How public education cripples

[ncboman]

How public education cripples
our kids, and why.
by John Taylor Gotto

John Taylor Gatto is a former New York State and New York City Teacher of the
Year and the author, most recently, of The Underground History of American
Education. He was a participant in the Harper's Magazine forum "School on a Hill,"
which appeared in the September 2003 issue.


We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think of "success" as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, "schooling," but historically that isn't true in either an intellectual or a financial sense. And plenty of people throughout the world today find a way to educate themselves without resorting to a system of compulsory secondary schools that all too often resemble prisons. Why, then, do Americans confuse education with just such a system? What exactly is the purpose of our public schools?

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[Rock Chuck]

The way some subjects are taught needs some serious improving. Here's my personal example. Way back in the 60's, when I was in high school, I took calculus. Then in college, I had 3 semesters of it. When I got done with it, I had no clue as to what it was used for. We knew how to do the work, but not how to apply it to anything. I could find the area under any graphed curve, but I had no idea what to do with it after I found it.
Then, in the mid 80's I considered going back to school and getting another degree. I figured I needed to bone up on my math so a friend who was a college marketing teacher gave me a book on business calculus that a book salesman had given him. I started going through it and voila'. It had pages and pages of practical examples using calculus in the real world. I learned more in a few weeks from that book than I'd learned in 3 semesters in college. Suddenly it all made sense.

Now, why don't teachers teach like that? Theory is useless if no practical examples are taught. Math theory is boring beyond belief if you can't relate it to the world. But, if you can use it for something worthwhile, it opens a whole new world.

Dick