John Taylor Gatto
Puppet factory. Confession school teacher
I dedicate this book to my granddaughter,
whose name is translated from Icelandic
means "Holy Scripture".
Shine and shine in the darkness, Gvutrun!
John Taylor Gatto He worked as a teacher in the Manhattan public schools for twenty-six years. He has a number of state awards for outstanding achievements in the field of education. In 1991 he was recognized as New York City Teacher of the Year. Currently, having retired from public school, he continues to work as a teacher at the Albany Open School and travels to speak throughout the United States, calling for radical reform of the government system. school education.
“Your words hit the nail on the head. Our schools do not leave children any free time for social life and communication with parents. We really need your ideas."
Bonnie McKeon
Capon Springs, West Virginia
“I heard your speech on the news program and completely agree with you. When I first started teaching here, I was struck by the similarities with New York - the same crazy principles, the same crazy rules, the same crazy actions, the same lack of education."
Ed Rochut
teacher and researcher, Omaha, Nebraska
“You have very clearly described the concern and anxiety that I feel trying to teach children in a society that drills well but does not educate. My answer: amen, amen, amen!
Kathleen Trumble,
teacher, Silver Bay, Montana
“I am not a teacher, not a parent, and not a politician. I am a product of the problems you describe. I had a passion for learning, I met several wonderful teachers in my life and received a diploma, but very soon I realized how useless this whole experience was for me. Parents and students, especially students, should know what you are talking about.”
Praya Desai,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“People like John Gatto who have the courage and tenacity to stand up to the bureaucratic hierarchy are considered troublemakers. But the principles that John defends are not new or radical, but fundamental to any process of knowledge. The fact that they run counter to the actions of modern education officials shows how far these officials have strayed from the true purpose of their professional activities.”
Ron Hitchon
Secaucus, New Jersey
"Your analysis of the crisis state system education, its differences from what people actually need, and the relationship you show between school, television and the apathetic, blinkered worldview that prevails among Americans reveals the roots of the breakdown of our society.”
David Werner
Palo Alto, California
“What you are talking about is really happening. You are absolutely right that our schooling aims to make people manageable and their lives controllable.”
Alfred T. Apatang,
Rota, Minnesota
“You enlightened me and scared me. I will think about many, many things, but especially how to bring the spirit back into my classroom. real life to help students experience its integrity.”
Ruth Schmitt
Tuba City, Arizona
« Highest award As a teacher, your wonderful students are yours.”
Bob Kerry,
Senator, Nebraska
“I am delighted with your analysis, understanding of the situation and recommendations.”
Pat Farenga
John Holt Association
From Russian publishers
Dear reader!
Here is a book by the famous American teacher John Gatto. A teacher who thinks, feels and truly loves children. What he writes about the education system does not lie on the surface, and yet after reading the book one gets the impression that everything the author said is quite obvious. It’s just that for those who are part of the educational system, for those who are accustomed to the order of things that has existed for decades, it is difficult to see from the inside what is happening unless they set themselves such a task.
J. Gatto, who has worked in schools for many decades, thoroughly knowing all the processes taking place in the school, gives a clear analysis of the goals and objectives of the system as a whole, and this view largely helps to line up the individual negative aspects that children face at school, parents and teachers. Despite the fact that we are talking about an American school, everything that has been said is strikingly reminiscent of the situation characteristic of Russian schools, and every year more and more. That is why we decided to translate this book.
Most of children's lives are spent at school. School has a huge impact on the formation of a person’s views and worldview. Modern life is such that parents have less and less time to communicate with their children and raise them. Therefore, it is easier to rely on the school to do this. And there is no time to think about what exactly happens to children at school, what they are taught there.
J. Gatto writes that one way or another, the school primarily fulfills the social order, preparing children to solve its problems. The school is a puppet factory; at the heart of the compulsory education system itself is the desire to make people more limited, more obedient, more manageable. The goals can be declared very different, but final goal This is exactly what it is, and one must realize this - this is what G. Gatto says in his book. The individuality of the child, his thoughts and dreams, his personal qualities turn out to be unclaimed.
In addition to specific knowledge, school also gives a lot more: it shapes the attitude towards oneself, towards other people, towards business, and the attitude towards the world as a whole. Here are the main lessons that the author believes the school provides.
First lesson– this is a lesson in unsystematicity. Everything that children are taught is given without any context. Nothing is connected to anything.
Second lesson– people can and should be divided into groups: every cricket knows its nest. (Even before entering school, the struggle for a place in a prestigious educational institution, and children who end up, for example, in a gymnasium class or in a privileged school, look down on their less fortunate peers.)
Third lesson- a lesson in an indifferent attitude to business: when the school bell rings, children should immediately drop everything they were doing before, no matter how important the process is, and quickly run to the next lesson. As a result, students never fully understand anything.
Lesson four– this is a lesson in emotional dependence. Through stars, red checkmarks, smiles, frowns, prizes, honors and punishments, the school teaches children to submit their will to the command system.
Fifth lesson– a lesson in intellectual dependence. Students wait for the teacher to tell them what to do. In fact, children should simply reproduce what is put into them, without adding any of their own assessment, without showing initiative.
Sixth lesson. School teaches children that their self-image is determined by the opinions of others.
Seventh lesson– complete control. Children actually have no personal space, no personal time.
Isn't it hard to disagree with these statements? Grandiose educational system exists as if by itself. It functions and grows according to its own laws, while the child with his problems and interests remains increasingly on the sidelines. Take, for example, those operating at every school preparatory groups: there they teach children to write, read, count, teach foreign languages, completely failing to correlate grandiose programs with the real need and expediency of this knowledge, with the capabilities and needs of the children themselves, and often causing harm to their mental and physical development.
The existing education system separates generations and makes it impossible to transfer ordinary life knowledge and skills from older to younger. The knowledge that school gives is often completely abstract and divorced from real life.
What is the way out of the situation? How to make sure that children do not lose their keen interest in knowledge, do not become conformists, or become cynics?
G. Gatto sees a solution in providing freedom of choice for the form of education for everyone, in increasing the role of the family in the upbringing and education of children: “Return the taxes collected from them to families so that they can look for and choose teachers themselves - they will be excellent buyers if they get the opportunity compare. Trust families, neighborhoods, individuals find the answer yourself important question: "Why do we education?"".
John Taylor Gatto
Puppet factory. Confession of a school teacher
John Taylor Gatto
"Puppet Factory. Confession of a School Teacher": Genesis; M.; 2006
ISBN 5‑98563‑097‑8, 0‑86571‑231‑Х
Annotation
The book by the famous American educator and writer John Gatto exposes the evils of the compulsory public school system and criticizes its basic postulates. According to the author, school expansion deprives children of the free time they need to independent cognition world and real life. Instead, they learn to follow orders without question and to be well-functioning cogs in the machine of industrial society.
Self-knowledge, participation in real life with its real problems, the opportunity to exercise independence and gain experience in different areas of life - this is what would allow children to break through the shackles of a modern conformist society. The author calls for limiting the influence of the school on the child, finding ways to involve children and families in the real life of society.
The book is addressed to a wide range of readers.
I dedicate this book to my granddaughter,
whose name is translated from Icelandic
means "Holy Scripture".
Shine and shine in the darkness, Gvutrun!
John Taylor Gatto He worked as a teacher in the Manhattan public schools for twenty-six years. He has a number of state awards for outstanding achievements in the field of education. In 1991 he was recognized as New York City Teacher of the Year. Currently retired from public school, he continues to work as a teacher at the Albany Open School and travels around the United States to call for radical reform of the public school system.
“Your words hit the nail on the head. Our schools do not leave children any free time for social life and communication with parents. We really need your ideas."
Bonnie McKeon
Capon Springs, West Virginia
“I heard your speech on the news program and completely agree with you. When I first started teaching here, I was struck by the similarities with New York - the same crazy principles, the same crazy rules, the same crazy actions, the same lack of education."
Ed Rochut
teacher and researcher, Omaha, Nebraska
“You have very clearly described the concern and anxiety that I feel trying to teach children in a society that drills well but does not educate. My answer: amen, amen, amen!
Kathleen Trumble,
teacher, Silver Bay, Montana
“I am not a teacher, not a parent, and not a politician. I am a product of the problems you describe. I had a passion for learning, I met several wonderful teachers in my life and received a diploma, but very soon I realized how useless this whole experience was for me. Parents and students, especially students, should know what you are talking about.”
Praya Desai,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“People like John Gatto who have the courage and tenacity to stand up to the bureaucratic hierarchy are considered troublemakers. But the principles that John defends are not new or radical, but fundamental to any process of knowledge. The fact that they run counter to the actions of modern education officials shows how far these officials have strayed from the true purpose of their professional activities.”
Ron Hitchon
Secaucus, New Jersey
“Your analysis of the crisis in the public education system, how it differs from what people actually need, and the relationship you show between school, television, and the apathetic, blinkered worldview that prevails among Americans reveals the roots of the breakdown of our society.”
David Werner
Palo Alto, California
“What you are talking about is really happening. You are absolutely right that our schooling aims to make people manageable and their lives controllable.”
Alfred T. Apatang,
Rota, Minnesota
“You enlightened me and scared me. I will think about many, many things, but especially about how to bring the living spirit of real life back into my classroom to help students feel its wholeness.”
Ruth Schmitt
Tuba City, Arizona
“The highest reward for you as a teacher is your wonderful students.”
Bob Kerry,
Senator, Nebraska
“I am delighted with your analysis, understanding of the situation and recommendations.”
Pat Farenga
John Holt Association
Full name essay by John Taylor Gatto — "Puppet Factory. Confession of a school teacher". John Taylor Gatto is an American who worked in public schools for twenty-six years. In 1991, he was named New York City Teacher of the Year. Has state awards for outstanding achievements in the field of education. Currently, John Gatto continues to work as a teacher and passionately advocates for reforming the public school system. His essay won first prize in a competition held by Columbia University. It is, of course, only about American system education, but the observations that the author shares, the conclusions he comes to based on these observations and personal experience - all this cannot but make us think about our school. How much they have in common, unfortunately... The thoughts that occupy Gatto may at first glance seem unexpected, partly even shocking, but for some, on the contrary, they will open their eyes to the true state of affairs. In any case, this work will leave few people indifferent, it seems to me. This especially applies to parents. Something to think about at the beginning academic year, in a word.
Coming to work at the school and getting to know the system better public education, John Gatto comes to the conclusion that the school does not teach children what is officially stated in all sorts of programs and curricula. According to Gatto, the school teacher does not teach geography, for example, or English, but these seven subjects.
The first subject is unsystematicity. School subjects have little connection with each other; each course takes its own course, without any correlation with the others. In one school day, a child learns too many different things, and nothing is studied in sufficient depth. Strictly speaking, this is just a set of various facts that no one teaches to analyze. Gatto compares it to a patchwork quilt. But each stage of learning, each fact must be considered as an integral part of the whole - otherwise how can there be systematization and analysis? And there can be no good education without these skills.
The second subject is separation, in other words, division. Each child must remain in the class in which he was assigned (for an American school this is an important point, since classes are divided into strong and weak). Each child is provided with a set of labels based on academic performance, for example. Thus, children are taught that people can and should be divided into groups. The result of separation, according to the author, is that “each child occupies a certain place in the pyramid and can only break out of this circle by chance.” (Hereinafter, quotes from the translation by Yulia Kazantseva.) I will note again in parentheses: for Americans who promote a democratic classless society, this is a blow below the belt.
The third subject is indifference. On the one hand, the teacher wants and even demands that the children be passionate about the subject, on the other hand, when the bell rings, the children must drop everything, no matter how important and interesting it is, “switch off” and go to the next lesson, “turning on” again there. No job, it turns out, is worth finishing.
Let me take a break from America for a moment: remember the wonderful Soviet film “Spring on Zarechnaya Street”? It contains an illustration of this passage. The teacher tells the class: “In the year when Suvorov’s armies stormed the Alps, when he lived out his life in his cold palace last days the cruel and cowardly Emperor Pavel was born in Moscow, in the house of the well-born but impoverished nobles Pushkin...” - on the last word the bell rings. The teacher shrugs her shoulders in confusion, the students leave the class, one of them smiles ironically: “But I wonder who was born after all?” The episode is intended, I think, to show the first inexperienced steps of a young teacher, but the example is still indicative.
Let's get back to the essay. The fourth subject is emotional dependence. With the help of grades, a system of other various rewards and punishments, the child is taught to obey the command system. Manifestation of individuality is a scourge school system, this is only allowed in rare, exceptional cases as a privilege.
The fifth subject is intellectual dependence. Students wait for the teacher to tell them what to do. One of the most important lessons that children learn at school is that “in life you can and should rely on the opinions of other people, smarter, more experienced, more educated.” Successful children willingly follow the will of the teacher, unsuccessful ones try to resist, defending their right to decide when, how and what to teach. Gatto notes here that such “unsuccessful” children are not easy to deal with when parents support them. But, unfortunately, this is extremely rare, despite the decline in the reputation of the school as such. Parents do not protect their children; they do not want to admit that the school, and not their child, may be wrong. And in the future we get dependent, infantile adults who cannot make decisions and are not responsible for their actions.
Subject number six is the dependence of self-esteem on the opinions of others. People need not only the instructions of specialists, but also their assessment of their activities and their personality as a result. The author writes: “If you have ever tried to rein in children whose parents told them they would love them no matter what, you know how difficult it is to break the strong-willed.” Impressive, isn't it?
And finally, the seventh item: complete control. It is impossible to hide from external control. Children, spending most of the day at school, do not have any personal space, personal time, they are constantly in sight of fellow students and teachers. And at home school continues: you need to do your homework...
John Gatto is convinced: undercover beautiful words about education, about its necessity and extreme importance, these seven subjects are taught at school for twelve years. The result, he believes, is “physical, moral and intellectual paralysis.” These items are aimed at raising a completely controlled personality, preventing her from developing the potential inherent in her. In addition, school takes away from children time that they could spend in the family, where they could learn a lot, and the rest of their personal time is eaten up by television. The essay was written almost twenty years ago, and during this time, as we know, the Internet has significantly pushed television aside, taking its place.
School, according to Gatto, is only a source bad habits. In addition to the seven subjects that are taught there, children learn to be indifferent to the world of adults, since they live in a world completely divorced from their lives. They are taught not to be inquisitive, they have a weak or distorted idea of the future, associated only with the idea of getting rich - a problem in the adult world too! After all, they will give good grades good education, which in turn leads to a good, well-paid job. Isn't this a substitution of vital values? Children have little idea of the past; they avoid close, trusting relationships. Dependence on a teacher's grades and favors creates unhealthy competition—the list of bad habits could go on.
The author believes that the reform schooling should be such as to give children back their personal time, which they could spend exploring the world around them and self-knowledge. That is, you need to spend not more time at school, as some pseudo-reformers call for, but less. In addition, you need to include school curriculum social work on a selfless basis, so that children can be involved in the real life of society, so that morality is brought up in them, so that there is simply no time to watch TV... And the family must be included as the main educational component. By the way, the author mentions that, according to the educational press, children educated at home are significantly superior to their schoolchildren in their ability to think.
But the state is not interested in free-thinking citizens: it is the puppets that it needs. Moreover, the content of the concept “family” in recent years is actively changing; instead, an institution comes to the fore, which Gatto conventionally calls the Organization. It pretends to be a family for members of society, a Community, but in reality it is not. Who is not familiar with the words “corporate spirit”, “team”, and other terms that we are fed by companies that strive to ensure that the employee puts his whole self into his work? Work is a second home... It’s not for nothing that this saying was born. The catch is that the Family, the Community needs and is important for any of its members, and not partially, but the whole, entirely, with all its pros and cons. The organization takes from a person only those qualities that it needs, and gives nothing in return, except perhaps wages and some other bonuses. And a person, trying to meet these requirements, loses himself as an integral nature. After all, the goals of the Organization cannot tolerate the diversity of human personality; it needs unification, the creation of those very cogs that the American does not write about, but which we know very well. “We don’t have anyone who is irreplaceable”... The worst thing is when the Organization pretends to be a Community, a Family, and this, according to Gatto, is what happens with the school, that is, the disintegration of personality into fragments begins in childhood. The organization must not take the place of the Family, otherwise we will finally lose the Family as an institution, and then the nation will cease.
As a way out, Gatto proposes broad, mass discussions of the current situation: you need to scream and shout until something changes. Children should have free time for self-knowledge, they should not be divorced from real life, from other generations. Children should have a choice, they should have the right to experiment, to personal experience. Teaching should not only be limited to licensed professionals: healthy competition will significantly improve the quality of educational services. Let each family independently find the answer to the question: “Why do we need education?”
The work also contains quite a lot of discussion on topics that are fundamentally important specifically for Americans. In particular, about the quality of education, which not only has not risen, but has even fallen compared to the figures of two hundred years ago. The fact that American society, while setting itself quite noble goals, has deviated greatly from the ideal goal in recent years and is, in fact, in decline. I am omitting much else, because for our Russian realities it is not so important, although it is certainly interesting and instructive.
Despite the differences between our school system and the American one, we still have a lot in common. And this commonality, unfortunately, is becoming more and more common. As luck would have it, we are borrowing exactly what “progressive” Americans are already crying about. The same Unified State Exam – attempts to reduce all training to a set of standard tests. Simplifying programs high school, which has frightened us over the past few years - all this leads to the fact that soon we will completely coincide with the sad picture that John Gatto paints. Even today, the seven items he listed are our reality. Unsystematic teaching, separation of children and unhealthy competition between them, lack of interest (read motivation) in learning, emotional and intellectual dependence on school specialists, complete control - these subjects are studied by our children to the fullest.
Will the directions for overcoming the educational crisis indicated by Gatto turn out to be correct for us? He is very sincere and convincing, his judgments are based on many years of experience. And it seems that he sees the main thing correctly: we need to return to our family, restore this institution, which was practically destroyed state system and in our country. But, to be honest, this seems to me more like an ideal solution than a real one; there is something so utopian and unattainable about it. The state machine will not simply give such a wonderful business into the hands of the people, which brings in considerable profits and educates citizens as they should, wonderful puppets...
But, in order not to receive undeserved reproaches of pessimism, I will end by saying that, as usual, there is a point in hoping for changes for the better, and we are always free in our small cell to arrange everything as we see fit. At least we have the right guidelines, and this is already a lot.
This article is a review of the book by American author John Gatto “Puppet Factory. Confession of a School Teacher”, which was published in the series “Happiness as a Way of Life” by the Moscow publishing house “Genesis”.
Most of children's lives are spent at school. School has a huge impact on the formation of a person’s views and worldview. Modern life is such that parents have less and less time to spend with their children and raise them. Therefore, it is easier to rely on the school to do this. And there is no time to think about what exactly happens to children at school, what they are taught there.
J. Gatto in his book “Puppet Factory. Confession of a School Teacher” writes that one way or another, the school first of all fulfills the social order, preparing children to solve its problems. The school is a puppet factory; at the heart of the compulsory education system itself is the desire to make people more limited, more obedient, more manageable. The goals can be declared very different, but the ultimate goal is exactly that, and we must be aware of this. The child’s individuality, his thoughts and dreams, his personal qualities are unclaimed.
Quote from the book:
Over twenty-five years of teaching at school, I noticed a stunning phenomenon: schools and the entire education system have less and less to do with the great events and undertakings of the planet. Nobody believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes, that politicians are those who excelled in social studies, and poets are those who shine in class. native language. Schools don't really teach anything other than obeying orders. Thousands of kind, caring people work as teachers in schools, but the abstract logic of this social institution absorbs their individual contributions. And although teachers are, as a rule, caring people, and they work very, very hard, the institution of school itself is immoral. The bell rings, and the young man, engrossed in writing a poem, must quickly close his notebook and move to another chamber, where he will learn that humans and apes descend from a common ancestor.
In addition to specific knowledge, school also gives a lot more: it shapes the attitude towards oneself, towards other people, towards business, and the attitude towards the world as a whole. Here are the main lessons that the author believes the school provides.
The first lesson is the lesson of haphazardness.
Everything that children are taught is given without any context. Nothing is connected to anything.
Quote from the book:
Some time ago, a woman named Kathy from DuBois, Indiana wrote to me the following: “What big ideas are important for little children? The most important thing is to let them know that the choice of what they learn is not someone's random whim, that there is a certain system to everything, that information does not just rain on them while they helplessly try to absorb it. This is the task - to help understand the interconnectedness of everything, to make the information picture holistic.
Katie is wrong. Just the first lesson I teach children is the lesson of unsystematicity. Everything I teach them is given without any context. Nothing is connected to anything. Upon closer inspection, even in best schools content and structure curricula suffer from a lack of logic, they are full of internal contradictions. Fortunately, children cannot express in words the confusion and irritation that they experience from the constant violation of the natural order of things imposed on them under the brand name of quality education. The goal of the school system is to develop in children a superficial vocabulary in the fields of economics, sociology, natural sciences etc., rather than real passion for something specific. But quality education involves deep study of anything. Children are confused by the huge number of different adults working alone, with little or no contact with each other, claiming to impart experience that they often do not possess themselves.”
The second lesson is that people can and should be divided into groups: every cricket knows its nest.
Even before entering school, the struggle for a place in a prestigious educational institution begins and children who end up, for example, in a gymnasium class or in a privileged school look down on their less fortunate peers.
The third lesson is the lesson of an indifferent attitude to the matter:
When the school bell rings, children should immediately drop everything they were doing before, no matter how important the process may be, and quickly run to the next lesson. As a result, students never fully understand anything.
Quote from the book:
Really, school bells They teach that no job is worth completing, so why worry deeply about anything? Years of living on the clock teach all but the strongest that there is nothing in the world that is more important than sticking to a schedule. Bells are exponents of the secret logic of school time; their power is inexorable. The bells destroy the past and the future, making all breaks similar to each other, just as the abstraction of a map makes all the mountains and rivers similar to each other, although in reality they are not. The calls fill any endeavor with indifference.
The fourth lesson is the lesson of emotional dependence.
Through grades, smiles, frowns, prizes, certificates, honors and punishments, the school teaches children to submit their will to the command system.The fifth lesson is the lesson of intellectual dependence.
Students wait for the teacher to tell them what to do. In fact, children should simply reproduce what is put into them, without adding any of their own assessment, without showing initiative.
Quote from the book:
The most important lesson that children learn throughout school life, is the thesis that in life you can and should rely on the opinions of other people - smarter, more experienced, more educated. Only I, the teacher, have the right to decide what exactly my children will learn, or rather, those who pay me make decisions that I then implement. If I am told that evolution is a fact and not a theory, I pass it on without arguing about it and punishing apostates who refuse to think as the educational authorities see fit. The right to control children's thoughts, to decide what exactly they should think about this or that matter, allows me to easily divide students into successful and unsuccessful.
Successful children think this way, this is what I tell them to do, without much resistance and even showing some enthusiasm. Of the millions of things worthy of study, I decide which ones we can pay attention to, or rather, my faceless employers decide. The choice is theirs, why argue? Curiosity does not play any significant role in my work; only conformity is valued.
Unsuccessful children resist this, and although they do not have a clear idea of what exactly they are struggling with, they defend the right to decide for themselves what and when to teach. Can the teacher allow them to behave this way? Of course not. Fortunately, there are proven ways to break the will of rebels; The situation is more complicated with children whose parents support them and rush to their aid. But this happens less and less often, despite the fact that the school’s reputation in society is falling. None of the middle-class parents I met accepted that it was not their child who was wrong, but the school in which he studies. Not a single parent in all twenty-six years of teaching! This amazing fact, which is the best illustration of what happens to families where both mother and father have mastered the seven core subjects of the curriculum.
People are waiting for a specialist to tell them what to do. It is no exaggeration to say that our entire economy depends on how well this lesson is learned. Just think what could happen if our children are not taught addiction: social services are unlikely to survive; I think they will disappear into the historical oblivion that gave birth to them. All kinds of consultants and psychoanalysts will watch in horror as the flow of people with psychological problems. Commercial entertainment of all kinds, including television, will die out as people learn to entertain themselves again. Restaurants, the processed food industry, and all sorts of other foodservice-related services will lose significant ground if people return to home-cooked meals and stop relying on outsiders to select and prepare food. The need for legal, medical and engineering services, as well as for tailoring and teaching schoolchildren, will be significantly reduced.
But all this can be avoided if our schools annually produce streams of helpless people. Don't rush to vote for sweeping school reform if you want to still get paid regularly. We built a system based on the fact that people do what they are told, since they themselves cannot decide anything. This is one of the main lessons I teach.
Sixth lesson. School teaches children that their self-image is determined by the opinions of others.
Quote from the book:
If you've ever tried to rein in children whose parents told them they would love them no matter what, you know how difficult it is to break the strong-willed. Our social system cannot handle the flow of self-confident people, so I teach children that their self-esteem should depend on the opinion of an expert. My students are constantly tested and assessed.
The seventh lesson is complete control.
Children actually have no personal space, no personal time.
Quote from the book:
The school continues its influence on the child at home, giving him homework that he must complete. The feeling of constant surveillance thus extends to home life, in which, if there was free time, students might learn something unsanctioned from their parents, learn something from their own experience, or from observing someone else's wise behavior. Disloyalty to the ideas of schooling is something that the school desperately fears; it is perceived by it as the devil, always ready to break out.
Isn't it hard to disagree with these statements? The grandiose educational system exists as if on its own. It functions and grows according to its own laws, while the child with his problems and interests remains increasingly on the sidelines. Take, for example, the preparatory groups operating at every school: they teach children to write, read, count, teach foreign languages, completely without correlating the grandiose programs with the real need and expediency of this knowledge, with the capabilities and needs of the children themselves, and often harming their mental and physical health. development.
The existing education system separates generations and makes it impossible to transfer ordinary life knowledge and skills from older to younger. The knowledge that school gives is often completely abstract and divorced from real life.
What is the way out of the situation? How to make sure that children do not lose their keen interest in knowledge, do not become conformists, or become cynics?
G. Gatto sees it in providing freedom of choice for the form of education for everyone, in increasing the role of the family in the upbringing and education of children:
Give families back their tax dollars so they can search for and choose teachers themselves - they'll be great shoppers if they can compare. Trust families, communities, and individuals to find the answer to the important question: “Why do we need education?
Perhaps this answer is idealistic. But in this case it doesn't matter. The main thing for us is that this book makes both teachers and parents think about how the existing education system affects our children.
We would not, however, want Gatto’s book to be perceived as an anti-school manifesto, as a call for “revolution.” Do we think that children should not be sent to school at all? No, of course not, although it is possible. Maybe we think that we need to remake teachers, forcing them to change their professional and life attitudes? No, either, because within the framework of the existing system this is simply impossible, and it is not necessary. Appealing to education officials also does not make much sense. You don't even need to explain why. Then why was the book written and why are we publishing it? The answer is simple and complex at the same time.
We address first of all to parents. Parents are different.
Among them there are those who do not think at all about what happens to children. Some, on the contrary, consider it necessary to control or at least accompany them throughout their school life. Some themselves did not like school and pass this dislike on to their children. Others believe that it is school that makes a person a person. Everything can be different, but very often, if not almost always, school is perceived as something inevitable, as a certain stage of life that must be survived no matter what. If you're lucky, school years will be perceived as meaningful and full of life stage, and if not, then they will drag on, and drag on, and drag on, but... nothing can be done, you have to endure it. So - it’s not at all necessary. You can change everything - you can change schools, teachers, you can even teach your child at home, in the end. You can find many ways out that will help the child, and maybe even save him. But this requires courage, which comes from confidence in yourself and your child. But this is precisely the problem. Because when parents are guided by the demands of the school system, not realizing that this system primarily pursues its own goals, they stop feeling the child, stop believing in him and listening to themselves. The main thing becomes - to stay in the system, to meet its requirements at any cost.
There is an opinion that school accustoms a child to the harsh laws of life. But this is not so. Each person chooses his own life, and it does not necessarily have to be the same as at school. And if you have your own life, then it’s worth thinking about: does it make sense to limit your child’s stay in this special life of yours and trust his system, which may be very different from your idea of life? You should spend less time at school, not more - this is how G. Gatto answers this question. Do you want to pass on your values to your child? So let your child feel these values of yours, live with him common life, listen to his and your needs. And this will be much more useful than his stay in the best gymnasium in your city!
