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

This is without a doubt the most important book I have read in several years. His recap of Alexander Inglis's six functions of modern schooling (from Inglis's "Principles of Secondary Education") in his prologue hooked me immediately. John Taylor Gatto opened America's eyes to the problems of compulsory education in 1991 in "Dumbing Us Down". With "Weapons of Mass Instruction", he continues his crusade against the establishment he was a part of for 30 years. To think there was a deliberate plan to create the mind-numbing schools I managed to survive is maddening. As is everything else he talks about.



Part lecture, part testimonial, all scathing indictment, this book will be lauded by homeschoolers and most likely condemned by teachers show more and administrators, dismissing his vision as untenable.



Gatto trickles a bit of his extensive research for his other book, "The Underground History of American Education" in outlining the historical (German) basis for a system that is designed to create conforming non-thinkers. He highlights a number of examples of extremely successful dropouts and people who were not schooled in the traditional way. And he draws on his direct experience within the system, contrasting with all those successes he cites to blister the institution that manages rather than teaches. Harsh? Perhaps. But think of how much time was spent in your "schooling" marching to the rules. As he overstates in one section of his book, primary school is mostly "don'ts" and little encouragement to think outside that proverbial box. And it is getting worse. I have questioned for many years the value of standardized testing and Gatto brings up the same questions. The measuring sticks fail to truly measure anything except how well someone can do on those tests.



As noted in other reviews, this is a must read for any homeschooler. And it should be required reading for every superintendent, teacher and student. Let the revolution begin. show less

The main thrust of this book is interesting and provocative, but Gatto doesn't fully articulate hardly any real argument in this book. He often points to primary sources which may be where the real substance is at, and the book is worthwhile as an entrypoint to gather sources, but not much more than that. Several arguments are put forth with something along the lines of "and if you don't understand that last point, just put the book down and give up," which is a pretty ironic approach given the book's subject matter.

Honestly, just read the prologue + the first chapter, and you get 95% of the worthwhile content in here. Everything else is pretty standard stories of people who didn't do traditional schooling, which is interesting but not show more fully relevant as a totalizing argument for abolishing the current public schooling system. show less

WARNING! Read this book at your peril because--if you care about education--it will make you angry.

Here's one amazing fact:

"By 1940, literacy as a national number stood at 96 percent for whites, 80 percent for blacks. Four of five blacks were literate in spite of all disadvantages. Yet, six decades later, the Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported a 40 percent illiteracy rate among blacks -- doubling the earlier deficiency -- and a 17 percent rate for whites, more than quadrupling it. Yet money spent on schooling in real terms had grown 350 percent."

And don't blame the system on teachers:

"How many schoolteachers were aware of what they were actually a part of? Surely a number close to zero."

If you stop and think about the waste of time it is to sit in a desk for 6-8 hours a day, for five days a week for 13 years to learn how to read, add and subtract, count money and maybe a few history facts, you would be on to something. And to have to sit there not moving, not talking, not really thinking either, it is a travesty.

The public schools are an institution and they will never be fixed because too many jobs and too much money is at stake. I feel bad for teachers who really want to teach, but have to force kids to memorize stuff for tests, that students have to take too often for no real reason.

Gatto is a former school teacher and tried his best to actually teach, but of course he wasn't appreciated for it. He did win teacher show more of the year a couple times, but by then, he saw the light and didn't want to be chained to the institution anymore.

I am so blessed to home school my kids and am reminded why I chose to make this sacrifice. This book reinforces my decision to do so. show less

I definitely agree with parts of this book like us needing to figure out what we want school to be, but I feel like this rhetoric is also a very small step away from the conservative and far-right unschooling/homeschooling group and their anti-public school and Christian talking points.

I just finished reading Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto, and now I wish I had someone to discuss it with. I think it would make a great read for a book discussion group, or a seminar class of some kind. It has so much thought provoking material, all gathered to support Gatto's belief that our school systems are the real reason that people today are not as well educated as they could be, and as they were more than 100 years ago. I think his arguments are compelling and make a heck of a lot of sense, and I am one of those people who did well in school, have a knack for taking tests, but who has not achieved a level of success that matches how well I did in school.... Gatto has really struck a nerve with me.... He also show more makes me believe that it would be better for my grandchildren to be home schooled rather than sent to school. They are bright - I don't want that ruined by the expectations of an education system that wants them to sit down, shut up, and learn to be cogs in a machine designed to make someone else rich, or to maintain the wealth of the 1%. Have any of you read this book? show less

If half of what Gatto says about compulsory education we have a serious problem. Thought-provoking to say the least.