Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling

This school teacher with thirty years teaching experience reveals the inner workings of the school system and will make you seriously reconsider your view of education and how the school system has affected it. His books are a great motivation for anyone considering home schooling, and are handy to loan to skeptical friends & family of home schoolers. In this particular book he "focuses on mechanisms of compulsory schooling which cripple imagination and discourage critical thinking. Here is a demonstration that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy is to render the common population manageable, remove the obligation of child care from adult workers so they are free to fuel the industrial economy and to train the next generation into subservient obedience to the state."His books have helped me to rethink my view of education- what it can be, what it should be, and what it isn't in America. I've found this to be of great help as my husband and I have decided to educate our own children, so that rather than bringing "school" home, we instead incorporate education and real-life learning experiences into our life, and seek out apprenticeship opportunities for our kids. This is not a home schooling book though. Those who don't home school will benefit by realizing how deficient schools are, so that they can take up the task of filling the void in non-school hours.I also highly recommend reading his other books:Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling(which shows the deliberate dumbing down of the American School System, and displays "how the U.S. educational system cranks out students the way Detroit cranks out Buicks. He contends that students are more programmed to conform to economic and social norms rather than really taught to think.")The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling(a huge work in which he exposes the errors of short-answer tests, bells, uniform time blocks, age-grading, standardization, and all the rest of school religion. This groundbreaking, revolutionary work will change the way you look at the process and even the very concept of public education. Every parent should read this book! It shows how compulsory schooling came to be as it is in America with a lure of utopia and a very strong Prussian connection (which should be cause for much concern). It also exposes the affects of compulsory schooling on America, drawing both from history (showing alarming drops in education, literacy, and much more) and 30 years of school-teaching experience. You can read this one online for free from his website. (Amazon won't let me put in a link, so just google his name and you'll find it.)**Although I can't give a direct link in this review, you can find my website by accessing my profile. I mention that because I have a LOT of great resources on my site for those who are in the process of rethinking education and determining what that means for them and their children.**

This is a must read book for every parent!!

Gatto does not to be thought of as a garden-variety conspiratorialist, but many of his words lead the reader to that conclusion. That said, he's still the kind of teacher I wish I could have had in my critical, formative years. We've all suffered teachers (especially in public school) who, in middle age, are completely burned out and just counting the days until the pension checks begin. This happened to one of my best friends, who truly cared about her students yet ached from treading water for so many years. The irony was that her own school experiences were not that much different.Gatto treats lightly the very real fact that capitalism has provided more prosperity to more people than any other system IN HUMAN HISTORY. He himself is one of the beneficiaries.I'm not sure what Gatto was expecting when he became a teacher, but this is a book dripping with his personal disappointment. One wonders how he lasted in the system 30 years, but I'll bet he cashed all his paychecks.There's not a kid alive who didn't, or doesn't, feel imprisoned by the regimentation of compulsory schooling. But life is not a field trip, and a well-educated adult got that way, in part, by coping with aspects of the world that are not at all pleasant.Were we all trained to be automatons to please corporate America, condemned to spend meaningless lives in the real-life equivalent of a Dilbert cartoon? Life is not that simple, and even the most heartless, faceless corporations have yet to destroy free will.Gatto rails against Teutonic and Prussian influnces on American schools, and here again he has a point worth considering. There ARE better ways to educate children, but you have to look for them. Status quo is called that for a reason, and educrats are not inclined help you if it puts their livelihood at risk.Gatto is spot on, though in his hatred of standardized testing. Now that really is a conspiracy to benefit the politically powerful at the expense of helpless children. I have no problem supporting his Bartelby project of passive resistance. Some people need, and deserve, a swift kick in their complacency.For all its flaws (such as rambling discourse) Gatto ended up with a thought-provoking book truly worth reading, and worth the five stars awarded to it.

This book changed everything I know and think about school- everything from how, why, and by who it was established, to what it has come to accomplish now beyond schooling. Military, workforces etc. Read this to gain a true understanding of the REAL motive behind compulsory schooling.

This book really opened my eyes to the who purpose of public schooling. It isn’t for the benefit of the people but the government and large corporations. A must read!

There is a section in the book praising a prostitute and lap dancer. I doubt very much Gatto put that there. Maybe snuck in posthumously?

I like it. It's vital to be read and assessed -- very factual and inspiring. This material remains an outstanding source of informative debate for all who desires to know the power of hidden knowledge that will wake many up.

Splendid. 👍

Very good book about education. While he makes some spurious claims, a lot of what he says about the systems of education around the world are very enlightening.

This book is an eye opener. It not only gave me reassurance that I had done the right thing by choosing to remove my unhappy children from school, it made me see my whole school life through a different lense. All feelings of doubt about swimming against the current and choosing to homeschool were replaced by a strong feeling that I was making the best and only choice for the wellbeing of my children.If you are thinking of homeschooling, unschooling,or have just started and are now in that zone of " oh flip! Have I done the right thing? Where do I start?!" Buy this book. If you have children at school, it is an even more essential read.Other books that have totally transformed our experience, taken away our fears, and given me amazing guidance and clarity are Teach Your Own by John Holt and Free to Learn by Peter Gray.

Great analysis and debunking of one our society's Emperor's New Clothes myths - which it takes someone fearless and intelligent to reveal. We have to deconstruct the partial and skewed structure of the system as practiced to allow real change in society and the future to happen - to allow creative and rebellious energy to overthrow the creaky old white corporate apparatchiks that have been running the show for a century. JT Gatto does this, and makes you angry and inspired not to be fooled again, in equal measure. I'm a teacher teaching other things now, and I can't go back into the system before a move to break this hegemony is made. I'm adding my small part to this. Buy this book. It will change how you view schools, what education is for, and life in general.