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Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

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It sounds overly dramatic, I know, but I truly feel that John Taylor Gatto has liberated my soul by writing DUMBING US DOWN. But that is exactly what he has done. John Taylor Gatto confirms everything I had always believed about schools: that they are simply cruel prisons where spirits are destroyed and minds are conquered. Easy for me to say, though, seeing as how I myself never did too well in school. John Taylor Gatto, on the other hand, has been named Teacher of the Year several years running by both New York City and State. Here is someone accepted by the teaching establishment, honored by the teaching establishment. He speaks for me and thousands of others who've been tortured in these horrible institutions.

John Taylor Gatto reveals many fascinating, and frightening, things. For example, literacy went down in the US after the advent of compulsory schooling. Yes, more people could read and write before schooling was mandatory. Gatto says this is because reading, writing, and arithmetic only take about 100 hours to transmit, but schools purposefully distort the learning process and intentionally slow down the students' learning so as to justify robbing them of 12 years of their lives while they teach what Gatto refers to as the seven lessons schools really teach:

1. Confusion
2. Class position
3. Indifference
4. Emotional dependency
5. Intellectual dependency
6. Provisional self-esteem
7. One can't hide

It was Adam Robinson's WHAT SMART STUDENTS KNOW that first introduced me to the fact that school distorts the learning process and that if you want to be a good student you basically have to unlearn everything school teaches you about learning. It is Gatto's DUMBING US DOWN that explains *why* school distorts the learning process. The bitter truth, according to Gatto, is that mandatory schooling was invented by industry barons so as to ensure that the poor would not have a revolution, as well as to prepare their children for a transition into the industrial age. Another purpose was to shield the population from the "contamination" of the new Latin immigrants from Europe, as well as from the movement of African Americans through the country in the wake of the civil war. But Gatto doesn't stop there. He also holds compulsory schooling accountable for the breakdown of the family (he says we no longer have communities, but live in "networks"), the materialism of our society (because the only way to get any attention in a network is to buy it), and the drug use and suicide rate among our children and teens (because, Gatto says, it is absurd and anti-life to take children away from their families, trap children in a room eight hours a day, and allow them to interact only with those of the same age and social class).

The most startling point Gatto makes in this book, for me at least, is that industry barons purposefully encouraged schools to implant in students the idea that success in school is mandatory for financial success. Gatto argues that it is absurd to instill in children the idea that learning is only important if you are being graded, grades which one would want to be high so as to convert into high incomes. According to the author, rich children commit suicide at a higher rate than the poor or middle class (he suggests this is because the rich are often schooled more than the rest of us). Why try to drive home to children the idea that wealth is the key to happiness when it is common knowledge that it is not?

I myself struggled with suicidal thoughts as a child and a teen. It is directly related to the nightmare and torture of schooling. I thank John Taylor Gatto for exposing this compulsory prison for what it is, and I encourage any reader of DUMBING US DOWN to also search out Gatto's most recent book THE UNDERGROUND HISTORY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION.

Andrew Parodi

Having seen this title on every "official" recommendation list for homeschooling families, I had high hopes for this book. But Gatto lost me in his insistance that there's a malevolent intention behind the way public schools are run. I can understand and agree with the contention that schools are set up to train our children to go into the workforce, and therefore economics demand accountability and result in a drowning out of true learning. But to go further and insist that there's a scheme to keep our kids from being able to think beyond what's been drummed into them is a stretch too far for me. That result may be a natural consequence of our factory-like public schools, but I can't buy it as their intention from the outset.

I found Gatto's speaking style dry and dull. I kept telling myself that I was just not "getting" this book, and it surely would get better. But that never happened for me. Purchase this book if you suspect a conspiracy behind weighing our children down. But if you're into homeschooling as a healthier alternative to what you're seeing in public schools then I'd suggest you look to other resources.

This collection of essays can be a quick read. However, there is so much to think about that the book requires slow and repeated readings.

This book made me think about what my school experiences were, things that I had "disremembered." It also gave me something to lend to people who cannot understand why I have chosen not to send my children to school.

For those who have not reflected on the damage that is caused by institutional schooling, this book will be a revelation.

I also recommend Gatto's other writings.

I put off reading this for a while because I was unable to find a copy to preread at my local library. I switched libraries and easily found a copy at my much larger, much better library. I think I may actually purchase this book. Its small size is deceptive as to the amount of information contained within. I had a rare educational experience growing up. I was in a private school, multiple public schools, and homeschooled. The sadness and despair I felt in the public schools still haunts me. The apathy and indifference exhibited by my peers was then and is still frightening now. The sheer amount of time watched of television on a daily basis was boggling. I think most people don't understand how much of their time it really takes. and I still do not understand the purpose of homework from a practical perpective. Is this theft of our children's childhoods really acceptable? Gatto was completely on the mark about many matters. The infection upon our country that is public education is distroying our nation. It is why we are unable to successful compete in the global labour markets. It is why most of your children can't read or do simple math, much less philosophize or perform calculus. That and the TV. Read this book. The whole thing. It is short, but extremely powerful.

This is a revolutionary manifesto for child-directed, home-based education. It is the original scathing expose of the truth about traditional schooling: It is a churning prison that steals the years, passions, ambitions and hours away from children. We live in a democracy, yet our children are locked up in totalitarian prisons for 13 years with adults controlling their every move, even depriving them of basic human needs such as the right to use the toilet! Every aspect of tradititional schooling runs contrary to children's learning, emotional, social, physiological and developmental needs- at all ages. Yet, children who cannot conform to the the confining, oppressive atmospheres are labled as "disabled" and are referred to be managed chemically. Many parents, bowing to the iconic school as if a God, comply with the school's demands and opinions of their children, allow their children's lives to be imposed upon with homework, punishments, detentions and rigid school rules and schedules. As a seasoned educator, John Taylor Gatto tells it like it is for the millions of apathetic children trapped in the decaying, outmoded institution known as traditional schooling. John Taylor Gatto candy-coats nothing as he challenges the system and demands that today's approach to education be revolutionized to reflect modern society, and the neglected educational needs of children. Before you become convinced that your school-hating, homework-boycotting child is "learning disabled", read this book and anything else by Gatto that you can get your hands on!!

My problem with John Taylor Gatto's "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" is that it does NOTHING to try to make readers see where he is coming from. He just brings up the same point over and over again: the bureaucratic
Hierarchy of compulsory schooling is holding back the students rather than educating them. In all of the essays that are contained in this 105 paged book, the author does nothing to try and win over the skeptics, merely bringing up that the goal of the school system is to make our children into conformists rather than intellects. Well, since Mr. Gatto had been a teacher for twenty-six years, I would have hoped he would have put more insight, lifting from his own teaching experience within the system, to show us EXACTLY how this system works to put a damper on original thought. There is nothing in here about how his personal experiences could have made a man, who had been working for the system, to now believe this way. There are comparisons between before and after, and a nice little insightful comment about how the American school system resembles the Prussian system, but let's not forget that not everyone who reads this book will be on exactly the same wavelength. Blaming society's disintegration of family and community, television, and easy divorce laws are not enough. He still does not explain how, specifically, schools turn children into conformists; he just claims that they do. Ringing bells, cell-block style classrooms etc., are not adequate enough points. I would've thought a teacher would have brought up better examples.

this book opened me up and made me aware of many things I could not have possibily known before. John Taylor Gatto con convinceingly explains how our public schools are used as political tools to controll and manage socity in the United states. Even though this book is kind of short, no words are wasted. The book is very well written and the author's writing style is compelling and captivating.

"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Gatto is the lone voice calling out to a freight train rumbling away from him at an increasing speed. Bush Inc. has come up with the "Leave No Child Behind" federal program which mandates more nationwide standardized testing and punishes any school system that does not hop on board. The Federal Govt desires cookie cutter solutions and Gatto is one of the few to call their hand and ask why?, are we any better off? This book should be a must read for every student seeking a teaching degree and every current teacher in the country.

This was John Gatto's first effort in a series of books that critique mass, public schooling. It is not his mission to propose technical fixes for the current system; in fact, he is basically suggesting the elimination of public schooling, as it is presently constituted. In lieu of "schooling," he calls for non-institutionalized education that occurs in the context of the traditions of individuality, family, and community. Many readers may question whether the author's libertarianism or free-market solutions are adequate ideas for addressing education in our present-day society.

An educated person, by the author's standards, is self-reliant, understands himself and his community, and is capable of critical, or dialectical, thinking. According to the author, modern schools emphasize most, if not all, of the following: regimentation and conformity, standardization and limited curriculums, initiative killing dependency on teachers, and the parsimonious and conditional building of self-esteem. This type of warehousing of kids for twelve years can hardly produce "educated" citizens. But this particular form of schooling has been developing, at the behest of educational gurus and the business community, since the middle of the 19th century and is well ensconced and largely unquestioned in our greater society.

There is an element of the author putting the cart before the horse in this book. In the U.S., the capitalistic class controls our culture and our social, economic, and political institutions. It would seem that average citizens, at a minimum, would have to achieve some independence within our workplaces, gain control of the flow of information in our society, now dominated by a few huge media conglomerates, and gain control of the political process well before structural changes can be made to education. But as it is now, businesses are only too happy to see over-credentialed, fearful graduates scrambling to demonstrate their worthiness to fill scarce positions.

The author seems to be fixated on small community life as the ideal in which to grow up, work, and become educated. What is curious about that view is that America has been a very transient society since our founding. The longest standing communities in America, those of small-town New England, often were bastions of orthodoxy and suppressive of any kind of difference. Education in such settings would undoubtedly be narrow and community-specific and hardly a broadening experience.

The United States was formed as a political community, where citizen participation is absolutely essential for our overall health. We are not supposed to be a traditional society that leaves its governance to a hierarchical authority structure. But unfortunately ours is a superficial democracy. Capitalistic and materialist values overwhelm citizen control and what one could call humanitarian concerns. At least, in traditional communities some economic support is provided for all community members - not so in capitalism. In some sense, the security of traditional communities will have to be replicated in a capitalistic society in order for its members to function fully as democratic citizens without the fear of being placed on a scrap heap for failing to fully incorporate the required manner of thinking, or for any reason.

The author is to be admired, as an award-winning teacher, for sending up an alarm concerning our manner of education. But the issues are complex. And there is much to question. He is surely correct to point out that the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic can be readily taught and absorbed in a relatively short period of time. Much of the study of literature and many subjects is wasted on kids; they simply to do not have the life experiences to benefit. If knowledge of the classics is a genuine part of the culture, then people will read them and discuss them as they mature. Of course, such is not the case in American culture. The author does not discuss the apprenticeship programs found in European countries. They seem like excellent solutions to the ill-advised warehousing of students done in America. After learning the basics, students work in local communities among trades-people to learn useful skills.

It is probably not wrong to say that we are a "dumbed-down" and controlled society. But of course this is nothing new. And yes schools are a locus for some of that dumbing-down. But the problem goes way beyond schools. Our schools reflect the distribution of power in our society. We could change all of that. Theoretically, we have the means to do so. Unfortunately, the trend is definitely towards more of the same.

The main idea of this book relied on Gatto's realization that school schedules are disruptive to sustained periods of learning and the realization of the French Post-Modern thinker, Michael Foucault (to whom Gatto refers, but not by name) that an institution must perpetuate itself. These realizations together provide fodder for the main idea of this book, which is that schools don't foster learning, but merely train students to comply with the institution of schools- i.e., dumb them down.

There are two respects in which this book seems misguided. Gatto seems to have a misguidedly rosy picture of the state of education in the past. While there may indeed have been certain instances of the kind of education in which all or most people were able to be literate, it's doubtful that these periods were frequent or long in duration. (And it's doubtful any but rich white males enjoyed this widespread literacy.)

Also, Gatto seems to have a misguided distrust of science and regimentation. This mistrust leads him to doubt everything from the intuitive reasonableness of evolution and the effectiveness of time management.

On the other hand, Gatto's main subjects, TV and the institutionalization of education, deserve his scrutiny. Let us hope his goal of widening public debate continues to be fulfilled.