John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto[1] (December 15, 1935[2] – October 25, 2018) was an American author and school teacher who taught in the classroom for nearly 30 years. He devoted much of his energy to his teaching career, then, following his resignation, authored several books on modern education, criticizing its ideology, history, and consequences. He is best known for his books Dumbing Us Down: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, and The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling, which is sometimes considered to be his magnum opus.

For other people named John Taylor, see John Taylor (disambiguation).
John Taylor Gatto
Gatto in 2009
Born(1935-12-15)December 15, 1935
Monongahela, Pennsylvania, US
DiedOctober 25, 2018(2018-10-25) (aged 82)
New York City, US
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJohn Gatto
EducationCornell University
University of Pittsburgh
Yeshiva University
Hunter College
Reed College
University of California, Berkeley
Occupation
  • Author
  • Speaker
  • Teacher
Known for
  • Educational activist
  • Scholar
  • New York State Teacher of the Year
Spouse(s)Janet Gatto
Websitewww.johntaylorgatto.com

He was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.[3]

Biography

Gatto was born to Andrew Michael Mario and Frances Virginia (née Zimmer) Gatto in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, a steel town near Pittsburgh. In his youth he attended public schools throughout the Pittsburgh Metro Area including Swissvale, Monongahela, and Uniontown as well as a Catholic boarding school in Latrobe. He did undergraduate work at Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia, then served in the U.S. Army medical corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Following army service he did graduate work at the City University of New York, Hunter College, Yeshiva University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell.

He worked as a writer and held several odd jobs before borrowing his roommate's license to investigate teaching. Gatto also ran for the New York State Senate, 29th District in 1985 and 1988 as a member of the Conservative Party of New York against incumbent David Paterson.[4] He was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.[3] In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled I Quit, I Think,[5] to the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, saying that he no longer wished to "hurt kids to make a living." He then began a public speaking and writing career, and has received several awards from libertarian organizations, including the Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Excellence in Advancement of Educational Freedom in 1997.[6]

Gatto promoted homeschooling, and specifically unschooling and open source learning. Wade A. Carpenter, associate professor of education at Berry College, has called his books "scathing" and "one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate"[7] and describes himself as in agreement with Gatto.[8]

Gatto was featured in the 2011 documentary film, IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America, and worked on a 3-part documentary about compulsory schooling, titled The Fourth Purpose. He says he was inspired by Ken Burns's Civil War.[9]

In 2011, Gatto had two major strokes which occurred after he completed the filming of The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto[10] which was released in early 2012 by Tragedy and Hope Communications.[11]

Main thesis

Gatto asserts the following regarding what school does to children in Dumbing Us Down:

  1. It confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials, this programming is similar to the television; it fills almost all the "free" time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
  2. It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
  3. It makes them indifferent.
  4. It makes them emotionally dependent.
  5. It makes them intellectually dependent.
  6. It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
  7. It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.[12]

He also draws a contrast between communities and “networks,” with the former being healthy, and schools being examples of the latter. He says networks have become an unhealthy substitute for community in the United States.[13]

An article published online by the Foundation for Economic Education described John Taylor Gatto as having mentored "millions of people in writing their own scripts". In his book, Dumbing us Down, John Gatto urged parents to control the education of their children. He made a critical analysis of state education and described the system as comprehensive, informal, historical, and philosophical. John wrote several lectures which disclosed a significant conclusion which encouraged splitting institutional schools and removing certification from teaching. His belief was privatization of education along with a free market system was the most viable option.[14] Gatto's book aimed to inspire education advocates and the inception of Praxis tests. This testing measured academic competence and knowledge of specific subjects required for teaching. Praxis tests are taken by potential educators as part of certification required by state and professional licensing entities.[15]

Gatto demystifies the apparent confusion and meaninglessness of public schooling system by exposing its real purpose and function. According to Gatto, the purpose of public education can be boiled down to six functions:[16]

  1. The adjustive or adaptive function. Schools are designed to establish fixed habits of response to authority.
  2. The integrating function. The purpose of this function is to make kids as like as possible.
  3. The diagnostic and directive function. Schools determine each student's proper social role.
  4. The differentiating function. Students are trained no more than to meet the standards of determined social role.
  5. The selective function. Unadopted students are treated like inferiors in order to prevent their reproduction.
  6. The propaedeutic function. Small fraction of selected students is created in order to continue the schooling system.

Bibliography
  • Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992).
  • The Exhausted School (1993). (PDF file download)
  • A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling (2000). ISBN 1-893163-21-0
  • The Underground History of American Education (2001).
  • 'Against School' (2003) (Complete Text Online)
  • Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008). ISBN 0-86571-631-5
  • The Adventures of Snider, the CIA Spider (2017, Lost Tools Press) ISBN 978-0-9892800-3-7

Filmography
  • The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto (2012) - interview [17]
  • IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity (2011)
  • Thrive (2011) - appearance
  • Human Resources Documentary (2010) - appearance

See also

Other critics of public education:

References
  1. After learning he was regularly confused with another teacher named John Gatto, he added Taylor to his pen name.
  2. "Birthdatabase (.com)". Stephenmorse.com. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  3. New York's Teachers of the Year, New York State Education Department (accessed April 5, 2014).
  4. "THE ELECTIONS; New York State Senate". New York Times. November 10, 1988.
  5. "I Quit, I Think". Jerry Mintz. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  6. "". Alexis de Tocqueville Award. April 5, 2014.
  7. Wade A. Carpenter (2007). "For Those We Won't Reach: An Alternative" (PDF). Educational Horizons. 85 (3): 153n8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-22.
  8. Wade A. Carpenter. "Behind Every Silver Lining: The Other Side of No Child Left Behind" (PDF). Educational Horizons. 85 (1). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-21.
  9. The Fourth Purpose Documentary Series Archived 2009-04-03 at the Wayback Machine, Fourth Purpose Films (accessed March 21, 2008).
  10. "The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto (Intro + Hour 1 of 5)". YouTube. 2012-01-01. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  11. "The Ultimate History Lesson: A Weekend with John Taylor Gatto". Tragedyandhope.com. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  12. See John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down. The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, Iceland Gabriola: New Society Publishers, 2005, p. 2–11
  13. John Taylor Gatto, "Why Schools Don't Educate", The Natural Child Project https://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto.html
  14. "John Taylor Gatto Taught Millions to Write Their Own Scripts | C. Edward Kelso". 2017-03-02. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  15. "Praxis". www.ets.org. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  16. "Against School". wesjones. September 2003. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  17. "John Taylor Gatto". IMDB. Retrieved 18 March 2015.

Writings and lectures

Multimedia
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