Extending Childhood

In the prologue, John Taylor Gatto repeatedly cites examples of people who accomplished great things at a very young age and without any formal schooling. He goes on to state that this is the rationale for rebelling against school - if Washington, Farragut, Edison, Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc. could succeed and make millions and command ships and revolutionary armies, then.... why force OUR kids into school at all?

As much as I would like to agree with him, I must temper my reaction with a bit of sociology and history. The world into which the aforementioned individuals were born no longer exists. Society is radically different. I am not speaking against successful homeschooling or autodidacts (people who teach themselves), I am considering the realities awaiting a child who gets little education, never learns to think, drops out, and tries to be successful in this world.

Further, compulsory schooling wasn't the law of the land until the early 20th century. When the American colonies were founded, survival was the main focus. The puritans introduced schools later - and for one purpose. In order to understand the word of God, citizens must be literate enough to read the Bible. This is one of the main differences between the British colonies and the Spanish settlements of South and Central America, the Caribbean islands, and what is now Mexico. Catholicism did not require literacy in order to 'hear' the word of God - it required an intermediary - a priest. But I digress.

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explains that the business titans of the late 19th century were born at exactly the right time and in the right place. Their personalities, coupled with vision, enabled them to build their corporations and make their millions. They were far from stupid, they were literate and mostly self-taught.

The backbone of the American Dream, in which hard work will get you success, was fine during the frontier era, when hundreds of thousands could leave the established cities of the eastern seaboard, homestead some land, and start farms, ranches, towns, and businesses. In the early 1900s, by great-grandfather uprooted his large family from rural Indiana and came to Los Angeles. He was a mechanic and fixed cars. He was handy with just about anything requiring hardware and a motor. He got a towing contract with the City and was able to buy a house with some land. His children came of age during the Great Depression, yet hard work again paid off with FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps and, later, city jobs as police officers, fire fighters, and mechanics. My grandfather earned his high school diploma going to night school while working manual jobs during the day. College was never considered - it wasn't in the lexicon. Instead, he waited out the depression, married my grandmother, put lifts in his shoes, and signed on with the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

But our current society is racing along, with new information quickly doubling every few years. Jobs require specialization, literacy, numeracy, techno-savvy, and... the ability to problem-solve.

Our schools should educate, not train a "virtual herd of mindless consumers." It is frightening to think of how many American adults, let alone teens and younger children, are so heavily influenced by propaganda. Gatto's point about mindless consumerism being at odds with the frugality and common-sense of an earlier America, is SPOT ON.

Do you remember all the advertisements a short while ago that encouraged people to file bankruptcy, walk away from debt, and get a lawyer or a company to "fight" for them? It galled me to no end. Such irresponsibility! Encourage debt, then encourage people to not pay it? Offer "mortgage forgiveness" to people who KNOWINGLY bought homes they could not afford but WANTED anyway. Then, blame the sharks at the mortgage companies!

Thinking critically and independently comes from rich experiences - in real life, through wide reading, and education. We want our children to be educated - not trained to be mindless followers.

All those titans mentioned by Gatto? They were thinkers, observers, and problem-solvers. They asked questions and then asked more questions. They were leaders and good decision-makers.

This is what we aspire to, is it not?