John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of compulsory schooling which cripple imagination and discourage critical thinking.
Here is a demonstration that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy is to render the common population manageable, remove the obligation of child care from adult workers so they are free to fuel the industrial economy and to train the next generation into subservient obedience to the state.
John Gatto shows us that Ivy League schools do not produce the most successful graduates, some of the world’s richest entrepreneurs are high school drop outs and Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie didn’t finish elementary school. An education matters desperately, but spending a fortune on college fees will not get you one.
Filled with examples of people who have escaped the trap of compulsory schooling, Weapons of Mass Instruction shows us realization of personal potential is not possible within the system of compulsory schooling. That requires a different way of growing up and learning, one Gatto calls “open source learning. ” In chapters such as “A Letter to Kristina, my Granddaughter”; “Fat Stanley”; and “Walkabout: London”, Gatto gives us a window into a different reality.
makheru bradley said...
Drop out of school! Hundreds of thousands of young Afrikan Americans males are doing just that.I’m sure this is thrilling news for DV. The latest data show that only 47 percent of Afrikan American males are graduating from high school. And these statistics should make DV ecstatic-- only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math—which virtually guarantees an escalation in Afrikan American drop out rates.
Then there's the drop out to prison pipeline. [In 1980, one in 10 black high-school dropouts were incarcerated. By 2008, that number was 37 percent. Western and Pettit calculated that if current incarceration trends hold, fully 68 percent of African-American male high school dropouts born from 1975 to 1979 (at the start of the upward trend in incarceration rates) will spend time living in prison at some point in their lives.]
Given the property and profits the mass-incarceration of Afrikan American drop outs provides for the prison-industrial complex it’s absolutely certain that America’s oligarchic psychopathocracy supports your exhortations.
Given the fact that this crimogenic society provides minimal if any reentry programs, recidivism assures a proliferation of grist for the prison mill. Not to mention the diminished employment opportunities resulting from even a misdemeanor conviction. Currently 72 percent of Afrikan American children are being raised by a single parent. Mass-incarceration contributes to that number. To suggest that Afrikan Americans drop out of public education without any mass-based viable alternatives in place is the epitome of asininity.
Denmark Vesey said ...
Brother Makheru,
Don't you understand that the schools and the prisons are run by the same people?
Schools don't educate.
Prisons don't rehabilitate.
The are both traps.
The only thing that will protect people from getting caught in those traps is education.
Real Education.
Not Indoctrination disguised as Education.
The Negro faith in the American school system is mind boggling. Same cats talking about "The Global System of White Supremacy" are DEMANDING the Plantation "PwoVide Dem Wit Uh EduuMaCaShun!".
The government is no more capable of giving you an education than the government is capable of making you healthy.
Makheru, if these 'African-American Males' to whom you refer did "graduate" from High School ... how would their lives be different in 2012? In 2015? In 2020?
What is a high school diploma from Grimsley High in Greensboro NC going to be worth in the global economy of 2025?
Won't be able to get that "job" down at the factory without a "high school" diploma huh?
Won't be able to get that "job" down at the factory without a "high school" diploma huh?
Come on now bra. Think this through: WHAT FUCKING JOB DOES A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA ENSURE AN "AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE"?
High School ensures a job in this economy the way a ticket ensures a cabin on the Titanic.
The kids are not dropping out because they have failed school. They are dropping out because school has not only failed them ... school has HARMED them.
The sooner those ... "educated" members of the black "community" acknowledge this and offer viable private educational alternatives, the sooner we can provide young black people educational opportunities that actually empower them instead of beating them over the head and demanding they do the same shit that didn't work for us.
Cadeveo said ...
Uneducated people staying in school and "graduating" uneducated is going
to lead to the same outcomes as uneducated people dropping out of
school and staying uneducated.
Cadeveo said ...
Uneducated people staying in school and "graduating" uneducated is going
to lead to the same outcomes as uneducated people dropping out of
school and staying uneducated. 
22 comments:
practice what you preach man, your children go to government school but you are telling people school is evil. if it is so useless and breeds robot citizens as gatto says then why don't you home school your children?
lix
I do
No you don't. Or did you forget about that little diatribe a few weeks back about your kid getting detention?
http://denmarkvesey.blogspot.com/2010/09/detention-is-for-plantation-negros.html
no you don't, you're always talking about your kids at school, their school projects and their teachers. thanks for that link anonymous.
lix
yes. i do.
no. you. don't.
what. difference. does. it. make?
the post is about the trap of compulsory schooling. why are you so obsessed with dv?
Drop out of school! Hundreds of thousands of young Afrikan Americans males are doing just that. I’m sure this is thrilling news for DV. The latest data show that only 47 percent of Afrikan American males are graduating from high school. And these statistics should make DV ecstatic-- only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math—which virtually guarantees an escalation in Afrikan American drop out rates.
Then there's the drop out to prison pipeline.
[In 1980, one in 10 black high-school dropouts were incarcerated. By 2008, that number was 37 percent. Western and Pettit calculated that if current incarceration trends hold, fully 68 percent of African-American male high school dropouts born from 1975 to 1979 (at the start of the upward trend in incarceration rates) will spend time living in prison at some point in their lives.]
Given the property and profits the mass-incarceration of Afrikan American drop outs provides for the prison-industrial complex it’s absolutely certain that America’s oligarchic psychopathocracy supports your exhortations. Given the fact that this crimogenic society provides minimal if any reentry programs, recidivism assures a proliferation of grist for the prison mill. Not to mention the diminished employment opportunities resulting from even a misdemeanor conviction.
Currently 72 percent of Afrikan American children are being raised by a single parent. Mass-incarceration contributes to that number. To suggest that Afrikan Americans drop out of public education without any mass-based viable alternatives in place is the epitome of asininity.
"what. difference. does. it. make? the post is about the trap of compulsory schooling."
Good question.
Anonymous you will find that the ... um ... 'Plantation minded' ... are uncomfortable with questions that require they assess their fundamental value assumptions.
Their Plantation schooling conditioned within them an aversion to independent thought.
So they reduce the discourse to plain ol' dumbed down shit like:
"Why iz u tawkin' 'bout CumPulseOry Skoowl' if yo' kidz go tuh skoowl!!"
"Why iz u evun tawkin' 'bout it!!"
Rescuing Plantation Negros aint for sissies.
anonymous number 2
it's not about denmark vesey, it's the contradiction in messages. its like someone telling people pork is fucked up but they eat blt's all day everyday or someone preaching abortion is black genocide but don't do shit to change that in any small way. its not about the person, but the actions.
anyone home schooling here? i'd like to know their experiences.
lix
anonymous number 2,
whatever I'm doing at home with my kids is working.
My 11 year old is better educated than "anonymous number 1".
If a person tells you not to eat pork, but continues to eat pork, and ultimately dies of pork consumption, it does not negate his premise that pork is bad for you.
You can call him a hypocrite if you are so inclined. Eat pork. And you too can die of hardened arteries.
Anonymous number 1 is obviously Plantation Educated.
When exposed to an idea outside their capacity they have been trained to get personal.
Thus we are no longer discussing the idea of compulsory education and are now discussing the proclivities of denmark vesey.
Ideas are like fingernails across a chalkboard to the Intellectually lazy.
Anonymous said: if it is so useless and breeds robot citizens as gatto says then why don't you home school your children?
Ummmm... Can you explain how sending your child to school and homeschooling them are mutually exclusive? That question misses the point, and assumes "education" is only available during a "school's" regular operating hours.
her side
no, it is you who assumes that education is only available during school hours and you are putting words in my mouth. the comment is about education not building establishments and operating hours. evidently what gatto considers education is also different from the plantation model.
denmark vesey
'hypocrite' is just a word and the world has it's fair share of those. this is nothing personal but how different are your actions from the pork eater? even, how different are you from the surgeon general. do as i say not as i do? ok.
lix
Makheru said:
"And these statistics should make DV ecstatic-- only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math—which virtually guarantees an escalation in Afrikan American drop out rates."
I don't understand how those statistics would make DV or anyone ecstatic. However, don't those statistics back up the point being made by our host? If by 4th grade only 12% of black children can read proficiently and if, by 8th grade only 12% can do basic math, doesn't that underscore the fact that these schools are NOT EDUCATING them? Why would this be evidence in support of them NOT dropping out of school, since these stats would seem to suggest the schools are NOT providing any benefit to them?
Facts are facts: educators know that students need to experience success in order to maintain self-motivation. If you still can't read in 4th grade, and can't do math by 8th, you will have by that point lost all motivation to play the learning game as conducted in school. Why keep doing something you will continue to fail at? These students require a lot of intensive small-group and one-on-one attention to start to make progress from where they are at, start to get a taste of success, and gain the motivation and structure to catch up or at least lessen the gap between what they can do and what their more successful peers are already doing academically. Have you been in a public school lately, Mekheru? Everything is done by a very strict schedule of what in the curriculum to have covered by a given time, whether or not the kids got it or not. In theory, there is time to re-teach things so kids don't fall through the cracks. However, if the teacher's got thirty plus kids crammed in the classroom, plus mountains of paperwork being shovelled out to them to do so as to be able to provide "numbers" to the heads of the school system, well...when are those kids really going to get enough of that 1 on 1 and small group help they need to start to succeed? Short answer: they're not. They may get enough to make some progress, but that progress will still amount to them losing ground and being far, far behind where they are "supposed to be" in terms of their academic skillset.
You need to actually read Gatto, Makheru, and also the other influential proponents of "deschooling," such as Corsini. Otherwise, you're operating on ignorance and emotion.
Uneducated people staying in school and "graduating" uneducated is going to lead to the same outcomes as uneducated people dropping out of school and staying uneducated.
Schooled people graduating with enough skills and a "safe enough" mindset to remain obedient employees, okay with their crushing "debt slavery" isn't the answer.
If you can graduate from the school industry with a marketable skillset, little-to-no debt, and enough self-initiative and spirit intact to help yourself and your immediate community be more free, go to it. But that isn't the kind of individual the school industry is built to create in large numbers. You can't trust that somehow you or your kids are going to be the lucky ones that make it out of the system as free agents in the market of life. The odds ain't stacked that way.
"I don't understand how those statistics would make DV or anyone ecstatic. However, don't those statistics back up the point being made by our host? If by 4th grade only 12% of black children can read proficiently and if, by 8th grade only 12% can do basic math, doesn't that underscore the fact that these schools are NOT EDUCATING them? Why would this be evidence in support of them NOT dropping out of school, since these stats would seem to suggest the schools are NOT providing any benefit to them?" Cadeveo
^^ Intellectually Aggressive Statement of The Week^^
"You need to actually read Gatto, Makheru, and also the other influential proponents of "deschooling," such as Corsini. Otherwise, you're operating on ignorance and emotion." Cadeveo
^^Best Advice of The Month^^
Anonymous #1 aka, you know who I am. I was simply pointing out a blatant LIE. Doesn't matter if you homeschool, public school or privately school your children.
Just don't lie about it to fit your current argument. Once you realize that people here have more than short term memory, and understand how to search your site, maybe you'll quit fronting, and actually practice what you preach.
Damn, I just posted a comment about being indoctrinated vs. educated then I read this. SMH
Why would this be evidence in support of them NOT dropping out of school...– Cad
If you’re a card carrying member of the White Supremacy Dynamic and you support the mass-incarceration of young Afrikan American males, then suggesting that they drop out of school obviously serves your purpose.
Have you been in a public school lately, Mekheru?—Cad
I know precisely how public schools operate per “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.” I’m far more aware of and engaged with the crisis in public education, particularly for Afrikan American children than the average person. However, suggesting that these students simply drop out is a ludicrous solution. It is telling young people to punk-out, and give-up, rather than fighting for change. But that is a typical knee-jerk reaction from DV with no viable alternatives for masses of people
You need to actually read Gatto, Makheru, Otherwise, you're operating on ignorance and emotion.—Cad
Actually that would be Dr. Bacon-Bey—the high priest of emotionally driven solutions. Those are some great individual examples from Gotto—robber barons Rockefeller, and Carnegie, and Edison whose light bulb would not burn without Louis Latimer’s filaments. It’s highly typical of the Eurocentric Dr. Bacon-Bey to post a quote which focuses on some individuals, because that’s his orientation, when what’s required are solutions for masses of people.
Uneducated people staying in school and "graduating" uneducated is going to lead to the same outcomes as uneducated people dropping out of school and staying uneducated.—Cad
You have no empirical evidence to support that statement. Obviously you have a defeatist attitude with no hope that change is possible.
Schooled people graduating with enough skills and a "safe enough" mindset to remain obedient employees, okay with their crushing "debt slavery" isn't the answer.—Cad
I assume that the type of education you and Dr. Bacon-Bey are suggesting will be free of charge.
Improve Your Education—Drop Out of School – Bacon-Bey
So in a culture suffering from low need achievement and low need motivation, Dr. Bacon-Bey believes that people will drop out of school and educate themselves in libraries as Alvin Sykes did. You may want to have your kale tested for THC.
Schools don't educate.
Prisons don't rehabilitate.
Beautifully Said!
Anonymous, I homeschool. From my experience in public school (K-12), I would never consider sending my child to an institution. I could explain the why but if your here, you (should) already know.
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