Nexus - 0404 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Continued from page 16 Editor's Note: We asked Mr Gatto if he'd cign countries. I don't advertise, but I go write a few words on what had transpired anywhere I'm invited as long as my hosts mote, during school time, confluences of since he delivered the above speech. He don't tell me what I have to say. parent and child that will strengthen family wrote the following in reply. We should Being in an airplane seat about one day bonds. That was my real purpose in send- note that, when he'd decided to stop teach - in every two has added 85 pounds, so I ing the girl and her mother down the Jersey ing in the school system, he had no idea expect to translate to the spirit world coast to meet the police chief. exactly how he was going to generate an momentarily if I don't come up with a strat- I have many ideas to make a family cur- income. —J.W., HOPE Magazine — egy, but in the meantime I've met an amaz- riculum, and my guess is that a lot of you Dear Jon, ing cross-section of fine and courageous will have many ideas, too, once you begin A year and a half after I gave that — ordinary people from every point on the to think about it. Our greatest problem in speech, I quit teaching (on the Op-Ed page __political/social spectrum—enough to con- getting the kind of grassroots thinking of the Wall Street Journal, July 25, 1991). vince me an American renaissance is latent going that could reform schooling is that A week later, I was asked to speak to the in the common folk of this country if we we have large, vested interests profiting engineers at NASA-Goddard Space Center, can figure out a way to restore the democ- from schooling just exactly as it is, despite and a week after that I was at the White __ratic promise. rhetoric to the contrary. House. Then in rapid order I was invited to I think we will. I have faith, as well as We have to demand that new voices and _ open the full season at the Nashville Center hope, that we can do it. new ideas get a hearing—my ideas and for the Arts, be the Keynote speaker for the — John Taylor Gatto yours. We've all had a bellyful of autho- Colorado Librarians Convention, and spend About the Author: rised voices on television and in the press. eight private hours with the comptrollers of _ John Taylor Gatto, a New York City pub- A decade-long, free-for-all debate is called the 32 operating divisions of United lic school teacher for 30 years, was for now—not any more ‘expert’ opinions. Technologies Corp. in Hartford, CT. From named NYC Teacher of the Year in 1989, Experts in education have never been right; there to The Farm commune in central 1990 and 1991, and NY state Teacher of their 'solutions' are expensive, self-serving, Tennessee, an Indian reservation in New the Year in 1990 and 1991. He is the and always involve further centralisation. Mexico, and a Christian home-school con- author of Dumbing Us Down, The Enough! vention in Atlanta. Exhausted School, and The Empty Child: Time for a return to democracy, individ- All in all, since I quit teaching five years A Schoolteacher's Intuition about the uality and family. ago, I've given 522 talks and workshops in Problem of Modern Schooling (due out in I've said my piece. Thank you. 49 states (missed Oklahoma) and six for- early 1998 from Simon & Schuster). mote, during school time, confluences of parent and child that will strengthen family bonds. That was my real purpose in send- ing the girl and her mother down the Jersey coast to meet the police chief. Ihave many ideas to make a family cur- riculum, and my guess is that a lot of you will have many ideas, too, once you begin to think about it. Our greatest problem in getting the kind of grassroots thinking going that could reform schooling is that we have large, vested interests profiting from schooling just exactly as it is, despite rhetoric to the contrary. We have to demand that new voices and new ideas get a hearing—my ideas and yours. We've all had a bellyful of autho- rised voices on television and in the press. A decade-long, free-for-all debate is called for now—not any more ‘expert’ opinions. Experts in education have never been right; their 'solutions' are expensive, self-serving, and always involve further centralisation. Enough! Time for a return to democracy, individ- uality and family. I've said my piece. Thank you. JUNE - JULY 1997 NEXUS - 81 — Why Schools Don't Educate —