Praise for WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION John Taylor Gatto has been a hero of mine for years. He has the courage to challenge an educational system that is obsolete and out of touch with reality. Years ago, he gave me the courage to speak out and write my books. I trust this book will give you the courage to speak out. - ROBERT KIYOSAKI, author, Rich Dad, Poor Dad For over 20 years John Taylor Gatto has been working tirelessly to teach us the truth about our educational system - that compulsory schooling does not work to foster a democratic way oflife! - MARY LEu~, Founder of the Albany Free School All of Gatto's words shine. Let's have Gatto as US Secretary of Education and then, this time, he can blow it all up! - GEORGE MEEGAN, author of The Longest Walk and world record holder, longest unbroken march in human history We accept Mr Gatto's invitation to an open conspiracy against forced schooling here in Europe as well. The virtues of this book, its precise ideas, realistic proposals and sharp conscience, class it among the best works of Thoreau, Jefferson, Hume or Diderot. A masterly book. - The Kadmos Paris Magazine, Paris, October 2008. In Weapons of Mass Instruction, John Taylor Gatto points out the folly of the business of American education, especially standardized testing. Listen up, for children's sake! - WENDY ZEIGLER, artist and former student ofJ ohn Taylor Gatto. It happens rarely, but whenever I do read a newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch television, on a variety of topics, I find myself wondering, "How? How can this happen? How can people be so gullible?" Gatto has an answer and it is disturbing as well as compelling: 20th Century US education. His argument renews gratitude to my father for having given me the chance to dodge full immersion in the homogenizing machine, and makes me more determined than ever to pass this gift of becoming an individual on to my own children. - TANIA AEBI, author of Maiden Voyage and world record holder, first circumnavigation of the world by a solo female sailor I run a school. John Gatto is my conscience. He has taught me to hate school and love learning. This book will do that for others, and we need them! - BECKY ELDER, Northfield School of The Liberal Arts John Taylor Gatto explains how compulsory public schools train children to be employees and consumers instead ofleaders and achievers in a free America. - PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY, president of Eagle Forum John Taylor Gatto has forcefully presented the case that ... a people who believe in freedom will never emerge from a system that starts with coercion. - MICHAEL P. FARRIS Chairman, Home School Legal Defense Association John Taylor Gatto reminds us that children aren't just a future workforce in need of training. They're individuals curious about the world, and citizens of a self-governing republic. Our decisions about education should reflect that. -DAVID BOAz Executive Vice President, Cato Institute, author, Libertarianism: A Primer and The Politics of Freedom Praise for John Taylor Gatto I count John Gatto among my heroes - ROBERTBLY I've loved John Gatto's work ever since I first encountered his astounding essays. - CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D., author of Womens Bodies, Womens Wisdom Gatto's voice is strong and unique, a Socrates of the educational world. - THOMAS MOORE, author of Care of the Soul I agree with damn near every semi-colon and comma that Mr. Gatto has written. - TOM PETERS, author of In Search of Excellence Gatto is a singular antidote to stale convention. - DAVID GUTERSON, author of Snow Falling On Cedars A remarkable achievement. I can't remember ever reading such a profound analysis of modern education. - HOWARD ZINN, on The Underground History ofA merican Education Education's most original thinker. - DANIEL H. PINK, author of Free Agent Nation Brilliant Work! - LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS WEAPDNS MASS OF INSTRUCTIDN A SCHOOLTEACHERS JOURNEY THROUGH THE DARK WORLD OF COMPULSORY SCHOOLING JOHN TAYLOR GATTO Author of the best-selling DUMBING Us DOWN NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA: A catalog record for this publication is available from the National Library of Canada. Copyright © 2009 by John Taylor Gatto. All rights reserved. Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Cover art: George Deem, detail of Art School, 1989. Oil on canvas. Printed,in Canada. Second printing February 2009. Hardback ISBN: 978-0-86571-631-5 Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Weapons of Mass Instruction should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at: www.newsociety.com Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to: New Society Publishers P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC VOR lXO, Canada (250) 247-9737 New Society Publishers' mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. This book is one step toward ending global deforestation and climate change. It is printed on Forest Stewardship Council-certified acid-free paper that is 100% post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine free, and printed with vegetable-based, low-VOC inks, with covers produced using FSC-certified stock. Additionally, New Society purchases carbon offsets based on an annual audit, operating with a carbon-neutral footprint. For further information, or to browse our full list of books and purchase securely, visit our website at: www.newsociety.com (~'\ J;;S ~ Recycled Supporting responsible use of forest resources NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS FSC www.fsc.org een no. SW-COC- 1271 www.newsociety.com CI 1996 Forest Stew;lrdship Coundl Contents DEDICATION .....••••......... XI This book is dedicated to the great and difficult art of family building, and to its artists: mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, grandchildren, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws. PROLOGUE: AGAINST SCHOOL ...•. . . XIII I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time, I became an expert in boredom. 1 EVERYTHING You KNOW ABOUT SCHOOLS IS WRONG. 1 Forced schooling seduces the trapped into believing that inert knowledge, memorized fact bits and sequences is the gold standard of intellectual achievement. Learning to con~ect those bits into meanings for yourself is discouraged. This habit training is a major weapon of mass instruction. 2 WALKABOUT: LONDON . . . . . . . • • . • . . 27 Nick Schulman, a neighbor of mine, cut junior high to play pool, and dropped out of high school to play poker. He became a millionaire at the age of 21 this year, on the World Poker Tour. His new goal is to study philosophy now that he's fixed for life. 3 FAT STANLEY AND THE LANCASTER AMISH 61 Fat Stanley told me he had to cut school almost every day because he didn't want to end up like me, working for someone else. He was 13 when he said that to me. An Amish man in Ohio told me they could build a rocket to the moOtI if they felt like it, but it was a stupid idea. vii VllI WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION 4 DAVID SARNOFF'S CLASSROOM •....• 71 Sarnoff, the founder of RCA dropped out of elementary school to sell newspapers on the street. What he learned there he could never have learned in school. 5 HECTOR ISN'T THE PROBLEM ••• 83 I was the official New York State Teacher of the Year when I quit on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal, because I couldn't stand to hurt children any more. 6 THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO ••• • 91 Inspired by the pilgrimage to St. James' tomb which draws young and old from around the world each year to walk across Spain, I decided to help kids toward lives as producers rather than consumers; as players rather than spectators. 7 WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION. 99 The trapped flea strategy; ugliness; the horse-in-box effect; the artificial extension of childhood; misdirection; the cauldron of broken time: these and more are some deadly Weapons of Mass Instruction, intended to convert human beings into human resources. 8 WHAT IS EDUCATION~ ... 145 According to Kant, four questions live at the heart of all educational quests: What can I know? What may I hope? What ought I to do? What is man? School policy in America is made by people who would rather submit to torture than allow students to answer these questions or any that could make a human difference. 9 A LETTER TO MY GRANDDAUGHTER ABOUT DARTMOUTH • . .. .•• •• • . . 157 You just turned 17 this month, granddaughter, and you'll be leaving the nest for college soon, I suppose. I wish you wouldn't, but I know better than to say that, so at least let me try to reduce the stress your elite high school, Bronx Science, has embedded in your mind. No matter what you've heard, college isn't important to your future, so don't worry about it. Go or not, do well or not. Ten years Contents ix from now you won't remember a single class or professor. What really matters isn't taught there. The saddest people on earth are the ones who go back to college reunions - 35 percent of all college graduates regret the waste of time and money, and wish they hadn't attended; 50 percent say they didn't learn anything useful there. 10 INCIDENT AT HIGHLAND HIGH. .. 175 Last January, a sixteen-year-old German girl - shy and well-behaved - was arrested in her home in Nuremberg, Germany, by fifteen armed policemen. Her crime was homeschooling. Reading about that reminded me of the time I was almost arrested lecturing to the senior class at a wealthy high school in Rockland County, New York. I was revealing the GPAs and SAT scores of American presidents and other prominent individuals when a squad of police halted my lecture at the superintendent's request. It was the weirdest event of my entire life, something I thought only happened in Germany. I'm still trying to figure out what it meant. AFTERWORD: INVITATION TO AN OPEN CONSPIRACY: THE BARTLEBY PROJECT. . .. 193 The whole diseased empire of institutional schooling is, like the wonderful one-horse shay, extremely fragile. Its most vulnerable point, the glue that holds the thing together, is standardized testing which purports, dishon estly, to determine success or failure in future life. The author invites you, singly or in groups, to politely decline to participate in these tests, saying only, "I prefer not to take this test." Nothing more - no bad language, no violence. If ten percent refused to take the tests, the school world would be shaken to its foundations. Call it an open conspiracy. Be brave. There's nothing they can do to you that matters if you sincerely prefer not to. But don't fake it - if you love to take these tests, take them by all means. INDEX .••••••••• 207 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 215