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Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

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Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

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Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link The Curious Links Between the Backers of the Assisted Dying Bill Wed Dec 11, 2024 07:00 | Charlotte Gill
The rushed passage of the Assisted Dying Bill, pushed through by powerful lobby groups, has left many wondering what's really behind the rush and who's pulling the strings, says Charlotte Gill.
The post The Curious Links Between the Backers of the Assisted Dying Bill appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Wed Dec 11, 2024 01:11 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Pensioner Convicted of Incitement for Posting Negatively About Migrants in the Latest Politically Ch... Tue Dec 10, 2024 19:00 | Eugyppius
Eugyppius recounts the sad story of Doris van Geul, a 74 year-old pensioner fined for incitement after a Facebook post critical of migrants, with her conviction threatening to bankrupt her for the rest of her life.
The post Pensioner Convicted of Incitement for Posting Negatively About Migrants in the Latest Politically Charged German Speech Prosecution appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Storm Darragh Leaves U.K. Solar Farm in Pieces Tue Dec 10, 2024 17:00 | Richard Eldred
Storm Darragh has ravaged Anglesey's Porth Wen solar farm, tearing hundreds of panels from their mounts, shredding turbine blades and leaving a cleanup effort that will stretch well into 2025.
The post Storm Darragh Leaves U.K. Solar Farm in Pieces appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Justin Jellyby Tue Dec 10, 2024 15:00 | Peter Harris
Justin Welby, like Dickens's Mrs Jellyby in Bleak House, is all charity abroad but blind to problems at home; now, even his apologies ring hollow, says Peter Harris.
The post Justin Jellyby appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?111 Fri Dec 06, 2024 12:25 | en

offsite link Attempted coup d'?tat in South Korea Fri Dec 06, 2024 12:17 | en

offsite link What is changing in the Middle East , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 03, 2024 07:08 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?110 Fri Nov 29, 2024 15:01 | en

offsite link Verbal ceasefire in Lebanon Fri Nov 29, 2024 14:52 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Education

Education is one of those key things in life. While the basics of food and shelter are fundamental closely followed by health, education is probably next and is a key to how life unfolds. We must not be caught up with the idea of interchanging the word education and school as they are not the same thing.

On this page, we present some of the ideas behind John Taylor Gatto (1935 - 2018) who was a teacher in New York city and a great educator. He, as he said himself, taught in the best and the worst schools and three times won the New York city's Teacher of the Year award. After he quit teaching he started to investigate the history of why compulsory school was setup and he spent the rest of his life trying to undo the harm that schools does.

Gatto through his essays, books and many interviews has tried to convey what education should be really about and it should be something we take ownership of ourselves and take on for our entire life.

The material on the rest of the page is taken from: https://www.garynorth.com/public/18741.cfm

There is a website dedicated to John Taylor Gatto at: https://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
Link to one of his most famous essay's: Against School

See also the Wikipedia page Waldorf Schools which are based on the work of Rudolf Steiner.or better still go to the Waldorf Foundation for Education website.

John Taylor Gatto died at age 82 on October 25.

He taught at the New York City public school system for 26 years. Three times he won the city's Teacher of the Year award. Once he won the New York state Teacher of the Year award.

Shortly after he won these final two awards, he quit teaching as a career. He made his announcement in a Wall Street Journal article, "I Quit, I Think." You can read it here: https://www.garynorth.com/public/18740.cfm

In a fine obituary of Gatto on the website of the Foundation for Economic Education, Brittany Hunter wrote this:

After three decades in the classroom, Gatto realized that the public school system was squashing individualism more than it was educating students and preparing them for the real world. To make matters worse, his later research would reveal that this dumbing down was not just by accident, but by design.

Gatto dedicated the rest of his life to repairing the damage done by the public education system.

Feeling the education system was beyond repair, Gatto could no longer in good conscience be an active participant. Rather than sending his letter of resignation to his superiors in his school district, he sent a copy of “I Quit, I Think” to the Wall Street Journal, where it was published as an op-ed on July 25, 1991.

In his biting resignation, he wrote:

I’ve come slowly to understand what it is I really teach: A curriculum of confusion, class position, arbitrary justice, vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect for privacy, indifference to quality, and utter dependency. I teach how to fit into a world I don’t want to live in.

I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t train children to wait to be told what to do; I can’t train people to drop what they are doing when a bell sounds; I can’t persuade children to feel some justice in their class placement when there isn’t any, and I can’t persuade children to believe teachers have valuable secrets they can acquire by becoming our disciples. That isn’t true.

Gatto dedicated the rest of his life to repairing the damage done by the public education system. He wrote several books on his experience in the classroom including Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling. His book The Underground History of American Education is perhaps the most accurate and damning history of the American education system that has ever been written.

Here, we see what made him different. Warning: you will figure out in the first three minutes how you got shafted in school.

What went wrong? Gatto said it was planned. Here is a seven-minute video. It is an extract from his Underground History. His theory: schooling is a means of producing docile, obedient workers and citizens. He cites primary sources from influential American educators.

For those who have read R. J. Rushdoony's earlier book, The Messianic Character of American Education (1963), all this will be familiar. It started in the late 1830's in Massachusetts. Rushdoony followed the confessions of faith of two dozen progressive educators. Gatto followed the money.

He did great work in the public schools. He did greater work outside them.

Links

https://www.henireland.org -Home Educaiton Network Ireland
https://hslda.org/post/ireland -Legal status and resources on homeschooling in Ireland
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/irish-mother-of-six-jailed-for-homeschooling -Irish mother of six jailed for homeschooling (2014)
https://wicklowSudburySchool.com/ -Wicklow Sudbury School - Ireland's first democratic school of self-directed learning

You might be interested in this very short video: Peter Gray on self-directed learning Fundamentals
https://youtu.be/YoE480mzrk0

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