[firestarter]

What follows is simply profound:


The Awful Fate of Being Nobody; How To Avoid It: A Commencement Address for Homeschoolers by John Taylor Gatto

[paimei01]

Video Link

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')While parents, schools, provinces and states across North America bicker about the democratic process of running public schools, forces are ... all » manipulating education from behind the scenes. Major international players are reshaping public education to suit their own self-serving agendas, without regard for the wants of parents and the welfare of their children. This video lecture documents how today's educational system dumb down kids deliberately, making zombie-like people who don't ask any questions but just follow orders

[Baldwin]

I have read another one of Gatto's essays. He's pretty much hit the mark, but I dare say, he is too exclusive. He leaves out religious/private schools. My own High School (Private, Catholic) isn't too different. Many of the sheep they graduate are destined to be the more educated, NY Times reader flock. We are still however driven mad by bells and made to memorize facts.

The author is right. No one asks questions. The system is what it is. When I bring up such topics as how a teacher can grade 200 English exams with collectively 1000 paragraphs (each exam includes a 5 paragraph essay) in adition to calculating marking period averages overnight, I seal my fate. When I ask why the awards given at graduation coincide with the list of large donors to the school, I seal my fate.

When I was asked why I wished to retreat from the world (when I broke that I wished to be Jesuit), I thought of this sort of article by Gatto that I had read before. Why should I be a cog in the machine and pay taxes to support it when I could be the Marcus Aurelius who gives it all up, finding freedom and happiness in the process. The same BS continues in similar form when you go to work. For those first hours in the morning, every Homer Simpson is completely consumed by punching his card/signing in before 8 a.m. lest he incur the wrath of some salty old bitch who is his boss.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Baldwin', ' ') Why should I be a cog in the machine and pay taxes to support it when I could be the Marcus Aurelius who gives it all up, finding freedom and happiness in the process.

[Baldwin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Baldwin', ' ') Why should I be a cog in the machine and pay taxes to support it when I could be the Marcus Aurelius who gives it all up, finding freedom and happiness in the process.