dumbing down

Bill sent me information about John Taylor Gatto. Bill is like John, and John is like Alexander, independent, self-educated thinkers.

I had the help of many teachers, but baptism at eight and God the Father’s making Himself known to me at 10 were pivotal. God guided my independence from then on. As far as I know, Alexander is aware of natural law.

John Gatto attended public schools and a Catholic boarding school. He was New York City Teacher of the Year and New York State Teacher of the Year. He asserts the following regarding what school does to children in Dumbing Us Down:

• 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.
• It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
• It makes them indifferent.
• It makes them emotionally dependent.
• It makes them intellectually dependent.
• It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
• It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.

Wikipedia helped me source Gatto’s books. Kelley, Vincent (10/25/2019). “John Taylor Gatto Challenged the Ideas Inherent in US Mass Schooling." Truthout. John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down. The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, New Society Publishers, 2005, p. 2–11 . The SAT is a study tool, which is its main purpose, and I will continue to use the SAT prep books in addition to others. The SAT/ACT are the only national benchmarks.