"The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher" & The Brandywine Museum of Art

For our TRUE and GOOD segments, Linda Cerynik from Roots to Wings and I take a deep look into the infamous speech given by the late veteran New York state teacher John Taylor Gatto. His acceptance speech at his award ceremony for being New York state's "Teacher of the Year" in 1992, is often referred to a "The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher" speech (also published in another of his books, called Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling) and in it he presents seven results of his teaching career. He claimed that he taught 1) confusion, 2) class position, 3) indifference, 4) emotional dependency, 5) intellectual dependency, 6) provisional self-esteem, and 7) that you can't hide. Pretty provocative to say the least. Hear about some of our experiences and remedies for some of these issues and consider how you would characterize your teaching at home or in the classroom. 

In our final segment on the BEAUTIFUL, I share with you about a little gem of an art museum tucked away in the Brandywine River valley in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania -- The Brandywine Museum of Art. There you will discover art by the famous Wyeth artists -- N. C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth. Not only do you see the museum's amazing collections and tourable homes and studios, they also host traveling exhibitions, two of which I share about on the podcast. See my website (aTrueGoodBeautifulLife.com) for pictures of our trips.

Some of our favorite resources:

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
• The Underground History of American Education, Volume 1 by John Taylor Gatto (if you can find the big green complete book, even better)
• School: The Story of American Public Education by Sarah Mondale (with David Tyack, Carl Kaestle, Diane Ravitch, James Anderson, and Larry Cuban) 
• https://youtu.be/UixZ7qWnBwg Brandwine Museum of Art YouTube video on Thiebaud exhibit

 

COMMONPLACE QUOTES

Education is an atmosphere. - Charlotte Mason

Children are born persons. - Charlotte Mason

The glory of God is man fully alive. - Irenaeus, an early church father 

I am not a teacher but an awakener. - Robert Frost

We give our children two things: one is roots, the other, wings. - Hodding Carter

. . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

 

APPLICATION

1. Read through "The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher" yourself and evaluate how you are treating your students and how you can improve one element of your teaching this week.
2. Consider one way you can give your child/student the ability to choose something for themselves, whether it be how they structure their day, book selections, wake up time, music/art/sports options, how they spend their free time.
3. Visit the Brandywine Museum of Art or look up pictures online or check out library books on the Wyeth artists and discover their works. Whose art do you like best?