dChan
Anonymous ID: 6ca842 March 30, 2020, 9:19 p.m. No.8631639   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>1660

Anon last night was putting together some links on the corruption of education:

>>8620817 (pb)

Discussion from multiple anons was continued from pb, started here:

>>8620087 (pb)

 

Figured I'd put together some current info on this as I used to read a lot on the topic.

 

Anon at the link suggests The Leipzig Connection: The Systematic Destruction of American Education by Paulo Lionni.

This describes how John D Rockefeller exploited the ideas of Skinner and Dewey in his takeover of the educational system, aiming to convert it to a system of "reprogramming". I haven't read this, but it seems to accord with other stuff I have read.

Entire book here:

https://archive.org/details/TheLeipzigConnection/mode/2up

 

Another anon suggestion is Charlotte Iserbyt. I've known of her but haven't had a chance to fully read her stuff myself.

Main site: http://deliberatedumbingdown.com/ddd/

Her chief book is The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.

Full 743 pages here: https://archive.org/details/DeliberateDumbingDownOfAmericaCharlotteIserbyt

2011 addendum (she says make sure to read that too): http://deliberatedumbingdown.com/ddd/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ddd_update.pdf

"The book traces the history of education (mostly in government schools, but some in private schools and private home schools) from the late 1800s to 1999. The author shares peoples names, companies, government organizations, national and international groups that have had their fingers in this deliberate process over the years. It is very disturbing. Some of them were people you would have thought you could trust."

 

I can vouch for John Taylor Gatto, as I've read many of his books. The biggest is The Underground History of American Education. It is an engaging mix of reflection on his personal experiences as a teacher in NYC and the sort of historical digs that the prior two books present. He is confident but unpretentious, and the book is almost something like a "best of notables" from here. There seem to be multiple versions of the book out there, since I think he put versions online as he revised. This seems to be the last version that was posted online:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140907030135/http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm

That said, it does not seem to have all the photos, which I think help convey the "voice" of the author.

It seems the intent was to "officially" publish the huge book in two parts, and Volume 1 is for sale on Amazon with an intro by Ron Paul, but Gatto had a stroke and has now died, so I'm not sure what the status is.

Also, check out his other books, articles, speeches and videos. He could "perform".

 

(more next)

Anonymous ID: 6ca842 March 30, 2020, 9:22 p.m. No.8631660   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>8631639

Another author I can vouch for is Ivan Illich. When I "discovered" him some years ago I was shocked that I had not previously heard of him, since I found him quite intelligent and more insightful than almost all "officially" endorsed academics. In retrospect, this makes sense, since he was initially identified with a left-anarchist perspective. But contemporary "leftism" has become (and was mostly even then) nothing more than conformity with acceptable leftist institutions, whereas the focus of Illich is overwhelmingly anti-institutional.

This page has many of his works as PDFs:

http://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/

Most relevant to the education issue is Deschooling Society. Many of his works focus on how institutions supposedly set up to further a goal systematically undermine it: schools make you dumber, hospitals make you sicker, etc. Although it is cowritten with Barry Sanders, and somewhat off that theme, I particularly like ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind, short but highly stimulating… very big picture stuff.

Don't be put off by "antifa-ish leftists" citing Illich today… he is clearly part of the intellectual background to Gatto, who endorsed Trump, and he has many insights that go in new directions.

 

Another influential figure in the critique of schooling as we know it is John Holt. Here is an intro that somewhat addresses the "strange bedfellows" issue (the fact that many of those critical of "schooling" seem to fall into two opposed camps… hippy-dippy sorts or religious traditionalists):

http://mhla.org/information/resourcesarticles/holtorigins.htm

Most of Holt's books are intellectual reflections on his personal experience, and are short and easily digestible.

 

Finally, I'll toss this in as I found it fascinating when I was most directly engrossed in reading this stuff. The author is clearly coming from the more hippy-dippy side, but the level of thoughtfulness and practicality stands in sharp contrast both to the destructive degeneracy of "grass roots" antifa and to the unthinking conformism of current "leftist" status seekers:

https://homominimus.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/the-teenage-liberation-handbook-how-to-quit-school-and-get-a-real-life-and-education.pdf

 

I think many of the issues in these books get swept under the rug due to the "strange bedfellows" issue… but I suspect the truth is that THEY want to destroy both freedom and respect for tradition. The more you are free, the more you realize that some others before you were rather wise and astute… but, much like sorting out who is who on this board, discerning which of our forebears actually taught wisdom might require a wisdom kickstart. My take at least.