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Education General

Weapons of Mass Instruction

A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling

by (author) John Taylor Gatto

narrator Michael Puttonen

Publisher
Post Hypnotic Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2017
Category
General
  • Audio disc

    ISBN
    9781926910338
    Publish Date
    Jan 2017
    List Price
    $26.00
  • CD-Audio

    ISBN
    9781926910314
    Publish Date
    Jan 2017
    List Price
    $50.00
  • Downloadable audio file

    ISBN
    9780986657610
    Publish Date
    Jan 2017
    List Price
    $20.00

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Description

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.

About the authors

John Taylor Gatto's profile page

Sue Reed is a registered Landscape Architect with thirty years' experience designing sustainable landscapes that are ecologically rich, energy efficient, and climate-responsive. Sue served for 14 years as adjunct faculty at the Conway School of Landscape Design and has led numerous workshops on the subject of ecological landscaping. Sue is the author of Energy-Wise Landscape Design, for which she also provided much of the photography.

Michael Puttonen's profile page