Some thoughts on Gatto

Chris O'Donnell has done a good deed by providing "Chris Notes" to Gatto's Underground History of American Education. I found this book a slog to get through, there are a number of points he didn't convince me about, and the book suffers from US-centrism. OK, it is about the history of American education but I don't think Gatto gives enough explanation to why Canada and Europe have pretty much the same public educational systems. Still Gatto has lots of interesting things to say about education and his Dumbing Us Down essays were our initial introduction to the homeschooling idea. The whole conspiracy thing is a bit much for me to take though.

I also don't buy the idea that having family, faith & community is the be-all and end-all of everything. Let's spend some time thinking about the 10 year old tribal girl being sold in marriage to the 50 year old guy from the next tribe. She has family, faith and community, and all are telling her that the right thing to do is to obediently marry this git and put up with anything he dishes out. Because that's their way, kapish? There's no doubt in my mind that in many parts of the world, public education is the key to eliminating superstition, injustice, and poverty.

Which - as an aside - is why we support Foster Parents Plan of Canada, which is actively promoting educational opportunities, especially for young girls, in the developing world. They called me a couple days ago and asked me to tell my friends about it, so here I am. We sponsor a girl in Kenya. It's a good thing.