. It's terrible at teaching kids how to ask questions....

[Skip Ripley]

The American educational system is great at teaching kids how to answer questions. It's terrible at teaching kids how to ask questions....

[donmeaker]

The IRS is claiming that I am not a head of household, and claim that I have to show documents to prove that the children live with me.

I asked what documents would be acceptable. They suggested that I present the documents from the local schools to which I send my children.

I home school.

Well, then we will accept documents from the state agency to which you answer for the education of your children.

I don't answer to the State for my children. I home school.

Well, do you take them to the doctor?

Since I stopped sending them to the local contagion exchange (aka publick Screwls) they stopped getting sick. We haven't taken them to the doctor for two years.

I suppose I could show up in court with the children. They will not accept an affidavit from my ex-wife, because she is related to the children. Odd, isn't it?

[Clintonfatigued]

"Since I stopped sending them to the local contagion exchange (aka publick Screwls) they stopped getting sick."

Sometimes, stress can make a person more easily succumb to illness. And the public schools are boring and stressful places.

[skandalon]

Who put all the screwy keywords up? I like Gatto's work for the most part.

[Clintonfatigued]

I have no idea where all that came from.

[Zon]

From the article; on comparing libraries to schools:

"That's what the questions at the end of chapters are designed to do, to bring you back to a reality in which you are subordinate. Nobody really expects you to answer those questions, not even the teacher; they work their harm solely by being there. That is their genius. Schoolbooks are a crowd-control device."

See the same thing often with the main stream media. Special Reports, when the President speaks and general "news" coverage.

 

"Only the very innocent and well-schooled see any difference between good ones and bad ones; both kinds do the same work. In that respect they are much like television programming, the function of which, as a plug in narcotic, is infinitely more powerful than any trivial differences between good programs and bad."

 See this often when participating in politics. Partisan politics; voting for the lesser of evils still always begets evil.

"Real books educate, schoolbooks school, and thus libraries and library policies are a major clue to the reform of American schooling. When you take the free will and solitude out of education it becomes schooling. You can't have it both ways."

Compared to libraries subverting collectivist indoctrination from public schooling, the Internet and especially the world wide web dwarf libraries.

[Clintonfatigued]

Very good points.

[wintertime]

Government school can and DO use the threat of armed police, court, and foster care action to
FORCE their will upon parents with no other alternative. ( Real bullets in those guns on the hip.)If you do not believe this, please do a Google search on the words: Truant and Police.

If a taxpayer refuses to pay for the non-neutral political, cultural, and religious agenda of the government school, armed sheriff's will soon be at his door to sell his home and business at auction.

If a parent or taxpayer is sufficiently resistant, he risks prison or even death by bullet.

THAT is what government schools are!

Government school taxes have turned us into a nation of renters. If we do not pay our rent ( school taxes ) to the government, the government will evict us from our home or business. (Remember: Real bullets in those guns on the hip)

The following is from Gatto's essay:

" In my own life, with my own children, I'm sorry I lacked the courage to say what Hester Prynne, the wearer of the scarlet letter, said to the Puritan elders when they tried to take away her daughter. Alone and friendless, dirt poor, ringed about by enemies, she said, "Over my dead body." A few weeks ago a young woman called me from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania to tell me the state had just insisted she stop home-schooling her little girl, Chrissie. The state was going to force her to send Chrissie to school. She said she was going to fight, first with the law, although she didn't know where the money would come from, and then by any means she had. If I had to bet on this young, single mother or the State of Pennsylvania to win, I'd bet on the lady because what l was really hearing her say was, "Over my dead body." I wish I'd been able to say that when the state came to take my own children. I didn't. But if I'm born again I promise you that's what I will say."

[wintertime]

It is past time that homeschoolers STOPPED defending their decision. It is time that we pointedly ask those using government schools, "Why on earth are you doing THAT to your children? What is the problem? Are you that bad off that you have no other option?"

We must pointedly state that homeschooling is the MOST natural and healthy way to raise a child to adulthood.

Will some children need to be institutionalized. Yes, of course! There will always be parents who dislike their kids, are too stupid, disorganized, dysfunctional, poor, too interested in material gain, too sick, tired, or ill-educated themselves.

These children will need institutions. We need orphanages too, but no one would suggest that it is the best way to raise a child.

By the way, I personally have never met a fat homeschooler who has been homeschooled from the beginning. Why? They aren't fat because they have the time and leisure to PLAY.

[cinives]

How was the state going to force her to send her child to school if she filed her affidavit and objectives to homeschool ?

[wintertime]

How was the state going to force her to send her child to school if she filed her affidavit and objectives to homeschool ?
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Not every parent can homeschool. Please note the phrase "with no alternative" in my previous post. Government price-fixing and monopolistic practices have assured that alternatives are very scarce in many communities.

Thanks to onerous government school taxes ( approximately $11,000 per government schooled child per year)both parents are forced into the work force just to pay these taxes.

If you do NOT cooperate with the government the following WILL happen:

Government schools can and DO use the threat of armed police, court, and foster care action to
FORCE their will upon parents with no other alternative. ( Real bullets in those guns on the hip.)If you do not believe this, please do a Google search on the words: Truant and Police.

If a taxpayer refuses to pay for the non-neutral political, cultural, and religious agenda of the government school, armed sheriff's will soon be at his door to sell his home and business at auction.

If a parent or taxpayer is sufficiently resistant, he risks prison or even death by bullet.

THAT is what government schools are!

Government school taxes have turned us into a nation of renters. If we do not pay our rent ( school taxes ) to the government, the government will evict us from our home or business. (Remember: Real bullets in those guns on the hip)

[cinives]

While I agree completely that we only rent our homes from the government re school taxes, I totally disagree with the idea that "not everyone can homeschool".

I am a single working parent who homeschools in Pennsylvania - believe me, it can be done by anyone. All it takes is willpower and the willingness to make whatever changes are necessary in your life-lifestyle.

If homeschooling is not desired, there are plenty of church schools, even in Philadelphia, that still charge less than $2500 a year to educate your kid in elementary school.

[Tired of Taxes]

Who put all the screwy keywords up? I like Gatto's work for the most part.

We have enemies on Free Republic, too.

[Tired of Taxes]

Since I stopped sending them to the local contagion exchange (aka publick Screwls) they stopped getting sick. We haven't taken them to the doctor for two years.

Careful. I was accused by a doctor (in front of my children) for "never taking them to see a doctor" because I "only take them when they're sick." Which wasn't even true! I would schedule a well-child visit, but for two or three years in a row, coincidentally the kids would be sick at the same time as their visit. Doctors seem to be quick with their suspicions when a parent homeschools.

[Tired of Taxes]

Homeschool Ping!

If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.

Are you a homeschooler looking for advice from other homeschoolers? Visit our Free Republic Homeschoolers' Forum 2006-2007.

[kittymyrib]

"The IRS is claiming that I am not a head of household, and claim that I have to show documents to prove that the children live with me."
I can top that. Medicare insists my husband of 43 years is a female. They have sent three replacement cards after our local Social Security office has attempted to correct this ridiculous error. Yes, all three have come back with my husband's name and "Female" stamped on them. Some claims from his lab work from last September have not been paid to the doctor because some computer in the bowels of the SS office noticed that he is not a female, so the mess just escalates.
And this is the government that is supposed to be in charge of Hellery Care? You'd better get your wills drawn up.

[Aquinasfan]

Dumb people are now well-informed about the opinions of Time magazine and CBS, The New York Times and the President; their job is to choose which pre-thought thoughts, which received opinions, they like best. The élite in this new empire of ignorance are those who know the most pre-thought thoughts.

JTG, profoundly insightful, as always. I could highlight the whole article.

The new dumbness is particularly deadly to middle and upper-middle-class people, who have already been made shallow by the multiple requirements to conform. Too many people, uneasily convinced that they must know something because of a degree, diploma, or license, remain so convinced until a brutal divorce, alienation from their children, loss of employment, or periodic fits of meaninglessness manage to tip the precarious mental balance of their incomplete humanity, their stillborn adult lives.

It took me about ten years to fully shake off the effects of schooling, but it was well worth the effort.

As JTG said, they'll get my kids over my dead body.