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Restoring Education, Healing Children, Creating Citizens:
Backbone Cabinet Nominee, Education
RSVP to join us on Monday, November 6, 5:30 (PACIFIC)
| Education Secretary nominee John Taylor Gatto is a passionate advocate for education reform. A schoolteacher for thirty years, and a multi-year recipient of New York State and New York City Teacher of the Year Awards, His celebrated books include Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, The Exhausted School, A Different Kind of Teacher, and The Underground History of American Education.
Nationwide there has been much discussion about our failing public education system – low standardized test scores, teacher shortages, crowded classrooms, school budget crises, crumbling school buildings, dangerous playgrounds, illiterate untrained young adults, and more. Chronically failing public school systems throughout the United States have compelled politicians to address this issue in a counterproductive and symbolic manner (i.e. Bushs No Child Left Behind Act). Many parents have sought alternative education settings for their children such as a school voucher system, charter schools, homeschooling, and costly, homogeneous, independent schools. John Taylor Gatto has taken the debate further, describing our public school structure as a “Catastrophe.” Gatto asserts that public schooling in this country was “deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens in order to render the populace ‘manageable.’ ” (quote from Against Schools article by Gatto, Harpers Magazine, 2003 – read the article) If that is true, are public schools succeeding in their original purpose? If so, what does Gatto propose Americans do for our children instead? What do our young people really need to know to create abundant lives for themselves, for survival and community building in the 21st century? For Mondays Conversation, John Taylor Gatto will engage with us as we explore possible solutions to these troubling questions about American schooling. Besides reading the Harper’s article linked to above, it might be interesting preparation to listen to our past call with Jonathan Kozol. Check out our nearly 50 Conversations with some of our most articulate policy and movement leaders.
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| WHEN: Monday, November 6, 5:30 p.m. (Pacific) Three ways to participate: 1. CONFERENCE CALL: First, RSVP by email with “Gatto” in the subject line so we can reserve a spot for you on the call. At the time of call, dial 1-641-297-5500, follow prompts, then enter access code 7764-7377 followed by #.
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2. WEB RADIO: Voice of Vashon. To ask questions while you listen, you will need to rsvp for a password. We will send that to you when you RSVP. Use it to log in at the live chat.
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3. E-MAIL: Click here to email your questions ahead of time.
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Conversations with the Cabinet and Movement Matters Conversations are projects of ProgressiveGovernment.org, the Backbone Campaign and our indispensable media partner VoiceofVashon.org community radio. Click here to listen to past programs, also available as podcasts.
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email: info@backbonecampaign.org
phone: 206-408-8058
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Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 