John Taylor Gatto on School Criticism and Grades

"I would abolish the German school system, fire all school principals and administrative officials, and reinvent it with the help of people who know what they are talking about. The existing system—with a few notable exceptions—kills the spirit of teachers, destroys the minds and souls of children, and spreads fear and anxiety among parents, who feel compelled to push their children even though everything speaks against it. The existing system serves neither the state (states) nor the people who work there every day. It can only be described as an economic, cultural, intellectual, and human disaster. I am waiting for the day when German parents have had enough and have the courage to stand up for their children" Jesper Juul

"Slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior." John Taylor Gatto