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Promo Trailer for “The Fourth Purpose”

http://www.nicolefilms.com/work/4thpurpose.html

UPDATE:

Apparently, the site hosting this keeps changing the link, so I’ve updated it again (9 June 2011). Is there some reason to keep it secret, Eddie?

Fortunately, I have a copy, but I would rather see Roland Legiardi-Laura (roland@echonyc.com) or Eddie Martinez (afrocurl@yahoo.com) post his own copy on YouTube, so I think if you agree you should try to contact him them.

This site summarizes the content of the film:

http://www.spinninglobe.net/spinninglobe_html/4thpurp.htm

This is a lecture by Gatto on the same topic:

10 thoughts on “Promo Trailer for “The Fourth Purpose””

  4. At John Taylor Gatto’s site (http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/) you can read the entire book:
    http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm.

    What I enjoyed most were the sections that show how the public education system was not designed for, and cannot fulfill, its stated purposes as given by its modern advocates. That is, it does not encourage independent learning, personal development, critical thinking, civic virtue, or academic excellence.

    This is a delicious irony, because conservative and liberal public school advocates alike know that it has failed to achieve its stated objectives, yet they are unable to understand why because they are so blinded by 100 years of propaganda, bigotry, and willful ignorance. Their unyielding loyalty to this worthless system is shown to be completely hopeless when its design and intention is clarified.

    There is no one as superstitious as an American public school advocate, except maybe an uneducated American evolution advocate.

    Reply

  5. I had already gone snooping and found his book, but thanks. I did a post, too:

    http://akagaga.blogspot.com/2009/03/public-education-or-what-theyre-doing.html

    And you’re right about “unyielding loyalty.” What is it with people – whether it’s schools or churches or their brand of toothpaste – that they just can’t admit that maybe they believed something that isn’t true?

    I’ve come to believe that people like this have just stopped learning and growing.

    Reply

    • The Fourth Purpose feature length docu can help speed up what Seth Godin, the world’s most popular business blogger wrote:

      “We need to hurry. We need to wake up.”

      He wrote in SHEEPWALKING:

      “Training a student to be sheepish is a lot easier than the alternative. Teaching to the test, ensuring compliant behavior and using fear as a motivator are the easiest and fastest ways to get a kid through school. So why does it surprise us that we graduate so many sheep?”

      For the entire SHEEPWALKING piece:
      http://tinyurl.com/39zhk5

      Seth Godin also wrote on page 64 of “Tribes:”

      “It’s easy to underestimate how difficult it is for someone to become curious. For seven, ten, or even fifteen years of school, you are required to not be curious. Over and over and over again, the curious are punished.”

      You might be able to read “Tribes” by going to:

      http://tinyurl.com/kwdrno

      Enjoy.

      Reply

  7. Roland Legiardi-Laura’s Amazon profile gives his email as roland@echonyc.com, and apparently he is still active in the New York City poetry scene, so there should be a way to contact him and persuade him to put the promo trailer up on YouTube.

    Reply

  8. Maybe those who have a copy could also start posting on YouTube. The more the merrier 🙂

    In the meantime, please check out the Sudbury Valley School info below; I remember seeing one of its founders, Daniel Greenberg, in the Fourth Purpose trailer; towards the later part of the trailer.

    My son-in-law sent me this very brief video (<6 minutes) of a school meeting at the Sudbury Valley School (SVS):

    For more about this most democratic learning community where 4-year olds get to vote on:

    –rules;
    –adjudication of rules violations;
    –budget decisions;
    –hiring and firing of staff:
    http://www.sudval.org/05_onepersononevote.html

    The Japanese sent NHK TV to do a documentary about SVS as a way to find a solution to the increasing rate of suicide among the very young; it was well-received. There are now at least 3 SVS-type schools in Japan.

    The Japanese also translated one of the earliest books about SVS: for an e-version of the original in English: "FREE AT LAST:" http://tinyurl.com/lcfyzx

    The first chapter is about children learning math — up to square roots — in just 20 hours using an 1898 math primer! That's not a typo: 1898. EIGHTEEN NINETY-EIGHT!

    For the Afterword by one of SVS's founders where she writes about most graduates becoming entrepreneurs and artists:
    http://www.sudval.org/05_alumni.html

    SVS transparency and openness may be unequaled; their home page lets you know how much tuition is; if you find any other school with similar transparency and openness, kindly let me know:
    http://www.sudval.org/

    For SVS schools around the world:
    http://www.sudval.org/07_othe_01.html

    Germany–the source of the USA's public school system–has a website devoted to news about implementations and replications: http://sudbury.de/

    In NYC/NYS:

    Manhattan [unlisted in the SVS because some learning is still adult-initiated]:
    http://www.manhattanfreeschool.org/home

    Brooklyn [ditto as per above]:
    http://brooklynfreeschool.org/

    Albany [ditto as per above?]:
    http://albanyfreeschool.com/testing/Welcome

    Cortlandt Manor:
    http://www.longviewschool.org/

    Kingston: Hudson Valley Sudbury School.
    I could not access their website but here's GOOGLE search results:
    http://tinyurl.com/n5c3ks

    Reply

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