The Underground History of American Education 1346
| The Underground History of American Education | |
| author | John Taylor Gatto |
| pages | 700 |
| publisher | Oxford Village Press |
| rating | 9 |
| reviewer | Chris Acheson |
| ISBN | 0945700040 |
| summary | A damning look at the institution of modern compulsory schooling and the factors which brought it about. |
The true purpose of schooling, according to Gatto, is to produce an easily manageable workforce to serve employers in a mass-production economy. Actual education is a secondary and even counterproductive result since educated people tend to be more difficult to control.
Over the course of the book, Gatto exposes many of the individuals, organizations, and crises (both real and manufactured) that helped to make our public school system what it is today. Such architects as Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, and a handful of teaching and management experts sought to benefit directly from a dumbed-down citizenry. Others contributed in a naive attempt at Utopian social engineering, mostly unaware of the harm that they were doing. There was never any master plan, though. The author puts it best:
Gatto maintains throughout the book that all individuals have an innate curiosity and desire to learn. Examples are given in the first chapter of prominent historical figures who prospered with little or no formal schooling. But I found the examples of desire for substantive education on the part of "the masses" to be most compelling:With conspiracy so close to the surface of the American imagination and American reality, I can only approach with trepidation the task of discouraging you in advance from thinking my book the chronicle of some vast diabolical conspiracy to seize all our children for the personal ends of a small, elite minority.Don't get me wrong, American schooling has been replete with chicanery from its very beginnings: indeed, it isn't difficult to find various conspirators boasting in public about what they pulled off. But if you take that tack you'll miss the real horror of what I'm trying to describe, that what has happened to our schools was inherent in the original design for a planned economy and a planned society laid down so proudly at the end of the nineteenth century. I think what happened would have happened anyway-without the legions of venal, half-mad men and women who schemed so hard to make it as it is. If I'm correct, we're in a much worse position than we would be if we were merely victims of an evil genius or two.
The real function of the school system is not to empower people by giving them knowledge, but to crush this instinct toward self-improvement before it makes the workers too independent and troublesome. Another compelling example is the "Jewish Student Riots" described in chapter 9:When a Colorado coalminer testified before authorities in 1871 that eight hours underground was long enough for any man because "he has no time to improve his intellect if he works more," the coaldigger could hardly have realized his very deficiency was value added to the market equation.
Thousands of mothers milled around schools in Yorkville, a German immigrant section, and in East Harlem, complaining angrily that their children had been put on "half-rations" of education. They meant that mental exercise had been removed from the center of things.
The book does have a few problems. Gatto is by his own admission somewhat casual about citing his sources. This is important because there are some assertions made that many will find dubious. For example:
This would be a great fact to toss out when trying to convince someone that schooling is unnecessary. But where does this statistic come from? What does "wherever such a thing mattered" mean? Some readers may be willing to simply take Gatto's word for it and accept this assertion, but skeptics will be left unsatisfied. According to historical census data from 1840, the national average literacy rate for white adults was indeed approximately 93%, and the literacy rate for white adults living in Connecticut was 99.67%. Why not simply say that the statistic refers to white adults? The omission hurts the author's credibility in the eyes of a skeptical reader.Looking back, abundant data exist from states like Connecticut and Massachusetts to show that by 1840 the incidence of complex literacy in the United States was between 93 and 100 percent wherever such a thing mattered.
The other thing that I found disappointing is that Gatto doesn't discuss solutions to the schooling problem as thoroughly as I wanted. Throughout the book examples are shown of educational methods which have worked well. As I read, I mulled these over, and anticipated that the final chapter (titled "Breaking Out Of The Trap") would be a comprehensive look at these methods and ways to promote their implementation. But that final chapter is mostly a collection of anecdotes. Gatto does provide a short list of positive suggestions and a promise to cover solutions more fully in a future book.
The picture that Gatto paints for us of our school system and society is frightening, but I also found it comforting to see evidence that ignorance and apathy are not the natural state of humanity. I found hope in the fact that things were once different. Having a clearly defined problem that can be solved is preferable to having a vague suspicion that something is wrong, but no clear idea what it is.
The ideas presented in Gatto's Underground History have the potential to change our society and our individual lives for the better. Even when we are trapped within the system, knowing how it works and what it is really up to can help us retain our wit and our humanity. If you are a student, if you are a parent, if you know or care about anyone who is in school, or even if you are just concerned about corporate and government control versus individual freedom, you need to read this book.
You can purchase The Underground History of American Education from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Quick Intro (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Religion and Schooling (Score:3, Informative)
On a similar topic: (Score:5, Informative)
Not surpriseing - deliberate dumbing down (Score:5, Informative)
To anyone interested in this topic, I'd suggest also reading Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt's book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America [deliberate...ngdown.com] . It'll make you want to homeschool your kids.
Not available online (Score:4, Informative)
No, the full text is not available (as far as I can tell). From this page [johntaylorgatto.com]:
Each month we will post a new chapter on this Web site. If you are patient, in 18 months you will have read the book in its entirety.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
nerds (Score:2, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:as a former teacher (Score:1, Informative)
Or you can cough up a whopping US$6 to get a print copy. Hardly a cash cow.
Mirror (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not available online (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What are your solutions? (Score:5, Informative)
Don't tell me this would be worse than our current system. It's not possible to be worse. Maybe it would be a little tougher for people to not have government daycare, but then maybe they would realize that those last 12 years of childhood are the most amazing.
Re:This idea has been around for a bit. (Score:4, Informative)
It's nice to see that a person as public and respected as Gatto is starting to say these things.
Re:Religion and Schooling (Score:5, Informative)
- Terrorism (Both domestic and abroad.)
- Religion (covered Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam). We had to study about an inch stack of worksheets and information packets about half an inch thick on each one. Then give a presentation.)
- Abortion. (I got fired up on this one...then I got in an email flamewar with a prominent person on the issue, got scared, and have stayed out the debate ever since.)
- Foreign wars and genocides
- Female circumcision (I got sick thinking about that one.)
- WWII and the Holocaust. (We were shown much more disturbing photos than the ones you see on the History channel.)
I think it really opened my eyes to what was going on around me, stuff that most people don't hear about and don't want to hear about. I took the class because I'd heard a lot of mixed messages from other students. Some thought it was horrible, others though it was boring, and others thought it was great.Re:Not available online (Score:1, Informative)
If you bothered to look at the page, you would have seen that not only are all 18 chapters there, but the epilogue as well.
Re:Tolerance? BWAHAHA!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:"No Child Left Behind" (Score:3, Informative)
Check this out [cato.org]
That article was talking about vouchers and the 3000 (only half of what it costs the public district which means the district KEEPS HALF!) voucher would almost PAY for MOST private schools. Sure, they are not the expensive primary equivalent of Yale, but most are better then 80 percent of the public schools.
Oh, and when I was in school, besides the Iowa tests, there was no state required test. The minute one was added, actual teaching went out the window and everything that students are being taught were about the tests. The test should TEST your knowledge not have your knowledge be the test.
Re:Tolerance? BWAHAHA!!!! (Score:4, Informative)
Or should the state declare the official religion as atheism? "You must believe that there is no higher power, and that you are worthless and have no purpose other than a product of the Universe's machinations."
1. That would be unconstitutional. It's in the first "right" granted to every American for a good reason. For those of you who have forgotten it, it goes something like this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
2. I submit that if you think religion is dying (especially Christianity), you aren't paying enough attention. Many of those around you are quite possibly of a faith, but choose to keep it to themselves instead of beating it over your head in an inappropriate forum.
Re:"No Child Left Behind" (Score:2, Informative)
NCLB has been getting trashed a lot, and pretty unfairly, so lets talk about what NCLB is really about.
It's about using phonics to teach reading.
It seems that there are two camps in education: the phonics camp, which is pretty much how everyone in the world actually learned to read: Sounding out words.
Then there is the whole language camp, which basically consists of putting books under kids pillows and hoping they learn how to read.
You're probably assuming that I'm rabidly partisan in the phonics camp. Nope, I'm not.
See, neither camp is 100% correct. Phonics is how you start learning to read, and its a necessary step. You can't learn to read without phonics. Enjoying reading is how you learn to read well. So designing a reading program will mean you'll have to start with phonics, and then build up from there.
So what I'm rabidly partisan for is measuring what works, and doing that. That's what NCLB is really about. Schools must test their kids between 3rd and 8th grade and make sure that they're learning to read. If they aren't they have to try to do something about it. If they try and fail, then they have to provide alternatives to parents: busing them to better schools, or vouchers.
Now my mother was a schoolteacher, and I saw her do some interesting things:
Every couple of years in California, they would "dumb down" the textbooks again. So my mom would go to the district office and get the "obsolete" text books and that's what she would use in her classroom.
My mom would test her kids every year at the beginning and end of the year, and if they were behind, she would spend extra time working with the kid to bring them back up to grade level. She didn't believe in learning disabilities.
My mom would start with phonics, which she called "primers" and then move on to regular children's books.
Also, my mom disliked several things:
The State Board of Education was constantly coming out with these programs to do various things. Invariably, my mom would point out that they were worthless, because they didn't provide extra materials to the classroom. One time, she got this program from the state, and the principal had her evaulate it. She trashed it, saying it didn't give her any materials for the classroom, and all it had her do was waste her time filling in boxes with colored pencils (I kid you not). The principal yelled at her for giving the wrong answer.
My mom also disliked Title XII, which was supposed to help the learning disadvantaged. First off, instead of adding extra classroom time for the kids that were behind (which just makes sense), they would take the kid out of her classroom. If you realize that the kid would have to leave, go to a different classroom, settle down, get some "concentrated" attention, then get up, go back to my mom's classroom, and settle down again, then the kids that were behind would actually end up with an hour less teaching time then the regular kids. That was just dumb.
My mom, as a schoolteacher could tell you: the schools don't need more money, they need less State Board of Education, and less School District. Now my mom was also the shop steward for her union. She hated the union, but she hated the School District more.
Which brings us to NCLB. NCLB is all about telling the education establishment, and by that I don't mean teachers, but I do mean the Teachers Union and the State Board of Education, ENOUGH It's a very blunt instrument. Schools must reform, or face drastic measures. Is it severe? Perhaps. Yet I think the population has gotten so frustrated with the educational establishment that it was an idea whose time has come. It will, and has been lighting a fire under our educational s
Re:as a former teacher (Score:2, Informative)
Re:German schools (Score:1, Informative)
Here [thinkquest.org] is an article detailing the comparison.
Re:Educational Triage (Score:4, Informative)
There is already a working example of this: : the German school system [thinkquest.org] (warning, this link contains cheesy midi music)
They have have several different schools, some of which are geared for a working occupation and one (Gynasium) which is for univerisity bound kids. Kids are slotted into these schools at a very young age--10yo I think. One of the things that makes this work is that (supposedly) training in a tradeskill is not associated with low prestige like it is in the states. Being a cook or a car mechanic gets a fair amount of respect and does not result in a salary that is 1/10 of a doctor.
I'm not German so if there are any Deutchlanders out there that can comment on their experiences with this system I would appreciate it.
Article in Harper's by same author (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Many Problems, Many Partial Solutions (Score:2, Informative)
You are correct, but perhaps I should have clarified and expounded on my statement. I wasn't implying that most teachers were the working poor, simply that they should be paid more than they are currently. Also, I am from Texas, where teachers' salaries are ranked 30th in the nation.(average $40k/year, not starting). Suffice it to say that what I make with only a two-year degree and less than a year of real work experience, I find that average salary rate of Texas teachers absurdly and offensively low.
Many people that could teach (and would enjoy teaching) in public schools do not because other industries offer them higher salaries, more opportunities and advancements, and a more empowered working environment (where their syllabus is ruled by common sense and general standards, rather than by an impotent administrative body.)
I do believe that increasing teachers' salaries will draw more potential teachers to the area and give schools a better selection to choose from, but of course that's only one part of the solution. The other part is to free the teachers from their administrative- and litigation-fearing shackles and let them do their job.
Unfortunately, I think we could pony up the extra cash much easier than we could resolve the latter problem.
Re:This is brilliant (Score:3, Informative)
When I was little, I went to school in Japan for the first bit of elementary school, then went to American schools while taking saturday classes at a Japanese expatriate school until 3rd grade. I noticed a few things:
1) In math and a couple of other subjects, the Japanese schools were about a year ahead of the American ones. This actually hindered me later in life, because I became lazy in the American schools and 'coasted' without putting in much effort, until I started failing classes.
2) Japanese schools had much more regimented and controlling feel to it, whereas American schools actually let kids be kids. I think the American schools were better in that respect.
3) American schools don't expect as much from their kids academically, and seem to act as more of a 'babysitting' service or daycare, at least in the elementary levels.
4) Japanese schools put a lot more pressure on kids academically, and force them to comptete even to get into a 'good' middle school or high school through standardized tests. This puts a lot of stress on kids, and I hope that the U.S. won't become like that with the "No child left behind" act.
I have other things to add, but I have to go for now, will post more later.
Straight out of Foucault (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not surpriseing - deliberate dumbing down (Score:3, Informative)
Asimov's "Profession" (Score:1, Informative)
I don't want to spoil the ending, but the point you're making was the subject of an Asimov story, "Profession" [abelard.org].
This story is 20 years old! (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sure he wasn't the first.
Nice to see people are finally catching on.
So what is the solution for Education? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Many Problems, Many Partial Solutions (Score:3, Informative)
So two teachers married make more than 80,000 a year? Thats not a bad haul considering they get the months of July and August off. They also get a week for Winter and spring breaks, and on top of that their sick and vacation time. Do you get that much time off, do you work on call? Do you always have a fixed hour day?
Actually, in Texas we get June and July off, not July and August.
However, the idea that teachers have a "fixed hour day" is laughable. I have four preps, because that's what they ask me to teach. Last week, I was at school Monday night until 1:45 AM grading, Tuesday until 6pm, and Wednesday until 10pm. I have evening commitments Thursday and Friday, so I left "early" at 5, but made up for it by coming in for a couple of hours each on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of the Labor Day weekend. And I'm not married (as you'd probably guess from my hours worked), so it's just the one salary.
Elementary school teachers have it worse. I've virtually never seen an elementary school teacher who wasn't grading. Admittedly, my grading schedule for last week was worse than average, but not by an order of magnitude or anything.
I have a CS degree from one of the top-ten CS schools in the US, and seven years of teaching experience, but I make just over $35K. And I don't think I'm being selfish in saying that's too low for my level of education/skill and workload. Now, I'm not complaining, because I enjoy my job and knew the pay would be low before I got in, but the point is, most teachers deserve higher pay.
And, in fact, the only reason I get paid as well as I do is that my school district spends slightly more than 80% of its overall budget on salaries. And so I don't have any budget whatsoever (so the $50 CD-burner I'm going to buy for my classroom will come out of pocket), but that's the breaks.
Until you can fire a teacher for being bad at their job you will not have good teachers (and this is very hard to do). Youll simply have better paid bad teachers.
Here, however, is where I agree with you. Not all teachers take their mandate as seriously as I do. Some teachers are terrible, and the current system (in Texas, anyway) is basically such that a school district can only "non-renew" a teacher after their first year with the district. If they hire that teacher for a second year, they pretty much can't be fired unless they 1) touch a student (sex or violence) or 2) touch money they shouldn't.
Most districts handle that by waiting for bad teachers to leave through retirement or attrition, and just make damn sure that all new hires are "good", as far as you can tell such things, anyway.
If we had a workable system of teacher evaluation and could easily get rid of bad teachers, then people would probably be comfortable paying the remaining "good" teachers more. Probably.
Anyway, just my $0.02.
Re:Educational Triage (Score:2, Informative)
Just some supplements:
There were great discussions about our educational system after our terrible PISA results (I for one think it is a statistical problem). A lot of politicians believe that a all-day school system would help.
I believe that pupils should be slotted at least 2 years later, parents should care for their children again and education should be better standardized between the states. Especially our school books are a mess, teachers are forced to base their lessons on copies from other sources too often.
A lot of people in Germany don't go to a College after normal school/gymnasium but start an apprenticeship which is a semi school/job training where one already receives money. That seems to be very effective.
And they want to displace our 4 year Diplom system at universities with a 3+2 year Bachelor/Master system, which should be seen in about 20 years as a terrible mistake.
Re:Not surpriseing - deliberate dumbing down (Score:2, Informative)
A few schools (Reed and Cornell come to mind) do require that homeschooled students take SAT II subject tests, others require a personal interview only from homeschoolers. In most cases though, the school will just give a higher weight to the students SAT/ACT score and essay rather than to their GPA.
Another thing myself and a few of my homeschooled peers have done is to take classes at the local community college, which provides an outside verification of ability.
Re:As a former teacher, I agree--it's not fixable (Score:2, Informative)
Though I couldn't find any breakouts purely for foreign-born, Sweden's foreign-born and first generation immigrant mix is 20 percent [state.gov]. The majority of immigrants appear to be from other Nordic countries, with large numbers of refugess from the former Yugoslavia and a sizeable Iranian/Iraqi population.
Canada currently has the second largest percentage of foreign-born at 18.4 percent [wsws.org]. The majority of these are from Asia (56%) and Europe (20%). If the US figures are a guide (and they may not be), Asian and European immigrants tend to have higher educational achievement levels than Latin Americans, which are the majority immigrant group in the US, and would thus tend to depress international standing less than in the US.
Once again, I am not arguing for or against such immigration. Latin American immigration has provided many benefits for the US, but it does have a negative effect on educational achivement levels as a percentage of population.