Weapons of Mass Instruction, John Taylor Gatto
Weapons of Mass Instruction, John Taylor Gatto
6 Rating(s)
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Weapons of Mass Instruction
A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling

Author: John Taylor Gatto

Narrator: Michael Puttonen

Unabridged: 8 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/08/2013

Categories: Nonfiction, Education


Synopsis

John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of traditional education which cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling.

Gatto demonstrates that the harm school inflicts is rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy, he argues, is to render the common population manageable. To that end, young people must be conditioned to rely upon experts, to remain divided from natural alliances and to accept disconnections from their own lived experiences. They must at all costs be discouraged from developing self-reliance and independence.

Escaping this trap requires a strategy Gatto calls "open source learning" which imposes no artificial divisions between learning and life. Through this alternative approach our children can avoid being indoctrinated-only then can they achieve self-knowledge, good judgment, and courage.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on May 03, 2009

If you have, like me, spent much of your life as a student and teacher in the public schools (24 of the last 28 years), John Taylor Gatto will make you angry and want to throw his book out the window. His libertarian views on institutionalized public schooling are blunt and harsh. Compulsory schooli......more

Goodreads review by Robina on June 17, 2011

I really enjoyed this book, respect John Taylor Gatto, and agree with most of what he's saying. But a few things stopped me from giving _Weapons of Mass Instruction_ 4 or even 5 stars. Most importantly: 1. His overblown admiration of the colonial and early national period of American history. Arguing......more

Goodreads review by RP on August 18, 2010

This seems mostly like an abbreviated version of his "The Underground History of American Education" which I am currently reading. I thought it served its purpose effectively and agree with its conclusions. My wife commented on the book's lack of formal foot- or endnotes, but the author describes his......more

Goodreads review by Brodolomi on November 01, 2019

Nisam siguran šta treba da ocenim u ovoj knjizi? Slažem se sa osnovnom tezom – obrazovanje nije školovanje. Osnovna funkcija školovanja nema veze sa sticanjem znanja, već ima veze sa kalupljenjem uma kod učenika, ubijanjem kreativnosti i slobodnog mišljenja, izrabljivanjem i održavanjem postojećeg d......more