Comments by Gatto | Brief Summary | I'd Like to Contribute! | The Odysseus Group
Introduction | Intro Page 2 | The Episodes | Summary
What is The Fourth Purpose? | Technique, Style and Format
A Few Questions | Final Word
The Enigma of Public Schools
The American school system is huge, costly, and in its present form unworkable. The debate as to how this, the second largest segment of our economy, happened to get this way and what to do about it goes on daily across the country. In corporate board rooms; government offices; university lecture halls; foundation-sponsored conferences; educational retreats; workshops and seminars; on television, radio, and the Internet; in books, newspapers, and magazines; and even in feature films, people debate and discuss what is, in the eyes of many, a national tragedy.
It's difficult for even an ace detective to follow the threads of this story. It is usually presented to us in a fragmented and abstract form. Without a context, without background, without a sense of the scope of the issue, we citizens quickly get lost, confused, or bored. But the story is an important one. It is a story we must understand.
The Fourth Purpose will be the first documentary series to examine this subject in detail. We will lay out the issues, follow the debates, challenge the experts, meet the children, teachers, and principals, and travel our vast country: past, present, and future in an effort to provide the viewer with the tools to enliven and empower a national conversation on schooling.
Bits and pieces of this conversation have been presented before. Brave documentarians like Frederick Wiseman in High School, extraordinary teachers like Jaime Escalante, Marva Collins, and John Taylor Gatto, and strong thinkers like Ivan Illich and John Holt have all raised their banners questioning the operating tenets of American schooling. But no one, except Gatto, has yet offered a comprehensive look at the system, from the inside out, and through its history. And no one has carefully examined the alternatives and presented a coherent set of possibilities for meaningful change. The Fourth Purpose will offer this overview. We will do it in a way that is compelling and catalytic.
Comments by Gatto | Brief Summary | I'd Like to Contribute! | The Odysseus Group
Introduction | Intro Page 2 | The Episodes | Summary
What is The Fourth Purpose? | Technique, Style and Format
A Few Questions | Final Word
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