Abridge Me

User Tools

Site Tools

Trace:
dumbing_us_down

Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revision Previous revision
Next revision 		Previous revision
dumbing_us_down [2011/12/15 18:14]
will [The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher] 		dumbing_us_down [2019/11/08 10:39] (current)
Line 1: Line 1:
 "[[wp>Dumbing Us Down]]: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling", [[wp>John Taylor Gatto]], [[wp>2005]] (first ed. [[wp>1992]]), [[wp>New Society Publishers]], ISBN 978-0-86571-448-9 "[[wp>Dumbing Us Down]]: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling", [[wp>John Taylor Gatto]], [[wp>2005]] (first ed. [[wp>1992]]), [[wp>New Society Publishers]], ISBN 978-0-86571-448-9
  
-//Dumbing Us Down// is a collection of five essays, often themselves based on lectures.  It is a short and lean book, making abridgement relatively difficult, at least so long as the original structure is preserved --- there is some repetition between chapters.+//Dumbing Us Down// is a collection of five essays, often themselves based on lectures.  The essays weren't written with a cohesive objective in mind, and as a result individual essays will tackle a point very concisely, but often repeat a statement that is made elsewhere.  A better abridgement might restructure the entire work so as to avoid this repetition, but that would be of less use to a reader that intends to use this to locate the most interesting essay or segment to read in full.
  
 The standard of citation is more what you'd expect from speeches than essays.  Sometimes sources are referred to broadly; specific documents are never mentioned.  Herein, notes have usually been included where statistical assertions have been made concerning their origin and justification. The standard of citation is more what you'd expect from speeches than essays.  Sometimes sources are referred to broadly; specific documents are never mentioned.  Herein, notes have usually been included where statistical assertions have been made concerning their origin and justification.
Line 57: Line 57:
 > Two institutions at present control our children's lives: television and schooling, in that order. ---p25 > Two institutions at present control our children's lives: television and schooling, in that order. ---p25
  
-^Activity               ^ Time (hours)    ^^  +^Activity               ^  Time (hours)    ^^  
-|weekly total           | 168             || +|weekly total           |  168             || 
-|of which:                               ||| +|of which:                                ||| 
-|sleep                  | 56              || +|sleep                  |  56              || 
-|television             | 55              || +|television             |  55              || 
-|school                 | 30      | 45     | +|school                 |  30      |  45    | 
-|preparation and travel | 8       | :::    | +|preparation and travel |  8       |  :::   | 
-|homework               | 7       | :::    | +|homework               |  7       |  :::   | 
-|eating                 | 3               || +|eating                 |  3               || 
-|**remaining time**     | **9**           ||+|**remaining time**     |  **9**           ||
  
 These dominant influences create dependency and there is no remaining time to enable children to learn any degree of self-reliance. These dominant influences create dependency and there is no remaining time to enable children to learn any degree of self-reliance.
Line 135: Line 135:
 ===== IV  ===== ===== IV  =====
  
-Institutions invariably protect their own interests over and above the goals for which they are created.  Educational institutions are no exception.+Institutions invariably protect their own interests over and above the goals for which they are created.  Educational institutions are no exception. 
  
 > It was this philistine potential --- that teaching the young //for pay// would inevitably expand into an institution for the protection of teachers, not students --- that made Socrates condemn the Sophists so strongly long ago in ancient Greece. > It was this philistine potential --- that teaching the young //for pay// would inevitably expand into an institution for the protection of teachers, not students --- that made Socrates condemn the Sophists so strongly long ago in ancient Greece.
Line 193: Line 193:
 > The predicament of women is a little trickier to see, but if sharply accelerated rates of suicide, heart disease, emotional illness, sterility, and other pathological conditions are an indicator, the admission of women //en masse// to the unisex workplace is not an unmixed blessing... > The predicament of women is a little trickier to see, but if sharply accelerated rates of suicide, heart disease, emotional illness, sterility, and other pathological conditions are an indicator, the admission of women //en masse// to the unisex workplace is not an unmixed blessing...
 >  > 
-> [T]he income of working //couples// in 1990 has only slightly more purchasing power than the income of the average working man did in 1910.((According to "some disturbing evidence [that] exists".  No other citation is given for any part of this section.)) ---pp83-4, emphasis original+> [T]he income of working //couples// in 1990 has only slightly more purchasing power than the income of the average working man did in 1910.((According to "some disturbing evidence [that] exists".  No other citation is given for any part of this section.)) ---pp83--4, emphasis original
  
 Centralised authority has also failed to control the abuse of drugs, alcohol and pornography. Centralised authority has also failed to control the abuse of drugs, alcohol and pornography.
dumbing_us_down.1323972861.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/11/08 10:39 (external edit)

Page Tools

Except where otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license: CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International
CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International Donate Powered by PHP Valid HTML5 Valid CSS Driven by DokuWiki