Well, i am NOT a history major but i agree with you. People in general respected authority more "back in the day". It was a fact of society. You pretty much counted on the police being the "good guys".
Personally, i think a lot of our problems in the public school system stem from HOW things are taught. I'm not analytical enuf to figure out what the problem is but it seems some kids fall thru the cracks while others excel. (I also disagree with the THINGS that are taught in public school.)
I always go back to my own fortunate participation in an educational experiment. I may have talked about it before here? I was in a class of about 100 students with 3 teachers. This was for math and science. We were split into 3 groups and the teachers taught in circuit. I don't know what they learned from the experiment but what *I* learned was that i easily learned from one of the teachers. The others seemed to be speaking a different language. Having that teacher only a third of the time, i didn't do especially well that year. But it taught me that not all of us learn the same.
That same year i had a wild and crazy art teacher. She was young and full of energy, wore mini-skirts and short spiky hair with lots of makeup. She was probably "fun" but i didn't do well with her. She taught wild art! LOL I actually FAILED art that semester!!! My parents were all astonishment! The regular art teacher returned for the second semester and he taught perspective drawing. I got an A in his class. Ponderous.
This was also during the late 60's when there was a lot of revolt going on. I was only mildly revolted.
I think another part of the problem is the segregation of ages/grades. I really like the "pace" system of learning. You might excel in one area and be quite behind in another but you are not held to one "grade level" in all because you are slow in one or two subjects. Also, the students of different levels help one another. As a teacher i'm sure you know that teaching a subject helps you know it better than just being the learner.
The one room school houses were so much better, imho.
I'm sure there's a lot of truth to Gatto's observations, at least of that time period. Educational platforms HAVE changed since then but i couldn't tell you what is so different. I know i was never asked to work in a "team" to complete a project and maybe that was bad. There should be both kinds of projects. It seems they rely on the group projects more now.
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