The statements of intent where made in writing and in speeches. I would do it for you but linking on the droid is not fun. Google “Rockefeller mencken quotes education” and the first link should lend some insight into the intent of the designers of the compulsory public school system. Gatto did a lot of research to support the thesis that schools are designed to dumb down the populace.
Gatto did a lot of research to support the thesis that schools are designed to dumb down the populace.
This may simply be jumping on an issue of semantics, but I’m concerned that this is really what he did, rather than doing a lot of research to find out whether the thesis was correct, or, more ideally, doing a lot of research before promoting the hypothesis to attention at all.
Well you can make wild speculations based off of my semantics or you can read for yourself. You seem to have chosen the former. Please return and clarify if you find his research faulty after you have read his work.
Well, the first link I get when I do the google search you suggested is this, and I’ve read that, but I’m not clear on what research of his you’re expecting me to read. The only work of his that appears to be available online is this, which contains assertions, but does not appear to support them with research as such.
It’s true that I haven’t read John Taylor Gatto’s work beyond that essay and the page you suggested reading yourself, but I was not wildly speculating based on semantics, I was making an educated guess considering that this is how people ordinarily behave. I assign a much higher prior to someone, say, hearing that the American school system is inspired by the Prussian system, which was largely concerned with producing good citizen-soldiers, and concluding that the American system must be deliberately designed to stymy creative thought, and looking for more evidence to back up that assertion, than I do to someone deciding to find out what the intentions behind the American school system are, doing extensive research, and concluding that its programs are actually purpose-designed to dumb down the populace.
What little work of his that I’ve found accessible online certainly doesn’t shift me away from that assessment.
Sounds scary. I’ll look into it and update as appropriate.
You are postulating quite the conspiracy tho. Much more likely it seems that a few b’crats went bonkers, the way you sometimes get UFO nuts out of the military.
Not really. To militaristic Prussia of the time, creating good soldiers was simply the same as creating good citizens, and was considered a worthy goal. No conspiracy required, just doing what seemed obviously correct at the time. And then the Prussian system was so ‘advanced’ and ‘modern’ and ‘successful’ that others copied it.
American experts did not all agree with the ‘military’ goal, but it was believed by the relevant experts that the same sorts of virtues applied to factory workers.
Now people try to actually educate children via this system. It’s like making minor tweaks to a torture device and wondering why it is ineffective at relieving headaches. You put some ibuprofen on the screws, tighten them some more, and subjects report slightly less intense headaches than last time.
Not creating effective soldiers puts you at a military disadvantage. If Prussia was a major power at the time, surely other countries feared them. If other countries felt it was necessary to stifle their populace in order to ensure that they were capable of defending themselves against Prussia (or to defend themselves against the countries that took after Prussia), perhaps stifling the populace was thought to be a “lesser evil”, a sacrifice they justified as part of an arms race.
Maybe this wasn’t an evil conspiracy, but a terrible consequence of the prospect of war.
What’s the bias for: “Ahh! We’re in mortal danger! Quick, everybody, become stupid!”
The statements of intent where made in writing and in speeches. I would do it for you but linking on the droid is not fun. Google “Rockefeller mencken quotes education” and the first link should lend some insight into the intent of the designers of the compulsory public school system. Gatto did a lot of research to support the thesis that schools are designed to dumb down the populace.
This may simply be jumping on an issue of semantics, but I’m concerned that this is really what he did, rather than doing a lot of research to find out whether the thesis was correct, or, more ideally, doing a lot of research before promoting the hypothesis to attention at all.
Well you can make wild speculations based off of my semantics or you can read for yourself. You seem to have chosen the former. Please return and clarify if you find his research faulty after you have read his work.
Well, the first link I get when I do the google search you suggested is this, and I’ve read that, but I’m not clear on what research of his you’re expecting me to read. The only work of his that appears to be available online is this, which contains assertions, but does not appear to support them with research as such.
It’s true that I haven’t read John Taylor Gatto’s work beyond that essay and the page you suggested reading yourself, but I was not wildly speculating based on semantics, I was making an educated guess considering that this is how people ordinarily behave. I assign a much higher prior to someone, say, hearing that the American school system is inspired by the Prussian system, which was largely concerned with producing good citizen-soldiers, and concluding that the American system must be deliberately designed to stymy creative thought, and looking for more evidence to back up that assertion, than I do to someone deciding to find out what the intentions behind the American school system are, doing extensive research, and concluding that its programs are actually purpose-designed to dumb down the populace.
What little work of his that I’ve found accessible online certainly doesn’t shift me away from that assessment.
Sounds scary. I’ll look into it and update as appropriate.
You are postulating quite the conspiracy tho. Much more likely it seems that a few b’crats went bonkers, the way you sometimes get UFO nuts out of the military.
Not really. To militaristic Prussia of the time, creating good soldiers was simply the same as creating good citizens, and was considered a worthy goal. No conspiracy required, just doing what seemed obviously correct at the time. And then the Prussian system was so ‘advanced’ and ‘modern’ and ‘successful’ that others copied it.
American experts did not all agree with the ‘military’ goal, but it was believed by the relevant experts that the same sorts of virtues applied to factory workers.
Now people try to actually educate children via this system. It’s like making minor tweaks to a torture device and wondering why it is ineffective at relieving headaches. You put some ibuprofen on the screws, tighten them some more, and subjects report slightly less intense headaches than last time.
Not creating effective soldiers puts you at a military disadvantage. If Prussia was a major power at the time, surely other countries feared them. If other countries felt it was necessary to stifle their populace in order to ensure that they were capable of defending themselves against Prussia (or to defend themselves against the countries that took after Prussia), perhaps stifling the populace was thought to be a “lesser evil”, a sacrifice they justified as part of an arms race.
Maybe this wasn’t an evil conspiracy, but a terrible consequence of the prospect of war.
What’s the bias for: “Ahh! We’re in mortal danger! Quick, everybody, become stupid!”
Bayesians vs. Barbarians
I wrote a quick introduction to Gatto’s claims of detrimental schooling practices that I think will give you a quick idea of whether it’s worth continuing to look into. Let me know what your reaction is? I’m curious.