So I just did finally read John Taylor Gatto's book Dumbing Us Down - a book I first mentioned last June. Yes, there's a preview on Google but don't expect to find it in your local library or local bookstore. I had been looking for it awhile before finding a single copy of it at a Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn.
Librarians and *bookstore* nimrods simply do not care for John Taylor Gatto - the patron saint of today's homeschoolers.
They don't care much for Will Durant either.
Look at this classy, highly intellectual book display from a Borders Bookstore(Seattle?).
If you have or are planning to have kids Dumbing Us Down is a *must read* - and a must *re-read*.
From page 15,
Global economics does not speak to the public need for meaningful work, affordable housing, fulfilling education, adequate medical care, a clean environment, honest and accountable government, social and cultural renewal, or simple justice. All global ambitions are based on a definition of productivity and the good life so alienated from common human reality that I am convinced it is wrong and that most people would agree with me if they could perceive an alternative. We might be able to see that if we regained a hold on philosophy that locates meaning where meaning is genuinely to be found - in families, in friends, in the passage of seasons, in nature, in simple ceremonies and rituals, in curiosity, generosity, compassion, and service to others, in a decent independence and privacy, in all the free and inexpensive things out of which real families, real friends, and real communities are built - then we would be so self-sufficient we would not even need the material "sufficiency" which our global "experts" are so insistent we be concerned about.
I emphasized the key line - if they could perceive an alternative.
I've said it before but it merits repeating. I NEVER EVEN HEARD OF HOMESCHOOLING UNTIL I WAS 32 YEARS OLD.
How many millions of others out there are similarly ignorant?
It's absolutely amazing AND tragic how many of my friends and family members give me the stiff-arm on this conversation. Children aren't naturally closed-minded; this was inculcated.
Gatto's books are the window to the alternative. Your children are at stake here.
2 comments:
They don't care much for Will Durant either.
Very true. When he visited India for material on his History of Civilization, Durant penned a book called "The Case for India". Only one Indian I know of has ever heard of this book . Check out the price and availability of this piece in Amazon. Tbbbt!!
On Amazon, I am seeing "1 used & new available from $1,750.00"!!!
One thing about Durant books - people tend to keep them.
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