what was it about even this very high-powered, child-centered, "creative" school, that made children stupid? I cam to feel, as I wrote in How Children Fail, that it was fear, boredom,amd the confusion of having constantly to manipulate meaningless words and symbols. I see now that it was that, but far more than that, the fact that others had taken control of their minds. it was being taught, in the sense of being trained like circus animals to do tricks ondemand, that had made them stupid (at least in school).
on the basis of much experience, Bateson says this is true of all creatures, and I agree. the elephant in the jungle is smarter than the elephant waltzing in the circus. The sea lion in the sea is smarter than the Sea Lion playing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on some instrument. The rat eating garbage in the slums is smarter than the rat running mazes in the psychology lab. The crawling baby, touching, handling, tasting everything it can reach, is smarter than the baby learning, because it pleases his mother, to touch his nose when she shows him a card with the word NOSE on it.
John Holt; Teach Your Own [first published in 1981]
Particularly surprising is the large number of African and American mammals that were never domesticated, despite their having Eurasian close relatives or counterparts that were domesticated. Why were Eurasia's horses domesticated, but not Africa's zebras? ........Why Eurasia's five species of wild cattle (aurochs, water buffalo, yak, gaur, banteng), but not the African buffalo or American bison?
Jared Gold; Guns, Germs and Steel
It would appear that every wild animal has had its chance of being domesticated, that [a] few .... were domesticated long ago, but that the large remainder, who failed sometimes in only one small particular, are destined to perpetual wildness"
Francis Galton [quote taken from Guns, Germs and Steel]
This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his eyes -- the coming of the white men's cattle.
Hopi prophecy
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