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A review by ches
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto
1.5
Rating: 1.5 / 5
I'll start by saying that I expected to agree with the book. I support home education and unschooling and I have a personal bias against the school system - I hated school. My school years consisted of being bullied, and being told that I was too opinionated, and that I needed to learn to conform. I agree that schools can destroy a person's innate love of learning. I also think school primes kids to be employees, rather than to be entrepreneurs. Overall I think the school system fails children in multiple ways and it fails some more than others (i.e., SEN children). All this to say, Gatto should have had me in the palm of his hands!!
Instead, he spent 100 pages fear-mongering and spouting sensationalised, inflammatory statements. Gatto constantly states his opinions as facts and offers no supporting evidence. He also displays prolific black and white thinking - and I'm saying this as someone with Asperger's! He also speaks very poorly of the kids he's taught. The kids he teaches are cruel and laugh at weakness apparently - there are multiple sweeping generalisations like this one all through the book.
I'll add that I'm from the UK not the US, however this shouldn't make a difference because despite Gatto having only ever taught in one school district with the US, he still makes the sweeping generalisation that schools (and their purpose) is the same worldwide. There's nothing to back this up, once again, it's literally just his opinion stated like fact.
Gatto also offers no solutions - at least none that are actually workable for the majority of working and middle class parents. He seems incredibly out of touch and has no appreciation for the fact that one of the main reasons many parents send their children to school is because they have no real choice.
Gatto does makes some good points and the history of schooling is interesting, but he says nothing revolutionary. Perhaps these ideas would be revolutionary to someone who had never looked into the nature of the school system or researched home ed before. Unfortunately, this is the worst book I've read about the failings of the school system and the benefits of home education. There are some brilliant books on this topic that don't read like a propaganda leaflet.
Gatto has put me off home education a bit if I'm honest - I mean what if I go to home ed groups and I'm forced to talk to parents who think this BS is good?! 😂😂
I'll start by saying that I expected to agree with the book. I support home education and unschooling and I have a personal bias against the school system - I hated school. My school years consisted of being bullied, and being told that I was too opinionated, and that I needed to learn to conform. I agree that schools can destroy a person's innate love of learning. I also think school primes kids to be employees, rather than to be entrepreneurs. Overall I think the school system fails children in multiple ways and it fails some more than others (i.e., SEN children). All this to say, Gatto should have had me in the palm of his hands!!
Instead, he spent 100 pages fear-mongering and spouting sensationalised, inflammatory statements. Gatto constantly states his opinions as facts and offers no supporting evidence. He also displays prolific black and white thinking - and I'm saying this as someone with Asperger's! He also speaks very poorly of the kids he's taught. The kids he teaches are cruel and laugh at weakness apparently - there are multiple sweeping generalisations like this one all through the book.
I'll add that I'm from the UK not the US, however this shouldn't make a difference because despite Gatto having only ever taught in one school district with the US, he still makes the sweeping generalisation that schools (and their purpose) is the same worldwide. There's nothing to back this up, once again, it's literally just his opinion stated like fact.
Gatto also offers no solutions - at least none that are actually workable for the majority of working and middle class parents. He seems incredibly out of touch and has no appreciation for the fact that one of the main reasons many parents send their children to school is because they have no real choice.
Gatto does makes some good points and the history of schooling is interesting, but he says nothing revolutionary. Perhaps these ideas would be revolutionary to someone who had never looked into the nature of the school system or researched home ed before. Unfortunately, this is the worst book I've read about the failings of the school system and the benefits of home education. There are some brilliant books on this topic that don't read like a propaganda leaflet.
Gatto has put me off home education a bit if I'm honest - I mean what if I go to home ed groups and I'm forced to talk to parents who think this BS is good?! 😂😂