Gatto continues: "Mass-education cannot work to produce a fair society because its daily practice is practice in rigged competition, suppression and intimidation. The schools we've allowed to happen can't work to teach non-material values, the values which give meaning to everyone's life, rich or poor, because the structure of schooling is held together by a Byzantine tapestry of reward and threat, of carrots and sticks. Those things have no connection with education - working for official favor, grades, or other trinkets of subordination, that is - they are the paraphernalia of servitude, not freedom.
Mass-schooling damages children." Again Gatto is taking the American education system but it is interesting that he started his reform efforts just as the Wall was going down. I love his quote from DOROTHY LAW NOLTE about children:
CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE..
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH CRITICISM,
HE LEARNS TO CONDEMN.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH HOSTILITY,
HE LEARNS TO FIGHT.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH RIDICULE,
HE LEARNS TO BE SHY.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH SHAME,
HE LEARNS TO FEEL GUILTY.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH TOLERANCE,
HE LEARNS TO BE PATIENT.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH ENCOURAGEMENT,
HE LEARNS CONFIDENCE.
I F A CHILD LIVES WITH PRAISE,
HE LEARNS TO APPRECIATE.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH FAIRNESS,
HE LEARNS JUSTICE.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH SECURITY,
HE LEARNS TO HAVE FAITH.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH APPROVAL,
HE LEARNS TO LIKE HIMSELF.
IF A CHILD LIVES WITH ACCEPTANCE AND FRIENDSHIP,
HE LEARNS TO FIND LOVE IN THE WORLD.