Abstract
THE BOOK, Dumbing us down: The hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling by the school teacher John Gatto (2005) immediately ignited the reader to unfold the pages to find out the reasons of such a provoking title. In fact, this book raises many considerations about schools and the American education system, particularly because of the similarities between schools of today and those of a time when they were first institutionalized. Gatto courageously invites educators and researchers to reexamine the American educational system, particularly its formal school settings. He critically demonstrated how the conventional education converted its focus to rule-following instead of arousing inquisitiveness and problem-solving abilities. Instead, schools prepare students to fulfill positions in society, creating an illusion that they are in school to learn. In fact, an invisible curriculum is taught, spreading patterns of segregation, persistent surveillance, lack of privacy, and disclosure. A hidden curriculum teaches students rules of behavior to ensure, above all, obedience and flexibility so that the workforce that is being shaped meets the demands of corporate capitalism. In between the lines, the curriculum is structured to serve economic and political interests more than learning objectives and students' needs. As a renowned contemporary critic of education and pedagogy, Gatto started his book with a very captivating chapter presenting his acceptance speech for Best Teacher Award, entitled The Seven Lesson School Teacher. He sincerely spoke that his success as a teacher and the award he received can be explained by his compliance with the structure of the current school system that teaches children about confusion, cruelty, indifference, class position, dependence, passivity, thus, shattering their self-esteem. In effect, he attributed his success to employing constant evaluation, grades, the system of bells, in addition to a variety of forms of coercion and punishment needed to ensure conformity and stupidity. The author stressed that the hidden curriculum represents a significant hindrance to personality development, producing destructive results in children due to its anti-educational methods. As Gatto proposed, " nobody survives the seven-lesson curriculum completely unscathed, not even the instructors " (p. 17). T
