Reading Gatto's Underground History explained to me why I went all the way through graduate school and got the ultimate degree, only to feel undereducated.
Yes. This. "Most important of all, he points out that family, not school, is the main engine of education. Gatto states that 'the curriculum of family is at the heart of any good life' and that change will not come on the institutional level, but, 'it can only come from defiant personal decisions by simple men and women.'"
For us, it wasn't really defiance at all. It was organic and child-led. We were capable of conceiving our child without any input from our school district; turns out...our child is also capable of learning without school. 😊
Thanks for sharing Gatto...more people need to read his work.
Thank you for writing this amazing article Ruth! I discovered Gatto after being unsatisfied with my college career, I graduated top of my class and still felt no motivation to do anything.
I thought about teaching since in high school I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. No one encouraged that idea because I was far too intelligent for such an underpaid/under appreciated job. Alas,
After researching teaching, I found Gatto and motivational speakers, who helped me on my road to actual "schooling." I had forgotten about him. Really glad to find his work again.
I have read a good bit of Gatto's work, and I agree with much of his critique of public education in terms of its institutional homogenization and ineffectiveness. However, I feel that his optimism regarding how enthusiastic children would otherwise be for education is overstated. To say that children are natural geniuses ("genius is as common as dirt") and have an innate love of learning, both of which are snuffed out by schooling, is to stretch the definitions of genius and learning into meaninglessness. Certainly nearly all people are capable of learning something, but the idea that society has to slap a bridle on everyone's tendency to relentless intellectual development is, to my mind, not in evidence. A love of learning is a habit that must be cultivated through discipline and observed example, much like physical fitness or daily prayer.
The examples he gives of self-made men from before the age of mass public education almost to a man either regretted their lack of opportunity for formal study (Ben Franklin founded a school, after all) or else were made arrogant by their autodidacticism and would have benefitted from systematic instruction (read what Tesla had to say about Edison's approach to science).
A single smartphone has more processing power than every computer at the time I was born put together. If there really was some innate longing for knowledge in the masses, we would have a new Renaissance among the youth. Instead, we have the golden age of porn. The public schools are terrible, but that is not their doing.
You find the most beautiful paintings to illustrate your writing.
I homeschooled my five children over 25 years, and always wanted to read Gatto -- but it was one more case where I was busy DOing instead of reading about doing, and I don't regret my focus, and what I missed. I at least had a couple of friends who told me a lot about his Underground History book. Nowadays, I wish more people would read him, but there are relatively few readers among the younger generations at this point. I am heartened every time I hear about families like yours who are still striving to give their children a rich and true education. God bless you!!
“Genius is as common as dirt” 💯, and schools convince us otherwise, upholding a system favoring the experts as decision-makers (echoes of Thomas Sowell’s Intellectuals and Society). And conformity is the name of the k-12 game merely by its scheduled nature not to mention ideological compulsion. Meanwhile, my discipline advocates citation justice where a publishing scholar refuses to cite white scholars of the present and past. Our 2024 conference requires submissions conform to this racist standard.
I've read "The Underground History..." and other books by Gatto, and they made sense when I read them.
Still, why aren't the hillbillies of West Virginia, who are famously resistant to formal education, not equally renowned for their erudition? For that matter, why don't we see more scientific discoveries outside the usual channels of academia and industry?
Those are honest questions, BTW. As regards the second, it may be a matter of funding and signaling, or because because "education" is something different from "scientific discovery".
I read Weapons of Mass Instruction by Gatto last year after I heard about him on an unschooling podcast. I am a former public school teacher too and his book was fascinating. I currently homeschool two of my four kids while my oldest is in private school and my youngest is in public elementary school. I agree with Jessica below-more people need to read Gatto's work.
Reading Gatto's Underground History explained to me why I went all the way through graduate school and got the ultimate degree, only to feel undereducated.
Yes. This. "Most important of all, he points out that family, not school, is the main engine of education. Gatto states that 'the curriculum of family is at the heart of any good life' and that change will not come on the institutional level, but, 'it can only come from defiant personal decisions by simple men and women.'"
For us, it wasn't really defiance at all. It was organic and child-led. We were capable of conceiving our child without any input from our school district; turns out...our child is also capable of learning without school. 😊
Thanks for sharing Gatto...more people need to read his work.
Thank you! Hadn’t heard of John so will check it out .
Wonderful article,thank you
Thank you for writing this amazing article Ruth! I discovered Gatto after being unsatisfied with my college career, I graduated top of my class and still felt no motivation to do anything.
I thought about teaching since in high school I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. No one encouraged that idea because I was far too intelligent for such an underpaid/under appreciated job. Alas,
After researching teaching, I found Gatto and motivational speakers, who helped me on my road to actual "schooling." I had forgotten about him. Really glad to find his work again.
I have read a good bit of Gatto's work, and I agree with much of his critique of public education in terms of its institutional homogenization and ineffectiveness. However, I feel that his optimism regarding how enthusiastic children would otherwise be for education is overstated. To say that children are natural geniuses ("genius is as common as dirt") and have an innate love of learning, both of which are snuffed out by schooling, is to stretch the definitions of genius and learning into meaninglessness. Certainly nearly all people are capable of learning something, but the idea that society has to slap a bridle on everyone's tendency to relentless intellectual development is, to my mind, not in evidence. A love of learning is a habit that must be cultivated through discipline and observed example, much like physical fitness or daily prayer.
The examples he gives of self-made men from before the age of mass public education almost to a man either regretted their lack of opportunity for formal study (Ben Franklin founded a school, after all) or else were made arrogant by their autodidacticism and would have benefitted from systematic instruction (read what Tesla had to say about Edison's approach to science).
A single smartphone has more processing power than every computer at the time I was born put together. If there really was some innate longing for knowledge in the masses, we would have a new Renaissance among the youth. Instead, we have the golden age of porn. The public schools are terrible, but that is not their doing.
You find the most beautiful paintings to illustrate your writing.
I homeschooled my five children over 25 years, and always wanted to read Gatto -- but it was one more case where I was busy DOing instead of reading about doing, and I don't regret my focus, and what I missed. I at least had a couple of friends who told me a lot about his Underground History book. Nowadays, I wish more people would read him, but there are relatively few readers among the younger generations at this point. I am heartened every time I hear about families like yours who are still striving to give their children a rich and true education. God bless you!!
Brilliant article. Gatto is a legend. Appreciate the resources!
“Genius is as common as dirt” 💯, and schools convince us otherwise, upholding a system favoring the experts as decision-makers (echoes of Thomas Sowell’s Intellectuals and Society). And conformity is the name of the k-12 game merely by its scheduled nature not to mention ideological compulsion. Meanwhile, my discipline advocates citation justice where a publishing scholar refuses to cite white scholars of the present and past. Our 2024 conference requires submissions conform to this racist standard.
I've read "The Underground History..." and other books by Gatto, and they made sense when I read them.
Still, why aren't the hillbillies of West Virginia, who are famously resistant to formal education, not equally renowned for their erudition? For that matter, why don't we see more scientific discoveries outside the usual channels of academia and industry?
Those are honest questions, BTW. As regards the second, it may be a matter of funding and signaling, or because because "education" is something different from "scientific discovery".
I read Weapons of Mass Instruction by Gatto last year after I heard about him on an unschooling podcast. I am a former public school teacher too and his book was fascinating. I currently homeschool two of my four kids while my oldest is in private school and my youngest is in public elementary school. I agree with Jessica below-more people need to read Gatto's work.