john-taylor-gatto-weapons-of-mass-instruction

Weapons of Mass Instruction 135
"I am tired of making goody-goody books;' she wrote, "You are
a great deal too much afraid:' Potter saw correctly that what set her
apart from the general run of children's tale-tellers was that she employed
an "attitude of mind" full of darkness, violence, unsentimentality,
and realism - exactly in the qualities which human life displays
and which must be confronted directly if one is ever to become master
of oneself. Children understand this, both implicitly and explicitly,
and unlike schooling, Potter speaks to the need to think about these
things. Her work is tart and crisp, dwelling frequently on death.
In The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, an owl picks up a squirrel, "intending
to skin him:'
The Tale of Jemima Puddle Duck traffics in transcendental evil as
the fox asks Jemima to pick out the seasonings in which she is to be
cooked.
Fee Fie Foe Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
Be he live or be he dead
I'll grind his bones to make my bread
Nothing is more interesting to young children than evil, cruelty, and
malice; they are cognizant of these things before they can speak with
any fluency. The hypocrisy of sweet animal tales and images in a culture
which murders animals wholesale and eats them with lip-smacking
gusto is lost on most desensitized adults, but almost never lost on
their children. And this ugly skew from reality is only one of many
such contradictions our talking choo choo culture traffics in wholesale.
The effect of these amoral exercises is severe on children, despite
apologetics practiced by child development experts who justify the
practice.
There are talking animals in Potter, but none are cute. "Thank
goodness my education was neglected;' Potter wrote, but what she
meant was talking choo-choo schooling. Potter's learning was of a
high standard: she read Homer in the best translations, spoke fluent