“We might be able to see that [an alternative to our educational system and the idea of a national curriculum] if we regained a hold on a philosophy that locates meaning where meaning is genuinely to be found—in families, in friends, in the passage of seasons, in nature, in simple ceremonies and rituals, in curiosity, generosity, compassion, and service to others, in a decent independence and privacy, in all the free and inexpensive things out of which real families, real friends, and real communities are built—then we would be so self-sufficient we would not even need the material ‘sufficiency’ which our global ‘experts’ are so insistent we be concerned about.” (John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down
