Class groups were divided into 2 to 3 people. There were 2 in my group.
We were assigned question #5 from John Gatto's "Against School". My part was to answer the profile, why and what questions.
5. Gatto refers extensively to Alexander Inglis.
What's Inglis' "profile"? Inglis, from Prussia, wrote the book "Principles of Secondary Education", he was a revolutionary and a "lecture in education at Harvard was named". At the time - 1918 - Harvard was a very elite school, not offered to any one that was not of the upper class. (page 3, 2nd and 3rd paragraphs)
Why does Gatto want us to notice this? Inglis wanted to "Divide children by subject, by age-grading, by constant rankings on tests, and by many other more subtle means, and it was unlikely that the ignorant mass of mankind, separated in childhood, would ever reintegrate into a dangerous whole." We concluded that the "why Gatto wanted us to notice this" was because it is such a slow developing process that you don't take notice until far into that thinking process. Such as what happened in WWII when the people were changed "slowly" with Karl Marx/Hitler thinking.
(page 3, bottom of paragraph 3)
What's Gatto's purpose of emphasizing Inglis' "past accomplishments". To make note for us NOT to departmentalize children, or categorize them. Inglis' whole basic functions "was enough to curl the hair of those innocent enough to believe the three traditional goals listed earlier." (page 3, paragraph 4)
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