113. The National Press Attack On Academic Schooling: The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto from archive.org

113. The National Press Attack On Academic Schooling: The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto from archive.org

The National Press Attack On Academic Schooling 

   In May of 191 1, the first salvo of a sustained national press attack on the academic  ambitions of public schooling was fired. For the previous ten years the idea of school as  an oasis of mental development built around a common, high-

level curriculum had been  steadily undermined by the rise of educational psychology and its empty-child/elastic-  child hypotheses. Psychology was a business from the first, an aggressive business  lobbying for jobs and school contracts. But resistance of parents, community groups, and  students themselves to the new psychologized schooling was formidable.  

      As the summer of 191 1 approached, the influential Educational Review gave educators  something grim to muse upon as they prepared to clean out their desks: "Must definite  reforms with measurable results be foresworn," it asked, "that an antiquated school  system may grind out useless produce?" The magazine demanded quantifiable proof of  school's contributions to society — or education should have its budget cut. The article,  titled "An Economic Measure of School Efficiency," charged that "The advocate of pure  water or clean streets shows by how much the death rate will be altered with each  proposed addition to his share of the budget — only a teacher is without such figures." An  editorial in Ladies Home Journal reported that dissatisfaction with schools was     increasing, claiming "On every hand signs are evident of a widely growing distrust of the  effectiveness of the present educational system..." In Providence, the school board was  criticized by the local press for declaring a holiday on the Monday preceding Decoration  Day to allow a four-day vacation. "This cost the public $5,000 in loss of possible returns  on the money invested," readers were informed.  

     Suddenly school critics were everywhere. A major assault was mounted in two popular  journals, Saturday Evening Post and Ladies Home Journal, with millions each in  circulation, both read by leaders of the middle classes. The Post sounded the anti-  intellectual theme this way:   "Miltonized, Chaucerized, Vergilized, Shillered, physicked and chemicaled, the high  school.... should be of no use in the world — particularly the business world."  

     Three heavy punches in succession came from Ladies Home Journal: "The case of  Seventeen Million Children — Is Our Public-School System Providing an Utter Failure?"  This declaration would seem difficult to top, but the second article did just that: "Is the  Public School a Failure? It Is: The Most Momentous Failure in Our American Life  Today." And a third, written by the principal of a New York City high school, went even  further. Entitled "The Danger of Running a Fool Factory," it made this point: that  education is "permeated with errors and hypocrisy," while the Dean of Columbia  Teachers College, James E. Russell added that "If school cannot be made to drop its  mental development obsession the whole system should be abolished." [emphasis mine]