Historical Perspectives

I think of myself as information literate; as someone that wonders, questions, and evaluates ideas, believes, and the constraints that I’ve faced. I’ve questioned the standardized tests that I’ve given, wondered whether or not the school day should be longer or shorter, and contemplated the constraints of my brick and mortar school as the best place for my students to learn. However, I’ve never before questioned the importance of the public school system like John Taylor Gatto.

Education innovators like Booker T. Washington, Horace Mann, John Dewey and others have influenced true transformation of the public school system for the benefit of others. While I do not embrace all the theories of these education innovators, I do recognize the impact they had on formal education. For example, Booker T. Washington supported vocational education which can still be seen today as Career and Technical Education programs, purely vocation high schools and technical schools. As a former CTE Business and Information Technology teacher, I saw the importance of students developing career skills like the ability to collaborate and communicate with others, the ability to create original products, and the ability to problem solve. However, as a Tech Coach, I believe that these skills (known as 21st Century Skills) should be incorporated into each and every curriculum and shouldn’t just be taught in specialized areas.

When I started reading John Taylor Gatto’s book, Weapons of Mass Instruction, I first thought it was satirical in nature. It then sounded like one big conspiracy theory with education makers like Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, and Morgan at its center. Many of these individuals donated their own money to seemingly support education. Gatto states that these education makers were self-serving and only motivated by financial gains. While I totally agree with some of his ideas (…"adding value to others is the only way to add value to yourself ” (p. 52) and “…excessive regulation ruins the quality of life…”(p. 54)), I do not believe that the sole purpose of these individuals’ contributions were to “…control of the minds of the young” (Gatto, 2003).

Andrew Carnegie donated over $55 million dollars of his fortune to build over 2,500 libraries (Carnegie, n.d.). Libraries provide access to a variety of media for educational and personal pursuit of information and knowledge. Librarians promote information literacy which is the ability to question, find, gather, evaluate, and reflect on information and knowledge. If Carnegie wanted to control the minds of the young, why would he spend millions of dollars building institutions that support intellectual freedom?

Source
Gatto, J. T. (2009). Weapons of mass instruction. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers.