Quote from the Text
“The document sets out clearly the intentions of its creators—nothing less than ‘impersonal manipulation’ through schooling of a future America in which "few will be able to maintain control over their opinions," an America in which ‘each individual receives at birth a multi-purpose identification number’ which enables employers and other controllers to keep track of underlings and to expose them to direct or subliminal influence when necessary. Readers learned that ‘chemical experimentation’ on minors would be normal procedure in this post-1967 world, a pointed foreshadowing of the massive Ritalin interventions which now accompany the practice of forced schooling.”
An Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto, p. 62
An Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto, p. 62
Fact Check
The phrases that Gatto quotes are in fact in the 1967 document, U.S. Office of Education Contract Number OEC-0-9-320424-4042, primarily on page 288. Rather than an explanation of the creators’ intentions, the phrases are included in a variety of scenarios in which the authors speculate about possible futures. The phrase “impersonal manipulations” is in a section about a possible future titled “Controlling Elite.” The subsequent section, “Conflict and Cooperation Among Peoples at Home and Abroad” focuses on a possible future where racial tensions lead to civil strive.
The actual goals and intentions of the project are laid out on page 6 and include, “Development of a new kind of elementary school teacher who is basically well-educated, engages in teaching as clinical practice, is an effective student of the capacities and environmental characteristics of human learning, and functions as a responsible agent of social change.”
The actual goals and intentions of the project are laid out on page 6 and include, “Development of a new kind of elementary school teacher who is basically well-educated, engages in teaching as clinical practice, is an effective student of the capacities and environmental characteristics of human learning, and functions as a responsible agent of social change.”