When you hear me rant about how bad “education” is, I am really talking about an institutionalization of learning found in “schools.” Yes, we know the original motivations of which John Taylor Gatto speaks, the intention to dumb down kids so they will be docile and subservient workers in the new industrialized nation. That’s important, because it speaks to original motivations that have become lost in the mists of time, but are still being implemented—all too effectively—today, in our schools. It is the lack of critical awareness of what the schools are doing and for what goals that is the goal of the book, Trojan Horse in the Classroom, what goes on in schools and why you should care.
While calls for ‘reform’ or ‘restructuring’ and similar complaints about what’s wrong with public schooling in America are ubiquitous, questioning the benefits and goodness of “school” is generally not permitted. Public schooling is an institution—while subject to intense and continual criticism—that is nonetheless sacrosanct as an institution. Yet there are examples of individuals—from the distant past (e.g. Thos. Paine, Geo. Washington, etc.), as well as those from our own era (for example Eric, who is profiled in here), who depended not one whit upon “public schooling” to become “educated” and successful. Their education consisted, in the case of the earlier examples, of self-taught reading skills they gained by means of books and other reading materials acquired from varying and sundry sources, often representing the expenditure of personal funds that were scarce and unpredictable. These successful but unschooled individuals prevailed upon selected and admired mentors and experts to learn skills, or gain cultural knowledge and savvy required for privation in their chosen work. They gradually became respected members of their profession through associating with groups or individuals and attending to their activities, and, probably most importantly, “being in the world” rather than being in a classroom.
In the course of compulsory schooling, we can point to two major impacts on the learner: The first impact is the sheer volume of hours that cannot be spent actively exploring what interests the learner but are rather spent sitting passively in classrooms in chairs being addressed—as a class—by teachers who are not, in fact, sought out by the learner for the purpose of gaining knowledge and expertise in a field related to those interests. The other impact is the rigidifying, institutionalizing pall over students’ lives from age 6 to 17 or 18 in the name of compulsory schooling resulting in day after day spent adhering to the requirements (and, for the most part, the convenience) of school administration, government regulation and standards.
There are unschooled individuals who sought their own paths to career and lifework and were subject to the accountability of the standards of that profession. No self-taught or unschooled individual we can point to from the records of our country’s early history spent one hour bubbling in answers to a test that was ultimately delivered to the higher and remote echelons of an administration. When the young unschooled learners from those earlier times were tested, those tests were directly related to their own goals, and without a doubt given by their employers in the course of carrying out the work employers needed to them to do. Likewise, in today’s trades and professions, failure to produce quality work—however that may be defined in the particular field—results in direct consequences to the individual; and he or she who wishes to be a respected and productive member of that field soon learns what is required of them to stay and advance in their chosen occupation or profession. Indeed, Eric, profiled in this essay, sustained tests that were directly related to his eligibility to become what he wanted to become, and his subsequent ability to do what they wanted to do. His ultimate and respected reputation has been built upon and attained by means of what he knew and did—the quality and expertise of his product—not by holding a diploma nor, in fact, any advanced academic degree.
It is “schooling” and that institutionalization of education that is the focus of this critique. In contrast to the brief profile here, everything that the Mr. H relates in the pages of Trojan Horse in the Classroom points to the institutionalization of learning and education, the administration of learning, rather than an account of individuals choosing and seeking to learn and facing consequences directly related to their choices. With the 2000 Bush administration No Child Left Behind act (NCLB), we have the absolute epitome of this syndrome which has removed learning so far from the learner, that that latter does not even know anymore why he or she must be at school at 8 every morning. They only know that they must be there. They say, when asked, that they must be here to get a good job, or to get a diploma, or because their parents will kill them if they don’t “graduate.” The Principal intones over the loudspeaker prior to the Pledge of Allegiance, on a day a standardized test will be given, that the students must try to do well “because it will reflect on the school;” and individuals who do well, can get a free credit. None of this has anything remotely to do with chosen skills or interest or even connection to the goal of entering a given industry, profession or trade. Eric learned almost everything he must know and use in carrying out his professional life without the ‘benefit’ of schooling in classrooms, nor the ultimate "prize," a high school diploma. But he got a jump-start on his entrance into the world of work: Eric, and others like him, spent the equivalent of the last two to five years or so of regular compulsory schooling being in the world and learning the details of their trade and business—albeit as novices and from the ground up—not sitting in classrooms earning the necessary credits for a diploma.
THE INDIFFERENT/HOSTILE STUDENT[1]
When we meet Eric, he is a pudgy, rather closed-faced 12 year old, a fifth grader attending a public school in an upper middle class suburb of a large metropolitan area in Southern California. Eric’s mother died about three years ago. His father is an airline pilot for a major airline and has recently been re-called after a multi-year layoff. Eric’s father, now a single parent, has been having some difficulties with his only child who has become passive-aggressive in school, his anger over the loss of his mother always just below the surface.
Since his mother became ill, Eric has been falling behind in school, and, as he stated himself years later, he knew that he was going to have an ongoing problem almost two years before it came to the attention of his father by means of a call from his fifth grade teacher. The call was placed after Eric broke the arm of one classmate and bitten another. During the conference, the father is told that Eric has not been turning in his schoolwork (although, later the missing assignments were found stuffed into his desk). The father is frustrated with his son, but Eric has been feeling his own desperation for some time now, unable to stop his own slide, meeting every new grade further behind his classmates than he had been in the previous one, and no solution in the offing. (His father’s request to hold him back a grade to give him the chance to catch up was denied by the counselor.)
At this point in time, Eric has given up on school. There is interest and enthusiasm in Eric’s life outside of school, however: He loves airplanes, as does his dad, who owns a small plane kept at an airport some distance from their home. Besides flying together in the small, classic Cessna 170, the two of them have spent many hours with model airplanes, powered gliders, and model rockets.
Fast forward several years later. Eric, his father, and father’s new wife, have moved to a more rural area—still in Southern California—where Eric is now a middle school student. The boy is friendly and helpful around the house and loving toward his new mom. He is also caring, interested in and very supportive of the neighbors’ children, two boys who are several years younger than himself. The new home is part of a mini-subdivision of four homes, all owned by pilots who share the use of a dirt runway. All of the property owners have airplanes (the Cessna is now tied down next Eric’s house), and there are frequent visits to the airfield by friends of the little airpark residents who arrive in sometimes very exotic airplanes. Many of the men in the subdivision can often be found in their hangars doing something with airplanes. Eric’s father is known in the area, having grown up in this high desert valley. In the company of his father’s friends, as well as at home, Eric is an unusually articulate and bright boy.
Eric’s schoolwork continues to be marginal, however, and as a possible solution, the parents send him away to a private, somewhat exclusive school with a very different, more personal approach to education. This effort, however, produces no change and the young boy feels quite alienated among people very different from his neighbors and friends back home with whom he had become very comfortable. Apparently, Eric did show some interest in one or two subjects at his new school, but otherwise, as always, seemed totally disinterested in his education and showing the same disregard for schoolwork as before. So Eric’s parents withdrew him from the private school and enrolled him in the local public high school—a transition that was fraught with considerable anxiety for Eric. But he attended faithfully, walking three-quarters of a mile on the empty dirt road to catch the bus every morning and returning the same way in the afternoon.
During this time, to make a little money, he has applied for work at the skating rink in the nearest town, a seventeen mile drive from his home on the little airpark. It turns out he is very good at conducting birthday skating parties for youngsters on Saturdays and acting as guard on the skating rink at other times. The local population in the neighborhood of the rink is diverse, and more than once, Eric found himself breaking up fights and dealing with gang activity. His employers liked him: Eric is diplomatic, responsible and reliable, and his employment at the rink lasts several years. But his school effort continues to be minimal (even though he has perfect attendance), and by the time he is well into his junior year, it’s obvious that, unless there can be a drastic change, and maybe in spite of one, he is not likely to graduate. The parents make visits to the school but there is no illumination on the problem of Eric’s lackluster performance as a student. Finally, the parents tell Eric that it’s apparent he is only going to school to be babysat and that they cannot abide that and gave Eric the option to either work, go to school, or leave the home when he turns 18, in about eight months. His father remembers that when he spoke to teachers and administrators about pulling Eric out of school, he encountered considerable protest and resistance. They tried to counsel his father on how to get Eric to do his work. “You have to make him do homework!” they insisted, “Take his privileges away,” they advised. “What privileges?” his father asked. “Well, things he likes—TV…” “We have no TV,” his father explained, patiently. Several more suggestions were made, including grounding and denying Eric any contact with friends. Finally, a counselor, leaning forward on the desk between them, suggested that the parents withhold food until Eric produces the work. “Soon,” she says, narrowing her eyes, “he’ll get hungry enough.” Eric’s father tells the school people that he would not deny his son activities that were very possibly more useful and meaningful in Eric’s life than the hours he spends in school. Further, he would certainly never consider denying his son food. He tells them that it was up to his son to find meaning in school and a reason to actively participate in his own education and graduation. Absent that, he will proceed with pulling him out of school, and that if the school wanted to prosecute him for that, they could go right ahead. Eric was formally withdrawn from the high school, and no contact with the family was subsequently attempted by the school officials.
Eric turned 18. He had obtained a vehicle and could still do occasional work at the skating rink. But, the focus was now on some important choices he had before him: Attend adult education, find a regular job, or leave the home. A position became available working at the local county airport which is only a few miles drive from Eric’s home. The job meant working as a line boy for a concession operator at the airport who was also a longtime friend of both his father and one of the neighbors at the airpark. Eric took the menial job, but after a week or so, simply stopped showing up for work. Further, although Eric had then announced to his parents that he would attend the adult education center and begin work on a GED, he never showed up there, either. Following the conditions set months earlier, it was now evident that he would be required to leave the home. He got an apartment with two other boys and began in earnest to look for work. He tried a telemarketing job but quit that almost immediately. Then, he answered an ad for a position as a copy machine repair technician, was hired, and attended the employer’s training for the skills necessary, and for several months, seemed to enjoy the job—perhaps because he liked to drive over the expanse of the valley making calls. Subsequently, another position became available at the county airport, this time as assistant to the airport manager, a considerable step up from the previous job of line boy. Eric was now 19 years old. He was hired for this position, and within two years, took over as the airport manager after his former boss moved on to become manager of a larger airport in the Los Angeles basin.
With a steady job that he could more than tolerate, that represented considerable responsibility and that also allowed him to hobnob with pilots on a daily basis, Eric began to formulate his goal to become an airline pilot like his father. He knew that he must have a high school diploma or GED in order to obtain an interview with any airline. He had attempted the GED test—first, cold, within months of having become a “drop-out” and again, about a year and a half later. He failed the test both times, despite considerable study for the second sitting.
With his goal still firmly in hand, and yet lacking the academic requirement, Eric worked tirelessly but enthusiastically to obtain the necessary flight experience to get an interview with the airlines. He easily acquired the 250 hours of flight time and advanced ratings over the lowest “private pilot” license required for an airline interview. His extensive and very relevant network of pilots and the availability of the necessary aircraft to obtain his needed ratings were all factors in this accomplishment. During these early years as airport manager, he began taking online/distance education courses—primarily general college and “aviation management” courses.
Over the years, Eric made many, many contacts among the corporate pilots who regularly flew into and out of his airport. Many told him that in order to get on with either a major airline or major corporate carrier (called a “135 operator”), he would need a college degree. He still had his sights set upon becoming an airline pilot, and had to grapple with his handicap: No high school diploma. He could not even get an interview with a major carrier’s human resources department without one. His father had assumed that his own company would not hire any pilot who lacked a post-secondary degree, as well. While this turned out not to be the case, the first stumbling block remained. At one point, he “bought” (this is Eric’s word) a ‘high school diploma,’ issued online on the basis of his stated credits and actual work experience. In the ensuing years, however, he realized the precarious nature of this “diploma,” and that he must eventually obtain the GED, along with advanced coursework and maybe a post-secondary degree.
Several years passed, and during this period of the mid-1990s, several major commercial airlines had gone bankrupt. At the same time, Eric began to take seriously his father’s cautionary remarks that being an airline pilot—even a Captain, such as himself—had its drawbacks: the hotels and other aspects of the lifestyle were not always as advertised. Further, by this time, Eric had become a superior pilot of just about anything with wings, and his father warned his son that he would share his own exasperation with the incompetence of other pilots. Eric gradually abandoned his zeal for becoming a commercial airline pilot, but maintained the goal of becoming a charter pilot for, or perhaps even owning his own, 135 operation.
Still, there was no question that the lack of a real high school diploma and an advanced degree was going to be a barrier to this and just about any other advancement he wanted to pursue. Ironically, in spite of the general stigma against individuals who lack a high school diploma, Eric’s extensive knowledge and expertise on the ground and in the air, along with his considerable verbal and negotiating skills, fooled many people, who responded with astonishment to learn that he had not graduated from high school.
It is now twenty years since Eric dropped out of high school. He is still managing the county airport, and his name is well-known to commercial and charter pilots, state airport regulators and the recreational pilot community all across the state of California. His competence as an efficient and savvy airport manager, a cool head in a crisis (which could and did include airplane crashes, fires, personnel and development problems that have plagued his own and other airports in the Statewide system) and his personable and effective PR skills, all benefit his employer and have brought him near-celebrity status as an authority in his field. But, how can this possibly be? He still lacks a “real” high school diploma.
As a 35 year old with a wife and young child, Eric knows this much: He doesn’t want to be an airport manager forever. He wants to fly, and he wants to be paid well for his considerable pilot skills and experience. With input from his father and others in his network, he has made the determination that there are three likely paths available to him—all of which provide the strong possibility of realizing his dream of staying in the air: (1) He can run his own 135 operation; (2) He could become a “certified” airport manager (and he continues with coursework to this end); (3) He could join with his retired father and one or two others in some kind of entrepreneurial venture-involving the purchase, refurbishment, sale and possibly export of high-end, exotic airplanes.
We leave the story of Eric’s career without a clear determination whether his path has been negatively impacted by his failure to become a bona fide high school graduate or to obtain a GED or advanced degree. At the time of writing this final paragraph, he is 41 years old with a second child, and, by almost anyone’s standard, an successful young man. It could fairly be said that his success has been due largely to the fact that he is an unusually bright and articulate person, and was so from an early age. He has also benefited from an intense focus and interest, paralleling his father’s: that of airplanes and flying. This interest was sustained along with an opportunity to demonstrate and refine an almost uncanny facility to handle the kinds of situations—from the mundane to dire emergencies—that he encounters as an airport manager. Finally, once in his position as airport manager, he parlayed his status as a “known entity” (in his own right, as well as by means of the legacy of his father’s name in the community) into furthering his credibility and power. The more important question, for purposes of the thesis of the book, "Trojan Horse in the Classroom", is whether Eric can be considered an anomaly among non-high school graduates, or if he is actually the poster child of those who believe a high school diploma is vastly overrated.
[1] The term “hostile – indifferent" comes from Ericson & Ellett, “The Question of the Student in Educational Reform,” EPAA v.10, no. 31, July 2, 2002 [return to text]
back to Essays
back to TOC