Weapons of Mass Instruction - by John Taylor Gatto (Paperback)

About the Book

Compulsory schooling cripples imagination, critical thinking and strips youth of their best qualities. This book shows how to escape this and help develop more meaningful lives.

Book Synopsis

Expose the hidden mechanisms that turn curious children into compliant workers. John Taylor Gatto's explosive follow-up to Dumbing Us Down reveals the specific techniques schools use to destroy imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as rote memorization rather than creative discovery.

The Weaponization of Education:

This isn't conspiracy theory - it's documented history. Gatto traces how compulsory schooling was deliberately designed by industrialists to create predictable, manageable workers, not independent thinkers or entrepreneurs.

What You'll Uncover:

• Historical evidence of how modern schooling was designed to serve industrial interests
• Psychological manipulation techniques used to break children's natural learning instincts
• The testing industrial complex that profits from keeping children dependent and confused
• Alternative learning models that actually develop human potential and creativity
• Practical steps for protecting your child's intellectual development and natural curiosity

Breaking Free from Educational Control:

Thousands of families have used Gatto's insights to create educational alternatives that honor children's natural genius while preparing them for success in the real world, not just the artificial world of institutional schooling.

Continue your educational freedom journey. If Dumbing Us Down opened your eyes, this book will show you exactly how to fight back against the systematic destruction of human potential.

From the Back Cover

The transformation of schooling from a twelve-year jail sentence to freedom to learn

Have our schools become mere Weapons of Mass Instruction, or can they be transformed to offer genuine freedom to learn?

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 He has the courage to challenge an educational system that is obsolete and out of touch with reality.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 and challenge the system.
-- Robert Kiyosaki, author Rich Dad, Poor Dad

John Taylor Gatto's voice must be heard ... He knows why the (education) system is so utterly flawed and lays it out right here. We ignore his profound insights at our own peril.
-- Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, founder Zaytuna Institute (credits and title need checking)

Weapons of Mass Instruction is a hard-hitting critique of the mechanisms of compulsory schooling which cripple imagination and discourage critical thinking. In his earlier book, John Taylor Gatto brought his now-famous title - Dumbing Us Down - into common use worldwide. Weapons of Mass Instruction promises to add another chilling metaphor to the lengthy brief against schooling.

Weapons of Mass Instruction demonstrates that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy, Gatto claims, is to render the common population manageable, to remove the obligation of child care from adult workers so they are free to fuel the industrial economy, and to train the next generation into subservient obedience to the state. Gatto reveals that Ivy League schools do not produce the most successful graduates; that some of the world's riches entrepreneurs are high school drop outs; and that Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie didn't finish elementary school. Filled with examples of people who have escaped the trap of compulsory schooling, Weapons of Mass Instruction shows us that the realization of personal potential requires a different way of growing up and learning, one Gatto calls "open source learning."

Urgent and controversial, this book is a page-turner that promises to appeal to all who harbor doubts about the current education system.

A remarkable achievement. I can't remember ever reading such a profound analysis of modern education
-- Howard Zinn, on The Underground History of American Education

About the Author

John Gatto was a teacher in New York City's public schools for over 30 years and is a recipient of the New York State Teacher of the Year award. A much-sought after speaker on education throughout the United States, his other books include A Different Kind of Teacher (Berkeley Hills Books, 2001) and The Underground History of American Education (Oxford Village Press, 2000).