You can also Notes on prices
About: “Gatto draws on thirty years in the classroom and many years of research as a school reformer.
About: John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction, now available in paperback, focuses on mechanisms of traditional education that cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills.
The Underground History of American Education | Inside Mrs. B's Classroom | Instead of Education | Dumbing Us Down | Teach Your Own
"In this book, the noisy gadfly of U.S. education takes up the question of damage done in the name of schooling. Again he touches on many of the same questions and finds the same answers. Gatto is a bold and compelling critic in a field defined by politic statements, and from the first pages of this book he takes even unwilling readers along with him. In Weapons of Mass Instruction, he speaks movingly to readers' deepest desires for an education that taps their talents and frees frustrated ambitions. It is a challenging and extraordinary book that is a must read for anyone navigating their way through the school system." - Ria Julien - Winnipeg Free Press
John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of familiar schooling that cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a by-product of rote-memorization drills. Gatto’s earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, put that now-famous expression of the title into common use worldwide. Weapons of Mass Instruction promises to add another chilling metaphor to the brief against schooling.
Here is a demonstration that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate, following high-level political theories constructed by Plato, Calvin, Spinoza, Fichte, Darwin, Wundt, and others, which contend the term “education” is meaningless because humanity is strictly limited by necessities of biology, psychology, and theology. The real function of pedagogy is to render the common population manageable.
Realizing that goal demands that the young be conditioned to rely upon experts, remain divided from natural alliances, and accept disconnections from the experiences that create self-reliance and independence.
Escaping this trap requires a different way of growing up, one Gatto calls “open source learning.” In chapters such as “A Letter to Kristina, my Granddaughter”; “Fat Stanley”; and “Walkabout:London,” this different reality is illustrated.
John Taylor Gatto taught for thirty years in public schools before resigning from school-teaching in the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal during the year he was named New York State’s official Teacher of the Year. Since then, he has traveled three million miles lecturing on school reform.
Recency: These prices were retrieved a few seconds ago. The price comparison took about 5 seconds.
Shipping costs: The shipping cost shown by default, if you choose to display it, is the cheapest available for your destination.
Sales tax inclusion: If you set up an account with isbn.nu, live in the United States, and specify your state, you can choose to show shipping fees in price results. In this case, we include the sales tax whenever we can determine that such tax is charged by a store for delivery to your state.
Orders shipped across national borders or for countries other than the U.S.: Neither the sales price nor the shipping includes VAT, GST, customs, or other applicable taxes. Please consult the store to determine exact fees.
No warranties are made express or implied about the accuracy, timeliness, merit, or value of the information provided. Information subject to change without notice. isbn.nu is not a bookseller, just an information source.
Is information about the book missing or in error? Want to know more about where our bibliographic and pricing details come from? Report corrections and find out about isbn.nu's information sources here.