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
()
About this audiobook
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.
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.
Related to Weapons of Mass Instruction
Related audiobooks
Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Nation Under Taught: Solving America's Science, Technology, Engineering & Math Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Teaching With Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What is Unschooling? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rethinking School: How to Take Charge of Your Child's Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Success Without School: Unschooling my Children from Birth to College Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Four-Hour School Day: How You and Your Kids Can Thrive in the Homeschool Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homeschool Hacks: How to Give Your Kid a Great Education Without Losing Your Job (or Your Mind) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Better Late Than Early: A New Approach to Your Child's Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Call of the Wild and Free: Reclaiming the Wonder in Your Child’s Education, A New Way to Homeschool Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook: A Creative and Stress-Free Approach to Homeschooling. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homeschool Bravely: How to Squash Doubt, Trust God, and Teach Your Child with Confidence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homeschooling: A Practical Guide to Successfully Teaching Your Children From Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free-Range Kids: How Parents and Teachers Can Let Go and Let Grow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Philosophy of Education: Annotated Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5College Without High School: A Teenager'S Guide to Skipping High School and Going to College Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Let Them Be Kids: Adventure, Boredom, Innocence, and Other Gifts Children Need Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deschooling Society: Why we must disestablish school Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Digital Madness: How Social Media Is Driving Our Mental Health Crisis--and How to Restore Our Sanity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adventuring Together: How to Create Connections and Make Lasting Memories with Your Kids Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Teaching Methods & Materials For You
The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy’s Bullsh*t to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Smart but Scattered Teens: The "Executive Skills" Program for Helping Teens Reach Their Potential Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn Spanish While Sleeping Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication: Apply Them and Make the Most of Your Message Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Elements of Style Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Taking Charge of ADHD: The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: The Laws of Human Nature: by Robert Greene: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary: Greenlights: by Matthew McConaughey: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher, 4th Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raising Human Beings: Creating a Collaborative Partnership with Your Child Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers: The Secret to Loving Teens Effectively Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Talk To Anyone: 51 Easy Conversation Topics You Can Use to Talk to Anyone Effortlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Weapons of Mass Instruction
149 ratings15 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eyes 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Best book I have ever listened. Thank you so much
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic 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. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very 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!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book. Very timely! Really enjoyed this read. Recommend for parents and teachers and anyone interested in how education system is not serving us.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely wonderful! Very intriguing and eye opening! You won't regret listening to this!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent. Will change the way you think about your life and your children’s lives.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Has 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Upon 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Modern 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.