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    Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
    Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
    Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
    Audiobook8 hours

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

    Written by John Taylor Gatto

    Narrated by Michael Puttonen

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPost Hypnotic Press
    Release dateOct 8, 2013
    ISBN9780986657610
    Author

    John Taylor Gatto

    John Gatto was a schoolteacher for 30 years. He resigned in the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times upon receiving the New York State Teacher of the Year award. He has been a fierce advocate for self-directed "guerrilla" education for decades, and is also the author of Weapons of Mass Instruction and The Underground History of American Education. John Gatto lived in New York State.

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    Reviews for Weapons of Mass Instruction

    4.5/5

    149 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Eyes opener! American, (ex-)socialist, European, Asian... whatever "educational" (or better - schooling) system you take you'll stumble at any point the author criticises -- and many more. Remember the yard stick for personal (not institutional) self testing
    • 5/5
      Best book I have ever listened. Thank you so much
    • 5/5
      This is one of the most eye opening books I have ever read ?... If you have ever been curious about the current western educational system your children are being immersed in, then listen to this book.

      This book explains the current crisis in the educational system perfectly.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic insight into a system that is so common place that most don’t consider reconsidering it.

      Worthy of a place in the conspiracy theory hall of fame were it not so demonstrably true.

      A great and brave man.
    • 5/5
      Very intriguing arguments and slices of history unknown to most but available to all to back it up! Must read. I’m suggesting all my older children read this. You are more than standardized tests show and sitting obediently in desks hours on end is not good training for humans!
    • 5/5
      Great book. Very timely! Really enjoyed this read. Recommend for parents and teachers and anyone interested in how education system is not serving us.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely wonderful! Very intriguing and eye opening! You won't regret listening to this!
    • 5/5
      Excellent. Will change the way you think about your life and your children’s lives.
    • 5/5
      I think if I wasn’t already homeschooling my kids, this book would do it. I’m depressed that it came out the year after I graduated high school; too late for me. But not for my kids. Things will be different for them. Be sure to take breaks when listening to this one so your stress hormones don’t get there best of you.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Has completely opened my eyes to the frame of thinking I received in school. The depression, anxiety, bullying, and lack of creativity I’ve left school with never made sense until reading this book.
      I’m definitely on board with homeschooling now and keeping my children safe and keeping my family unit strong.
      It’s fascinating and interesting to dive into.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I enjoyed the thesis and the way the thesis is supported by the incentives that created it, the history that lead to it, and the solution.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      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 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?

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Upon finishing this book, I've thought that it would a good thing to spend $1,000 and buy copies to leave laying about at the pediatrician's office, so as to reach the optimum audience per dollar spent.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      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 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.
    • 1/5
      Modern schooling is a tool for stifling thinking and controlling the masses. Endless examples of people without much formal who have made it big. Reasoned critiques of the school system are valuable. This book is not.