Homeschooling Thoughts

Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.
- E. M. Forster





One of the first things a family tries to teach its children is the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. One of the first things our schools do is destroy that distinction.
-John Taylor Gatto, foreword, "The Art of Education"







The agenda of public schooling has been, for the entire twentieth century, to remove the power of people to think for themselves. A full analysis is impossible here; but you need to realize that because of the systemic, heirarchical nature of schooling, your local teachers, principals, superintendents, and the like have almost no say in this - they are pedagogues, which means practically that they administer routines made elsewhere far away.
-John Taylor Gatto, in "The Homeschooling Book of Answers"