'We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class, of necessity, in every society, to forego the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.'

Woodrow Wilson: “The Meaning of a Liberal Education”, Address to the New York City High School Teachers Association (9 January 1909).

Some time ago I came across the insightful work of John Taylor Gatto whose deep research has become the foundation for a mass intellectual revolt against Skinnerian and Pavlovian state sponsored dinosaur educational indoctrination systems. It is sure that his success was partly founded upon his ability to stand on the shoulders of alternative education giants such as John Holt, Charlotte Iserbyt, Ivan Illich and a thousand other unsung heroes including every homeschool mum and dad. However, the attempts of mainline education to attack and even discredit his work and shield teachers from the findings of his endless research makes it essential to spread the gospel of his unique understanding of children's learning, human development and social engineering.


In several presentations Mr Gatto tried to present his work on how the elite private schools are run to their advantage over a limping and permanently disenabled state system. Here follows a simplified* summary of his studies.



The 13 Study Principles of Advanced Private Education

1. The Law of Human Nature
- Students must have an in depth knowledge of : classical literature, history, physical and social geography, philosophy, theology, law, and language. In addition students must be able to create a self standing resource and locate and use a data base. Even, amend or extend it as required.

2. The Active Literacies and Persuasion
- Individuals must have a high level of transactional writing to convey an idea, direction or perspective. They must possess an advanced communicative discourse technique that allows them to articulate thought and opinion to individuals and groups. Especially to people whom they do not know or have not met.

3. Deep Insight into Institutions
- A practical knowledge of the essential structures of society is vital: the courts, the government, the departments of state and their roles and their leaders, the military, the corporations, foundations and charities, and of course the banks and other financial institutions.

4. Repeated Exercise in Civility and Politeness
- An understanding of how our actions, especially manners, in the present affect our future possibilities. A concept of time that extends beyond the here and now. Understanding that ‘The doors of tomorrow are opened by the actions of today founded upon the habits of yesterday’.

5. Resourcefulness
- The ability to perform independent work. Students choose their own topics, justify their own actions, develop their own rewards, and are creative when it is required. They must also learn to motivate themselves and be able to articulate the foundational reasoning of their actions.

6. Regular Physical Activity
- Sports, both individual and team events, train the mind and body to appreciate the concepts of pain, conflict, grace, power, loss, competition, intention and of course money. The also give us experience of command, teamwork and influence. Play, as with experimentation, brings its own rewards.

7. Access to People and Places
- It is important to be able to network, through contacts or even through contacts of contacts, in essence, to get to the ‘horses mouth’. Planning a route to key people in key positions and key organisations can be very important in problematic circumstances. Middlemen often slow things down, confuse issues or have other agendas.

8. Responsibility
- The student must be internally motivated to deliver more than has been asked for. They must stretch themselves and extend their abilities, even pick up new skills as and when required. Universal morality requires that all blame lies with the self.

9. Development of a Personal Code
- There must be an ability to produce formal behaviour when required, which may even mean on demand, and display an unflinching set of morals that allow the character of a person who can be depended upon by others. Be true to yourself.

10. Familiarity with Art’s Great Works
- The student must be at ease with their own ability to discuss artistic issues and even become involved in or lead creative activity, often being able to reproduce or even extend parts of it. This includes: music, painting, design, sculpture, architecture, and dance.

11. Observation and Recording
- A person must be able to accurately record in scientific detail and recall their environment and any changes within it. Drawing sharpens perceptions and is linked to the philosophy that if you can’t record it or reproduce it then it is not really there. Measures produce evidence.

12. An Ability to Deal with Challenges
- All students must overcome fears if they are to progress in physical, psychological or spiritual development and in the worse case scenario be able to disguise or mask emotions.

13. To Have Caution in Reasoning to Conclusions
- Each situation must be weighed and balanced on its own true merit. An ability to reach a decision without comparison is vital within the concept of a justice and fairness. Each person must be able, alone, to make judgements, develop their own values and opinions and to follow up all of their ideas. They must monitor and self-assess themselves so that they may make improvements when required.



These skills are enablers. They encourage the self yet still acknowledge the group. Such key points could perhaps be viewed as life skills rather than subjects to study. After all, our life skills are our survival skills and to know: what, when, where, why and how to study is far more useful than to just study. Let’s also add into the mix that state systems are full of myths we readily believe without much conscious thought. Ideas such as ‘academic success’ will equal ‘life success’ or that an education can be consciously given. All education is an extension of life experience and must seized or taken as its moment arrives. A real education prepares the student to embrace these moments.


There is no doubt in my mind that the command and control based pyramid structure of the state education system has an unspoken deep-rooted goal of psychological systematisation, incremental indoctrination and social conditioning. This manifests itself in the visible avoidance of most of the 13 principles in turn eliminating creative free thinking individuals from the middle and lower echelons of society.


In order for the state system to achieve its limited goals it is not entirely necessary for it to fail. It is only necessary that on certain issues it stumbles. It is only necessary that families become dissolved from the process of education. This can be countered through an application from home of activities that will inject the above principle skills into the lives of young people. This can be reversed through the preservation of alternative education possibilities, the most fundamental of which is homeschooling. It, however, remains to be seem whether or not parents will embrace and fully understand the importance of so simple concept as: 'It is the parents, not the state, who must retain complete responsibility for and become active, as best they can, within their true positions as guardians and guides, applying the 13 principles wherever necessary, at the nucleus of society'.



‘The learning of a thousand hours begins with a single second’s focus and thought … and it begins at home’



Graham William Hendrey
Founder & Director

Native Speakers Academy
www.nsa-slovakia.com
www.nsa-education.com


References:
www.johntaylorgatto.com


*Please refer to Gatto’s original works for a clearer analysis

(VERSION X)



Postscript 1: An Irrelevant After-Thought

The true test of a free and open society is the freedom to love without limit, any person or spirit or god whom we choose, and study and share our knowledge of this love without fear of hindrance or interference from society or government.



Postscript 2: For those who are prepared … there is always more:

The 14th Principle: The Unspoken Concepts


Students must fully understand the effect of recent human developments on society. They must be able to map both man made and natural environmental changes. They must understand mediums of change and control affecting: war, peace, religion and belief. They must be able to adapt to the establishment of new norms and have a broad spectrum of knowledge in the areas of motivation in the individual and the group, including skills in leadership, management and conflict resolution.


They must understand the links between: commerce, the media, money, control, debt, slavery and ideas.


They must be aware of the work, published and unpublished, of the larger universities and in turn the links between those institutions and the bodies of Government. This includes the affects of research on funding (and visa versa) and the application of research data as a force for change. Such change can be seen applied in the work of the visible and invisible institutions: The Rand Corporation, The Tavistock Institute, The Frankfurt Institute, The Royal Societies, The Council on Foreign Relations, The Bilderberg Group, The Council of Rome and The Committee of 300.

As I said … there is always more.