Did you ever wonder what the true objectives of a public school system are? Sure, they want to give knowledge to children, as well as make them future good citizens of our society. However, John Taylor Gatto has some different opinions on the subject. He is the author of "Against School: How public education cripples our kids and why," and in this article he discusses possible ulterior motives for our public schools. In fact, our current public school system is entirely based upon the educational system of the military state of Prussia. According to Mr. Gatto, the true objective of a public school system is to "produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens- all in order to render the populace manageable." School systems do this in a variety of ways, but the three most common are the integrating, direction, and selection functions.
Elementary school students in Chiang Mai
Elementary School in Chittoor,AP,India. This schoo...
Students of Nan Hua High School gathering in the S...A good example of the school system's true motives is the "integrating function". The object of this is to make all children as similar as possible. Why would they do this? It stifles creativity, individualism, and leadership. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the public school system wants. It makes everyone conform together, and people who conform are considered "predictable". Therefore, there won't be rebels, anarchists, etc, to oppose the teachers and the system. The students who conform will do whatever the teachers tell them to do, which in essence is training them for their future jobs. Having learned to conform at an early age, people will be able to be manipulated by their future bosses easier. They become 'easy to handle' in the workplace.
Conformity is not the only objective for a public school system. Schools also use a "diagnostic and directive" function, which is...