to wit from: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/review_harrison.htm
Mr. Gatto argues that these emerging corporate titans knew they needed three things in order for their interests to thrive: 1) compliant employees; 2) a guaranteed and dependent population; and 3) a predictable business environment encompassed by a rigid, caste-like social hierarchy of haves and have-nots. It is toward these ends - and not education - that modern compulsory schooling was unleashed. Mr. Gatto states that America at the time of the birth of modern schooling, however, was a place antithetical to the stated goals of big business. Business was largely conducted by individuals, on a small-scale, within the context of thriving villages or neighborhoods. Proprietors, employees, and customers shared their lives and fates, at least to some extent, with one another. There was no room for (nor inclination towards) the kind of manipulation and control imbedded in the intentions of big business outlined above. The author places a strong emphasis in this equation on the individual, on the entrepreneur in control of himself and his livelihood. This is an important part of Mr. Gatto’s argument for why and how compulsory schooling was inflicted upon our society. By way of example, Mr. Gatto details the lives of archetypal Americans like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison, who were independent, free-thinking leaders, none of whom spent more than two years in any kind of school, and yet all were leading productive, fulfilled lives by the time they were in their teens. Mr. Gatto argues that big business knew that the development of these kinds of individuals needed to be hindered. They were too unpredictable and insufficiently pliable. What better way to accomplish this shadowy goal than by removing children from the steadying influences of their families, and placing them instead in the hands of schools, where they could be easily molded into the kinds of people upon whom big business depended. Just in case parents were unwilling to comply, the powers that be committed school attendance into law. >end Peace, Doc --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
