God was pitched out of forced schooling on his ear after WWII. This wasn't because of any constitutional proscription-there was none that anyone had been able to find in over a century and a half-but because the political state and corporate economy considered the Western spiritual tradition too dangerous a competitor. And it is.
John Taylor GattoWhatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist.
John Taylor GattoCreative work and critical thought, which produces new knowledge, can't be conditioned; indeed, conditioning prevents these things from ever happening.
John Taylor GattoWhy are you so docile when you give up your child to a government agent called a schoolteacher?
John Taylor GattoWe could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that.
John Taylor GattoIs it any wonder that Socrates was outraged at the accusation he took money to teach? Even then, philosophers saw clearly the inevitable direction the professionalization of teaching would take, that of pre-empting the teaching function, which, in a healthy community, belongs to everyone.
John Taylor Gatto