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

162 WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION
At 17 you want a way to measure the advance of our own education.
I'll toss you eight yardsticks and you tell me where you are at the
moment on the metrics of real education:
Grandpa John's Real Learning Index
I. Self-knowledge: This is the biggest prize of all. Without it you
are lost and will flounder again and again through life. By now
you should have introspected enough to know your own character:
its proclivities, strengths, weaknesses, blessings, curses. How
much assistance has your high school given you to accomplish
this
2. Observation: Your powers of observation in any situation
should be razor sharp; at will you should be able to function like
an objective cameral tape recorder sucking in accurate data for
later analysis. Can you "read" the primary documents and images
from every age and place Or must you take someone else's word
for their meaning
3. Feedback: Are you rigorously trained to pick up cues about
yourself from the reactions of others and from signals out of
the environment Do you have trouble accepting criticism and
evaluating its worth If you rely on test scores and teacher evaluations
as stars to steer by you are in for a shock when you discover
discrepancies between what you've been taught to think
and reality.
4. Analysis: Can you take a new problem, break it into structural
and procedural elements, gauge the relationships among those,
reckon major outside influences, and do all this without expert
help
5. Mirroring: Have you learned to be everyone else as well as yourself
Can you be a chameleon at will Or are you trapped in your
own tight skin the way little people are. Can you fit into every
group, even a group of your enemies, opting in and out as you
please, yet remaining yourself
6. Expression: Do you have a voice that's your own Can you de-