Dumbing Us Down
The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
by John Taylor Gatto · first published 1991
50% recommend47% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Essays by a longtime teacher arguing that compulsory schooling suppresses creativity and individuality through a hidden curriculum; suits parents, homeschooling considerers, and anyone questioning the school system.
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"New 10th anniverary edition."--Cover.
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…regime, later becoming adopted by industrial moguls in the USA during the late 19th century, due to the necessity of cheap and easily disposable labor. Here are some books to read: John Taylor Gatto: Dumbing Us Down, Weapons of Mass Instruction and The Underground History of American Education. Charlotte Iserbyt: the deliberate dumbing down of america. Ivan Illich: Deschooling Society. John Holt: Anything at all,…
on “How Does This Not Blow Your Mind?” ↗Gatto's book Dumbing Us Down expands on the ideas of this essay and argues his side quite effectively. His ideas are based on his multiple decades as a successful schoolteacher and are well-supported by history. You don't have to…
on “The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto (1991)” ↗Except that the free mass schools provided by the government do little more than dumb people down to a compliant level required for a quiet electorate. See "Dumbing Us Down" by John Taylor Gatto. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbing_Us_Down
on “Legalize It All” ↗…under those conditions and see those systems in use first hand. Check out John Taylor Gatto's works [1]. He was a public school teacher for 30 years, but later advocated for homeschooling. [1] E.g. Dumbing Us Down: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, and The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling
on “How I Taught My Kid to Read” ↗…Some resources: How Children Learn and How Children Fail by John Holt. The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher by John Taylor Gatto (online) https://www.wanderings.net/notebook/Main/SevenLessonsTaughtI... Dumbing Us Down and Weapons of Mass Destruction by John Taylor Gatto. Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich. The Unschooled Mind by Howard Gardner. Anything by Maria Montessori. We kind of fell backwards into it. Our…
on “Ask HN: Planning for Parenthood” ↗…Gatto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto) is worth reading. I'd recommend starting with _A Different Kind of Teacher_ (http://www.amazon.com/Different-Kind-Teacher-American-School...) or _Dumbing Us Down_ (http://www.amazon.com/Dumbing-Down-Curriculum-Compulsory-Sch...)
on “Are "teens" born or made? An interesting twist.” ↗…the robber barons. (This is well documented by Gatto.) The real point of public education is to dumb everyone down to the same level and beat any initiative or intellectual curiosity out of them. (See "Dumbing Us Down" by Gatto.) Oddly, some kids escape, most of them by learning on their own (as you've done). Taylor's main book on the subject, which is great on a whole bunch of levels, is: http://www.amazon.com/Underground-History-American-Education...…
on “Ask HN: What's the point of mandatory schooling?” ↗John Taylor Gatto has written extensively on this in his books "Dumbing Us Down" and "The Underground History of American Education". For a synopsis, see e.g. this transcript of a speech he gave: http://4brevard.com/choice/Public_Education.htm
on “Judge temporarily saves girl facing suspension for refusing to wear RFID tag” ↗"Dumbing us Down" by John Gatto is a great eye opener about schooling and how schools are great at killing creativity.
on “Things Every Kid Should Master” ↗"Dumbing us Down" by John Taylor Gatto. The author is a decades-long schoolteacher. Throughout this book, I got to know the history of compulsory government-provided schooling as we know it and began to question whether…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗Anyone interested in this should definitely read John Taylor Gatto. His book 'Dumbing Us Down' gives a good overview about how school influences children.
on “Teens' anxiety levels dropped during pandemic, study finds” ↗No amount of money will ever cure the problem because the stated goal of the system is almost the exact opposite of its actual intent. I highly recommend Dumbing Us Down, by John Taylor Gatto, a 3-time New York State teacher of the year, which presents a detailed analysis of this.
on “Pandemic homeschoolers who are not going back” ↗Consider reading "Dumbing Us Down" by John Gatto for anyone who isn't yet convinced about the benefits of homeschooling.
on “Ask HN: If you’ve considered homeschooling, what’s stopping you?” ↗As another product of the British 'education' system, this is all very familiar. If you're interested in some content that really helped me understand why I hated school so completely, I recommend "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" by John Taylor Gatto, and "Free to Learn" by Peter Gray. Peter Gray also has a very nice blog called "Play Makes Us Human" at https://petergray.substack.com/…
on “Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?” ↗> John Taylor Gatto's Dumbing Us Down perfectly captured this when he noticed that schools, another place where authority figures hang out, ruthlessly disciplined any child who tried to assert individuality. There has been an interesting…
on “ADHD Didn't Break Me–My Parents Did” ↗