John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto, award-winning schoolteacher and author of several influential books on schooling. Schooling, is, he argues, a form of adoption, giving away your child to someone who may well be a stranger at a tender age (four in Northern Ireland) for the duration of the most plastic and malleable time in their lives is indeed tantamount to having your child adopted.Implicit in this arrangement is the idea that the state knows best how to educate your child, even better than you or your community. Mr. Gatto asks “how can the state know best how to educate YOUR child?”At the end of the period of compulsory schooling parents are reduced to the level of friendly strangers.

Here a very recent interview on Red Ice Radio. Besides all the indeed very interesting aspects on schooling, its objective history and results, he provides during this interview he also made some quite revealing comments in regards of the Chinese education system.

Having visited there on a number of occasions he is struck by the overruling question the Chinese has in regards of education. He paints a picture where the Chinese are very well aware of as well as concerned of the fact that they have been able to quantum jump fast forwards in their economy simply by copying what has been developed in the west while at the same time not in any significant way pay adherence to nore legal or compensation matters.

Simply put the matter of becoming more creative and innovative is a dead serious business for the Chinese government. This as their future economic growth will depend on it.

My comment - possibly this will be the most challenging aspect for the Asian economies going forward. This as in reality they have been ruled by and have themsels as individuals what only can be described as feudal values for millennia. The centralized communist party is just another version of these ideas. So what changes then in the Asian societies are required to allow for their citizens obtain more of "out of the box" thinking?

Somehow to me at least this seems to be not very compatible with the ruling communist party intent to stay in power? Then and as a follow on question - would the Chinese in any way be ready and prepared for a society not based on feudal values?
http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/2011/05/RIR-110519.php