Category: John Taylor Gatto

Sporadically picking through the sources in John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction.

Could Professor Arthur W. Calhoun really have gotten away with publicly advocating for children to pass from blood families “into the custody of community experts” all the way back in 1919?  Here’s some of what he said in his  A Social History of the Family from Colonial Times to the Present:

The Sinister Summary:

Problem: Modernization in industrial and social life (allowing women to work alongside men in factories) has made it impossible for parents to successfully perform their parental functions.

Not the Solution #1:  Encourage parents to find an independent livelihood outside of the factory/corporate system that would provide them with the time and resources to raise their own children.

Not the Solution #2: Ease restrictions on small businesses.

Solution: Allow qualified community experts to perform the complexer functions of parenthood.

Source Mention: Page 1

Sporadically picking through the sources in John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction.  Here’s a link to Helen Todd‘s Why Children Work: The Children’s Answer, published by McClure’s Magazine in 1913:

This is certainly a fascinating historical document.  While I’m as skeptical of the integrity of the journalism of 1913 as I am of the journalism of today, I find Ms. Todd’s account to be sobering.

Personal Reflection: I find it strange that our contemporary view of child labor is still largely framed by the the mental images that we hold of the factory conditions of the early 20th century.  In this age of the service economy would it be possible to reach a compromise that could provide safe opportunities for children to be more productive members of society?  Can they be any more than tax evaders who occasionally engage in illicit lawn mowing, dog walking, and babysitting?

Source Mention: Page 1