This understanding places much pressure on the teacher. Directives often come from higher, demanding certain test scores be met and curriculum be tailored to more collective ideas. As a result, the very thing that empowers students is ignored. We are individuals with individual gifts and talents all worthwhile and important in way or another. Too often this quality is snuffed out of students and teachers by browbeating and disciplining actions. Although some of this is necessary, it has definitely reached a tipping point.

As a qualified person with intelligence...

Autonomy rarely exists in the classroom anymore and students often leave these institutions with little more knowledge than when they entered. The rich spiritualness that Gatto talks about is absent in today's schools. Instead, undermining and deceptive games are played to ensure that the hierarchy is left intact while the population continues on its downward spiral into ignorance, hardship and frustration.
References

Gatto, J. (n.d.). The Nature of Public Education, Excerpts from the Writings of John Taylor Gatto. Retrieved from http://www.homeschooloasis.com/art_john_taylor_gatto.htm