Important Points
AGAINST SCHOOL (by John Taylor Gatto) 1. School didn’t have to train kids in any direct sense to think they should consume nonstop, because it did something even better: it encouraged them to not think at all; that left them sitting ducks for another great invention of the modern era — marketing. 2. There are two groups of people who can always be convinced to consume more than they need to: addicts and children. 3. Schools have done a pretty good job of turning our children into addicts, but it has done a spectacular job or turning our children into children. 4. Maturity has by now been banished from nearly every aspect of our lifes. 5. Once you understand the logic behind modern schooling, its tricks and traps are fairly easy to avoid. 6. Teach your children to be leaders and adventurers. 7. Schools train children to obey reflexively. 8. Schools are really laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands. 9. Teach your children to think critically and independently. 10. Urging them to take on “grown up” material in all subjects and stuff teachers know well enough to avoid.
IDIOT NATION (by Michael Moore) 1. 44 million Americans cannot read above a 4th grade level. 2. 99 hours of avg. reading compared to 1,460 hours watching television per year 3. 556 students from prestigious American universities couldn't pass a high school
