Gatto reading guide

What are 5 of the 39 Articles of Anglicanism?

-of the Holy Ghost -of the creeds -of the original birth sin -of good works -of free will

"School is an artifice that makes such a pyramidical social order seem inevitable, although such a premise is a fundamental betrayal of the American Revolution." What does the word "artifice" mean?

Clever or cunning to trick someone

"Class change lasts exactly three hundred seconds to keep promiscuous fraternization at low levels." What is meant by the word "fraternization"?

Communication

How does Gatto teach provisional self-esteem?

Constant grading and evaluation of students

"Bells destroy the past and future, rendering every interval the same as any other, as the abstraction of a map renders every living mountain and river the same, even though they are not." What does the word "abstraction" mean?

Idea

"Fortunately the children have no words to define the panic and anger they feel at constant violations of natural order and sequence fobbed off on them as quality in education." What does the word "fobbed" mean?

Imposed

"Bells are the secret logic of schooltime; their logic is inexorable." What does the word, "inexorable" mean?

Impossible to prevent

In your experience, what has the most detrimental (or debilitating) of the seven lessons? Explain why?

Intellectual dependency

In your opinion, what is the most powerful of the seven lessons? Explain why?

Intellectual dependency. It's true, I feel like my worth is tied to how well I do in school. The better you do the more opportunities you have

Gatto points out that if you, "Pick up a fifth-grade math or rhetoric textbook from 1850 and you'll see that the texts were pitched then on what would today be considered college level." Does this suggest to you that people were smarter in the 1850s than we are today?

It suggested people were more challenged

Gatto hints at the real purpose of compulsory schooling in the US. What is it?

Keep us in line so we can be better controlled

"All the peripheral tendencies of childhood are nourished and magnified to a grotesque extent by schooling..." What does the word "peripheral" mean?

On the edge

"Under this efficient discipline the class mostly polices itself into good marching order." What does the word "polices" mean?

Orders/controls

Gatto writes that, "Confusion is thrust upon kids by too many strange adults..." What do you think he means by "strange" adults?

People the kids don't actually know. There is no time in school to actually form relationships with your students

"Bells inoculate each undertaking with indifference." What does the word, "inoculate" mean

Produce immunity

Gatto provides examples of what he calls great natural sequences. He then argues that none of these exist in schools. Can you think of an example of a "great natural sequence" that does exist in schools?

Recess, if it's allowed

"It is the great triumph of compulsory government monopoly mass-schooling that among even the best of my fellow teachers..." What is meant by the word "compulsory"?

Required by law

"Class change lasts exactly three hundred seconds to keep promiscuous fraternization at low levels." What is meant by the word "promiscuous"?

Saucy

What are the "Red Scares" of 1848 and 1919.

Scared of communism

According to Gatto, who benefits from the intellectual dependency that we foster in schools?

Social service business. Counselors and therapists

"...our freedom from regimentation made us the miracle of the world..." What does the word, "regimentation" mean?

Strict control

"So too. I think. are the epidemics of drugs, suicide, divorce, Violence, cruelty, and hardening of class into caste in the United States products of the dehumanization of our lives, the lessening of individual, family, and community importance, a diminishment that proceeds from central control." What does the word "dehumanization" mean?

Taking away human qualities

Gatto says that he teaches students to envy and fear those who are better than them and to look upon those who are dumb with contempt. Do you see examples of this dynamic in the larger society that exists outside of school?

Yes, if so some has more money/power we are fearful. Police, military, government

Do you agree that teachers primarily "teach school"?

Yes, teachers can't teach relevant information they have us learning trig functions instead of how to do our taxes

Do you think that Gatto would suggest that schools are tools of indoctrination? Provide a justification for your answer.

Yes, we are not taught to think for ourselves

Would you argue that schools are tools of indoctrination? Provide a justification for your answer.

Yes, we are not taught to think for ourselves. We can't dress how we want, we can't read what we want, we can do anything that would make us become individual humans.

What is the national crisis that Gatto identifies?

"Young people indifferent to the adult world and to the future"

How might a teacher work against the tendency to teach confusion? (Offer 1-3 suggestions).

-teach students how to apply things -teach relevances things

According to Gatto, how long does it take to teach reading, writing and arithmetic?

100 hours

What percentage of the non-slave, non-indentured servant population purchased Thomas Paine's essay, Common Sense?

20% slave 50% indentured

"...children sneak away for a private moment in the toilet on the pretext of moving their bowels.." What does the word "pretext" mean?

A fake reason

"School subjects are learned, if they can be learned, like children learn the catechism..." What is meant by "catechism"?

A summery

"Think of the great natural sequences -like learning to walk and learning to talk...the ancient procedures of a farmer, a smithy, or a shoemaker..." What is a "smithy"?

Blacksmith

How does Gatto teach emotional dependency?

By students always having to ask to do anything

How does Gatto teach indifference?

By teaching them not to care too much about anything but to always be excited about every lesson

What does Gatto prescribe as an alternative to compulsory government schools?

Charter type school s

Gatto writes that, "The children are numbered so that if any get away they can be returned to the right class." What does he mean by this?

Children are taught to stay in their place

"There is no particular reason for any of them, nothing that bears close scrutiny." What is meant by "scrutiny"?

Critical observation

"...and the clientele has not yet consciously discerned how little substance is behind the play and pretense." What is meant by "clientele"?

Customers

Gatto writes, "There is no life-and-death international competition threatening our national existence, difficult as that idea is even to think about, let alone believe, in the face of a continual media barrage of myth to the contrary." To what, might he be referring?

Death is overplayed

"But quality in education entails learning about something in depth." What does "entails" mean?

Demands

"All the peripheral tendencies of childhood are nourished and magnified to a grotesque extent by schooling..." What does the word "grotesque" mean?

Distorted

Gatto writes that the first lesson is confusion. How does Gatto teach confusion?

Everything that is taught is out of context

"The sixth lesson I teach is provisional self-esteem." What is meant by the word "provisional"?

Existing only in the present

"Certainly a third contributing factor in creating a jail for children called school must have been the consternation with which these same "Americans" regarded the movement of African-Americans through the society in the wake of the Civil War." What does the word "consternation" mean?

Feelings of dismay

"I teach the un-relating of everything, an infinite fragmentation the opposite of cohesion; what I do is more related to television programming than to making a scheme of order." What is meant by "cohesion"?

Forming a whole unit

When describing intellectual dependence, Gatto explains what distinguishes successful students from bad students. What is it?

Good people wait for the teacher to tell them what to do, bad kids don't ALWAYS listen

"...but the "profound transformation" of our economy these people talk about is neither inevitable nor irreversible." What does "profound" mean?

Great

"...though what the strategy is designed to accomplish is elusive." What is meant by "elusive"?

Hard to find

Gatto writes, "I don't teach English, I teach school-and I win awards doing it." - what does he mean by "I teach school"?

He teaches what he is told to taught

Gatto suggests that school teach exactly what they are intended to teach. What do schools teach?

How to be good and stay in your place. "How to be a good Egyptian and where your place is in the pyramid"

"Sometimes free will appears right in front of me in pockets of children angry, depressed, or happy about things outside my ken..." What does the word "ken" mean?

Line of sight

According to Gatto, who should teach in a healthy community?

Non-professional teaching

If we, as future teachers, wanted to ensure that our students were not intellectually dependent, what types of things would we need to ensure that they learned in our classes?

There is only one right answer, their worth depends on their grades

When speaking of numbering children, Gatto indicates that he doesn't know why parents allow it to be done to their children. Why do you think parents would allow their children to be numbered?

They themselves were numbered, it's just "normal"

According to Gatto, what is the relationship between truth and school teaching?

Truth is at the bottom

What is meant by "pretense"?

Trying to make something true

Nobody survives the seven-lesson curriculum completely unscathed, not even the instructors." What does the word "unscathed" mean?

Unharmed/unaffected

Gatto suggests that central governmental control (and the schooling that it necessitates) results in a "hardening of class into caste." What does he mean by this?

We are taught to stay in place in school

When describing his second lesson on class position, Gatto writes, "Under this efficient discipline the class mostly polices itself into good marching order." What is the efficient discipline to which he is referring?

We know the good and bad kids and we all stay in our place

According to Gatto, the most important lesson is that "we must wait for other people. better trained than ourselves, to make the meanings of our lives." If you find this to be true of adults in Modern Western Society, give two examples of how life would look different if it were not true. If you find this to be untrue of adults in Modern Western Society, explain why it is untrue.

We would all have a lot of self confidence and control of our own lives

Gatto characterizes his first lesson as confusion. Do you think this is unique to our Modern Western system of education or do you think it holds true for education in other cultures and other time periods?

Western world-everyone is ahead of us in education