This post reviews John Taylor Gatto, Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (New Society Publishers, 2009).
John Taylor Gatto is a legendary figure in the world of homeschooling. My book
on homeschool history describes how by the late 1980s secular and conservative Protestant homeschoolers increasingly became estranged. The large Christian conventions and publications stopped inviting as speakers leaders who did not share their worldview. Gatto is a standout exception to this generalization. His stature is great both among conservative homeschoolers like those affiliated with HSLDA and among more liberal homeschoolers like those affiliated with Home Education Magazine, and he regularly keynotes conferences and conventions of all parties.
This, his latest book, is something of a grab-bag of classic Gatto themes. My review here will not systematically work through his chapters but will use it as an excuse to make some comments on Gatto and his meaning for the homeschooling movement. (more…)
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