xix - More often than not, though with different
points of emphasis, they note the boredom, the mindless
competition, the enforced social and economic stratifica-
tion, the lack of any real engagement — academic or
otherwise — the brutality and violence, the “soul-less-
ness” that characterizes what passes for education these
days.
xx- Central to this understanding is the fact that schools are not failing. On the
contrary, they are spectacularly successful in doing pre-
cisely what they are intended to do, and what they have
been intended to do since their inception...the system...was
explicitly set up to ensure a docile, malleable workforce to
meet the growing, changing demands of corporate capi-
talism — “to meet the new demands of the 20th
century,” they would have said back then. The Combine
(whoops, slipped again!) ensures a workforce that will not
rebel — the greatest fear at the turn of the 20th century
— that will be physically, intellectually, and emotionally
dependent upon corporate institutions for their incomes,
self-esteem, and stimulation, and that will learn to find
social meaning in their lives solely in the production and
consumption of material goods. We all grew up in these
institutions and we know they work.
As society rapidly changes, individuals will have to
be able to function comfortably in a world that is
always in flux. Knowledge will continue to increase
at a dizzying rate. This means that a content-based
curriculum, with a set body of information to be
imparted to students, is entirely inappropriate as a
means of preparing children for their adult roles.
Let’s put it plainly: in Gatto’s view, the Combine
needs dumb adults, and so it ensures the supply by mak-
ing the kids dumb. From this perspective it is clear that
Dan Greenberg is wrong. While there is always a need
for a highly circumscribed number of technocrats to
replace themselves, the Combine has only limited use for
hundreds of millions of self-reliant, critically thinking
individuals who engage in conversation and who deter-
mine their own needs as individuals and communities
free of the Combine’s enticements and commands. In
fact, when such individuals exist, the Combine fears
them. It may occasionally pay lip-service to their value,
but it ultimately has no real use for artists, dancers,
poets, self-sufficient farmers, tree lovers, devoted follow-
ers of what it views as non-materialist cults — Christian
or otherwise — handicraft workers, makers of their own
beer, or, for that matter, stay-at-home moms and dads,
all of whom, when they endure at all, do so at the mar-
gins and on the periphery of the social economy.
points of emphasis, they note the boredom, the mindless
competition, the enforced social and economic stratifica-
tion, the lack of any real engagement — academic or
otherwise — the brutality and violence, the “soul-less-
ness” that characterizes what passes for education these
days.
xx- Central to this understanding is the fact that schools are not failing. On the
contrary, they are spectacularly successful in doing pre-
cisely what they are intended to do, and what they have
been intended to do since their inception...the system...was
explicitly set up to ensure a docile, malleable workforce to
meet the growing, changing demands of corporate capi-
talism — “to meet the new demands of the 20th
century,” they would have said back then. The Combine
(whoops, slipped again!) ensures a workforce that will not
rebel — the greatest fear at the turn of the 20th century
— that will be physically, intellectually, and emotionally
dependent upon corporate institutions for their incomes,
self-esteem, and stimulation, and that will learn to find
social meaning in their lives solely in the production and
consumption of material goods. We all grew up in these
institutions and we know they work.
As society rapidly changes, individuals will have to
be able to function comfortably in a world that is
always in flux. Knowledge will continue to increase
at a dizzying rate. This means that a content-based
curriculum, with a set body of information to be
imparted to students, is entirely inappropriate as a
means of preparing children for their adult roles.
Let’s put it plainly: in Gatto’s view, the Combine
needs dumb adults, and so it ensures the supply by mak-
ing the kids dumb. From this perspective it is clear that
Dan Greenberg is wrong. While there is always a need
for a highly circumscribed number of technocrats to
replace themselves, the Combine has only limited use for
hundreds of millions of self-reliant, critically thinking
individuals who engage in conversation and who deter-
mine their own needs as individuals and communities
free of the Combine’s enticements and commands. In
fact, when such individuals exist, the Combine fears
them. It may occasionally pay lip-service to their value,
but it ultimately has no real use for artists, dancers,
poets, self-sufficient farmers, tree lovers, devoted follow-
ers of what it views as non-materialist cults — Christian
or otherwise — handicraft workers, makers of their own
beer, or, for that matter, stay-at-home moms and dads,
all of whom, when they endure at all, do so at the mar-
gins and on the periphery of the social economy.
- T HE SOCIAL PHILOSOPHER Hannah Arendt once
wrote that, “The aim of totalitarian education has
never been to instill conviction but to destroy the capac-
ity to form any.”* - In the context of our culture, it is easy to see that
critical thinking is a threat. As parents, we all want what
is “best” for our children. Yet, by our own actions and
lifestyles, and through the demands that we place on our
educational institutions, it is clear that by “best” we all
too often mean “most.” This shift from the qualitative
to the quantitative, from thinking about what is best or
the holistic development of the individual human being to thinking about what resources should be available to
semi-monopoly governmental educational institutions
certainly does not bear close scrutiny.
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