The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher

1. Confusion – Teachers are sometimes forced to teach lessons out of context.  The material is often unrelated and disconnected between subjects and is taken from curriculum that lacks coherence—but is required by state and local mandates.

2. Class Position – Teachers often spend too much time on teaching “where students are required to stay within the classroom.  Students are ordered, numbered, and are given little choice as to where they “fit.”
   
   
3. Indifference – In many cases, students are taught not to care too much about anything and to appear as though they do.  Students are required to become totally involved in boring lessons, to jump up and down with anticipation, and compete against each other for the teacher’s attention.
   
   
4. Emotional Dependency – Teachers teach “dependency” by using starts, red marks, stickers, smiles, frowns, honors, and disgraces.  Students are taught to surrender their will to the predestined chain of command. 
   
   
5. Intellectual Dependency – Students are taught that “good kids wait for the teacher to tell them what to do.”  The teacher makes all of the important choices regarding learning…after all—the teacher is the expert.
   
   
6. Provisional Self-Esteem – Teachers teach provisional self-esteem.  Students must realize that they must conform.  If not, monthly and weekly reports go home to show the parents how dissatisfied they should be with their children due to nonconformity!
   
   
7. One Can’t Hide – The seventh lesson is that “one can’t hide.”  Students are taught that they are always being watched.  They are under constant surveillance by the teacher.  They have no private spaces and no private time allotted.

Taken from Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (Gatto, 1993).

Speech given on the occasion of Gatto being named “New York State Teacher of the Year “ – 1991

Famous Educators

John Gatto – New York State Teacher of the Year – 1991 – author and educator

Mary McCloud Bethune - Opened the first school exclusively for African American females

Jaime Escalante - Set standards in math which remain unequaled in American education

Marie Montessori – First educator to realize the need for true early childhood methods