Jttmab,
Thank you for the effort in your post. I found lots of interesting points. You gave me what I was looking for.
In Gatto’s book, he touched on some of these topics, but focused on ideas that disconnected some students from their curriculum and others from their communities. He wrote about students that create mere networks of colleagues versus creating a connection to individuals within a community. He has also stated that a government-generated list (Labor Department?) did not include many college-level requirements, so the school system needed to produce more clerks, nurses, food-service positions than skilled IT personnel. That was probably the motivation for the book’s title, “Dumbing Us Down.”
He had a list of bad things that he would do as a “good” teacher. I passed the book on, so I’ll do my best remembering. He says the he would teach “disconnectedness” in that any subject taught will be immediately terminated by a bell – at the end of class. Students are conditioned (Pavlovian-style) to turn off whatever train of thought they might have had, and switch to something completely different. Typically, there is no connection between any two classes. As adults, we following a story for a short time and then are distracted by the latest news and don’t follow up or try to address the last issue of concern for the community or country. We naturally can’t stay focused because we have been trained in our public schools and colleges to drop everything and refocus our attention at the slightest provocations. This relates to the idea of “weapons of mass distraction” used by media agencies.
He wrote that he also taught “conditional self-esteem” where a student’s self-esteem related directly to the whims of a teacher who needed obedient children to do as they were told. This form of control did not arise from mutual respect, but instead from a need to create an authority figure that would determine the facts and arbitrate the correct interpretation of the course material. In some circumstances this would be beneficial, but when students can not rely on their own opinions and convictions, they grow up to rely on “experts” to tell them how the world actually works. As adults, the employee does whatever the boss dictates without a peep. These are the “good” employees.
When elementary and high schools students are segregated by age throughout their pre-college life, they rarely form meaningful relationships with (working) adults or younger students who might benefit from some type of mentoring. Because a student does not develop these person-to-person relationships, they don’t see others as a whole entity with a job and a family, and who may have some flaws but still provides for those around him. In professional life, the student will more likely form ‘networks’ of people who have particular skills that are required to solve their narrow problems. A person will be known for their skill set and little else. This erodes a sense of community between people and allows individuals to disconnect from the real needs of the community in which they live.
Another point which I feel strongly about is the loss of privacy. Students have to be constantly monitored through the school day. We accept more and more intrusions for security reason and we start accepting this trend during our schooldays. I believe that kids really need some of their own time - where no adult tells them how to spend their time. (I have to speak very generally for brevity’s sake.)
The last point I will make about the book is the ability to write and speak persuasively about any topic that concerns an individual. This gets harder as technology progresses, but students need to have a basic understanding of the sciences to do this.
I agreed with every point in your post, so I don’t need to reply any particular one.
In trying to get to a larger population of critical thinkers, we need to engage our students more with basic logic and more interaction with their teachers. Passive listening to ideas tends to make all ideas equal in the mind. Only through arguing specific points can we really begin to determine which ideas have value and which are destined for the ‘dustbin of history.’
The very best to you. |
