46. The Ideology Of The Text: The Underground HIstory of American Education by John Taylor Gatto from archive.org

 

46. The Ideology Of The Text: The Underground HIstory of American Education by John Taylor Gatto from archive.org

 

 

The Ideology Of The Text

 

     Looking back on the original period of school formation in her study of American history  textbooks, America Revised, Frances Fitzgerald remarked on the profound changes that  emerged following suggestions issued by sociologists and social thinkers in the late  nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The original history of our institutions and the  documents which protect our unique liberties gradually began to be effaced. Fitzgerald  raises the puzzle of textbook alteration:   The ideology that lies behind these texts is rather difficult to define.... it does not fit usual  political patterns.... the texts never indicate any line of action.... authors avoid what they  choose to and some of them avoid main issues.... they fail to develop any original     ideas. ...they confuse social sciences with science.... clouds of jargon.... leave out  ideas. ...historical names are given no character, they are cipher people. ...there are no  conflicts, only "problems' '. [emphasis added]   Indeed, the texts may be unfathomable, and that may be the editorial intent.