In his book ‘Dumbing us Down’ John Taylor Gatto shows how networks “drain the vitality from community and family” (p. 52). In pondering his writings, I have come to believe that schools and networks are counterfeits of family and community. Building strong families and communities is the most important work we can ever do.
So much good occurs when families and communities are strong. People have purpose and belong. Work serves people we know and love. People have names, not numbers. In a strong family and community, every person matters and the whole person matters.
The United States was established based on family and community. We have since moved away from that home-centered focus. We have largely replaced families and community with networks.
The results are devastating. Isolation, loneliness, and depression have become more common than not. We are fragmented, divided and often desperate. Why is this so?
It is because Institutions and networks do not truly care about healthy, strong families and communities, but on what they can get from us. Their purpose is to ‘survive and grow’ (p. 65). Their intention may not be destruction of the family and the community but that is what has happened.
We are so focused on being part of the right networks and institutions that we have neglected the places where we find real worth and belonging. We isolate ourselves in these networks. And we require our young children to isolate themselves!
Starting with pre-school children are often isolated from their families and trained to stay with their group. They are regulated to compete with each other, to follow the rules and to receive their validation from their school networks.
If they “succeed” in school, they are promoted and sent to institutions of “higher education” whose primary purpose is to survive and grow. If they do well in these institutions, they are promoted again. Their reward is to get to buy more stuff than those people who don’t perform as well. Finally, once these superior achievers are worn out, they are isolated again in retirement “communities”. These are mostly pseudo communities composed of transients.
A defining characteristic of these networks and institutions is this: we may believe we are part of a community but when we move out of those “communities” the people we know rarely continue to socialize with us.
As a nation, we have tried to socially engineer “better families and communities” through school, networks and institutions. But those efforts have failed. People are not better off; they are not happy or better educated. They have not become their best selves. Instead, we encounter many wounded and lonely people.
It is time to return to family and community; time to read those books that show us how to build family and community; time to replace social counterfeits with the real thing.
So much good occurs when families and communities are strong. People have purpose and belong. Work serves people we know and love. People have names, not numbers. In a strong family and community, every person matters and the whole person matters.
The United States was established based on family and community. We have since moved away from that home-centered focus. We have largely replaced families and community with networks.
The results are devastating. Isolation, loneliness, and depression have become more common than not. We are fragmented, divided and often desperate. Why is this so?
It is because Institutions and networks do not truly care about healthy, strong families and communities, but on what they can get from us. Their purpose is to ‘survive and grow’ (p. 65). Their intention may not be destruction of the family and the community but that is what has happened.
We are so focused on being part of the right networks and institutions that we have neglected the places where we find real worth and belonging. We isolate ourselves in these networks. And we require our young children to isolate themselves!
Starting with pre-school children are often isolated from their families and trained to stay with their group. They are regulated to compete with each other, to follow the rules and to receive their validation from their school networks.
If they “succeed” in school, they are promoted and sent to institutions of “higher education” whose primary purpose is to survive and grow. If they do well in these institutions, they are promoted again. Their reward is to get to buy more stuff than those people who don’t perform as well. Finally, once these superior achievers are worn out, they are isolated again in retirement “communities”. These are mostly pseudo communities composed of transients.
A defining characteristic of these networks and institutions is this: we may believe we are part of a community but when we move out of those “communities” the people we know rarely continue to socialize with us.
As a nation, we have tried to socially engineer “better families and communities” through school, networks and institutions. But those efforts have failed. People are not better off; they are not happy or better educated. They have not become their best selves. Instead, we encounter many wounded and lonely people.
It is time to return to family and community; time to read those books that show us how to build family and community; time to replace social counterfeits with the real thing.
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