I’m Gonna Try – The American Spirit
Our doubts are traitors / And make us lose the good we oft might win, / By fearing to attempt. — William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
Only a few lifetimes ago, things were very different in the United States. Originality and variety were common currency; our freedom from regimentation made us the miracle of the world; social-class boundaries were relatively easy to cross; our citizenry was marvelously confident, inventive, and able to do much for themselves independently, and to think for themselves. We were something special, we Americans, all by ourselves, without the government sticking its nose into and measuring every aspect of our lives…1
— John Taylor Gato, Dumbing Us Down
The American Spirit According to Eric Hoffer
For Americanization affects mainly the masses, stiffens their backbone, and infects them with a passion to act on their own, get their full share of the good things of life, and dispense with the tutelage of scribes and clerks.1
Notes
John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, Forward by Zachary Slayback, 2017, (first edition 1992), New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada. pp. 10-11.
Yep, and how did it seem to happen so darn fast?
Gatto is always worth quoting! Interesting that the 2017 edition you reference was published in what I would have considered a suspiciously communist locale (Gabriola Island, B.C.). However, it's probably also what might pass as a hotbed of homeschooling in Canada. Not sure, but it seems that Mr. Gatto got kind of "cancelled" since the first edition in 1992. Too much truth, no doubt.