Thoughts on Public Education

Norman-Rockwell-schoolThe following quotes from famous educator and author John Taylor Gatto are good food for thought and something to discuss with other folks who are interested in education. Homeschooling, although imperfect, is just the opposite of public schooling because it focuses on family life and provides many opportunities to pass one’s values on.  Homeschooling prepares our kiddos for real life.

“I’ve come to believe that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us… I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children’s power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to *prevent* children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.”

“It’s absurd and anti-life to be part of a system that compels you to sit in confinement with people of exactly the same age and social class. That system effectively cuts you off from the immense diversity of life and the synergy of variety; indeed it cuts you off from your own past and future, sealing you in a continuous present much the same way television does…”

“Whom Have You in Heaven?”

george whitefieldThe following is from a fiery sermon by George Whitefield, the 18th century preacher who’s bluntness offended some but drew crowds by the tens of thousands.  George Whitefield and others were used by God to bring about the movement known as the Great Awakening when many people across the emerging nation  made decisions to follow Christ. 

“Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven?” he shouted. “Any Episcopalians?”

“No!” the people roared.

“Any Presbyterians?” Whitefield danced around the stage as he spoke, jabbing at the air with his hands.

“No!”

“Any Independents or Seceders. New Sides or Old Sides, any Methodists?”

“No! No! No!” the crowd shouted in reply

He called out, “Whom have you there, then, Father Abraham? We don’t know those names here! All who are here are Christians– believers in Christ, men who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony . . . God help me, God help us all, to forget having names and to become Christians in deed and in truth.”

 

A Book

526936_A-Good-Book“Now” – said a good book unto me –
“Open my pages and you shall see
Jewels of wisdom and treasures fine,
Gold and silver in every line,
And you may claim them if you but will
Open my pages and take your fill.

“Open my pages and run them o’er,
Take what you choose of my golden store.
Be you greedy, I shall not care –
All that you seize I shall gladly spare;
There is never a lock on my treasure doors,
Come – here are my jewels, make them yours!

“I am just a book on your mantel shelf,
But I can be part of your living self;
If only you’ll travel my pages through,
Then I will travel the world with you.
As two wines blended make better wine,
Blend your mind with these truths of mine.

“I’ll make you fitter to talk with men,
I’ll touch with silver the lines you pen,
I’ll lead you nearer the truth you seek,
I’ll strengthen you when your faith grows weak –
This place on your shelf is a prison cell,
Let me come into your mind to dwell!”

By Edgar Guest

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