zdls halbert index

Our School System Works To Inhibit

This Natural Genius Rather Than Release It!

School is jail for children. The school system doesn't
need to be revamped, altered or tinkered with... it needs to be destroyed.
Consider these facts: (A) Our nation ranks at
the bottom of 19 industrial nations in reading, writing and arithmetic.
(B) The world's narcotic economy is based on our consumption of this
commodity. (C) Our teenage suicide rate is the highest in the world. The truth
is, our schools don't really teach anything... except... how to live your life
as a loser.

Doesn't that sound just like the rhetoric you'd expect from a
maverick like me? Well, it's not from me. Everything you've just read about
the school system in America comes from a new book titled, Dumbing Us Down written by John Taylor Gatto. Mr. Gatto is not only
one of the most respected teachers in the world but, he has won numerous
awards including the 1991 award of the New York State...

Teacher Of The Year!

If you've got kids, you'd better read this book. It'll open
your eyes, make you want to puke and, for sure, if you're anywhere near the
top of the Halbert Index, it'll cause you to immedi-ately consider pulling
your kids out of school. Here is what kind of children, according to John
Taylor Gatto, our school system is producing: (1) Children who are indifferent
to the adult world. (2) Children who have almost no curiosity. (3) Children
who are cruel to each other and lack compassion for the misfortunes of others.
(4) Children who have a poor sense of the future. (5) Children who have no
sense of, or interest in, the lessons of the past. (Basically, the exact
moment these kids are in is the boundary of their conscienceness.) (6)
Children who cannot deal with intimacy or candor.

Mr. Gatto has much more to say that I can summarize here but,
there is one sentence in this book that virtually leapt off the page at me. He
said,

"The
Richer The Kid, The Less

Television He Or She Watches!"

Whatever. Whatever. Whatever. Where am I going with all this?
Ok, listen: There are two basic types of businesses that do well in an
economic slump. The first type of company would be a well-run giant
conglomerate with monstrous purchasing power enabling it to buy and sell
staples (and other commodities Americans feel they can't do without) at the
lowest possible prices. The best example of this type of business would be
Wal-Mart which, last year, during the most disastrous holiday retail season in
30-years, posted an enormous gain in gross sales and profits. You know,
when a new Wal-Mart comes to town, the other retailers go into a panic. And
rightly so. Because... no local retailer can hope to even come close to
Wal-Mart's prices. Not only that, Wal-Mart is mostly employee-owned and thus
offers superior, courteous and concerned service. Plus, they are hyped
by none other than Paul Harvey who can arguably be considered the most-trusted
product pitchman in America.