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John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto Quotes

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John Taylor Gatto is an American author known for his critical analysis of the educational system. Born on December 15, 1935, he is a former public school teacher who gained national attention for refusing to comply with bureaucratic regulations in education. Gatto's work emphasizes the importance of educational freedom and personal responsibility.

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Famous John Taylor Gatto Quotes

“• 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.”

World Mean Children Body Able Individual Roles Information Students Adults Function Increase Rate Preparing Curriculum Inappropriate Flux

Book:Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

Source: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

“If you put fleas in a shallow container they jump out. But if you put a lid on the container for just a short time, they hit the lid trying to escape and learn quickly not to jump so high. They give up their quest for freedom. After the lid is removed, the fleas remain imprisond by their own self policing. So it is with life. Most of us let our own fears or the impositions of others imprison us in a world of low expectations.”

Ifs World Giving Trying Self Giving Up Lows Expectations Quests Shallow Short Time Fleas Containers Imposition Low Expectations

Author:John Taylor Gatto

“If you live in a material universe where acquiring things is very important to you, then family is an absolute deterrent to maintaining that sort of a world, because family involves values like affection, and sympathy, and passion, and types of pleasure that lead nowhere in a material sense.”

Ifs World Important Values Universe Passion Pleasure Materials Type Absolutes Affection Maintaining Deterrent Acquiring Things

Author:John Taylor Gatto

“Shouldn't we also ask ourselves what the consequences are of scrambling to provide the "most" of everything to our children in a world of fast dwindling resources?”

World Children Asks Consequence Resources Our Children

Author:John Taylor Gatto

“I teach how to fit into a world I don't want to live in. I just can't do it anymore.”

World Want School Teach Fit

Author:John Taylor Gatto

“Children allowed to take responsibility and given a serious part in the larger world are always superior to those merely permitted to play and be passive.”

World Children Play Given Responsibility Serious Superiors Passive Taking Responsibility

Author:John Taylor Gatto

“I feel ashamed that so many of us cannot imagine a better way to do things than locking children up all day in cells instead of letting them grow up knowing their families, mingling with the world, assuming real obligations, striving to be independent and self-reliant and free.”

Source: A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling

“We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think of 'success' as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, 'schooling,' but historically that isn’t true in either an intellectual or a financial sense. And plenty of people throughout the world today find a way to educate themselves without resorting to a system of compulsory secondary schools that all too often resemble prison.”

People Thinking World Way Has Beens Country Today School Taught Intellectual Prison Financial Plenty Dependent Educate World Today Schooling Schooled Compulsory Secondary School

Author:John Taylor Gatto