Weapons of mass instruction
a schoolteacher's journey through the dark world of compulsory schooling
by John Taylor Gatto · first published 2008
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…becoming adopted by industrial moguls in the USA during the late 19th century, due to the necessity of cheap and easily disposable labor. Here are some books to read: John Taylor Gatto: Dumbing Us Down, Weapons of Mass Instruction and The Underground History of American Education. Charlotte Iserbyt: the deliberate dumbing down of america. Ivan Illich: Deschooling Society. John Holt: Anything at all, but particularly How Children…
on “How Does This Not Blow Your Mind?” ↗If you ever get the chance to read Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto I highly suggest it, it's very eye opening as to the origins and reasons for mandatory schooling. Also when reading John Taylor Gatto, please ensure you do not conflate schooling…
on “Against School - John Taylor Gatto” ↗…in today's schools? I'll bet that most teachers, if shown your quote, would retch. I assume you have read John Taylor Gatto's works before. In particular, you might be interested in his most recent: Weapons of Mass Instruction. I don't know how exactly you would gauge their influence. It's certainly much more prevalent in certain countries (the USA and the major Western European forces, where the idea of modern compulsory…
on “People Don’t Actually Like Creativity” ↗…http://www.ttfuture.org/files/2/pdf/gotto_interview.pdf mp3 of another interview: http://jari.podbean.com/mf/web/ja8dm2/LivingHero19--JohnGatt... He also has a couple books in particular "Dumbing Us Down" and "Weapons of Mass Instruction".
on “RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms” ↗…the waterfall." "Second, the metaphor of "survival of the fittest" suggests a type of combat, since warfare and struggle is such a salient feature of the human species." John Taylor Gatto's new book, Weapons of Mass Instruction, talks extensively about this as well. Even this week's NYT give Wallace a nod: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/science/10essa.html
John Taylor Gatto talks about this particular phenomena in his book "Weapons of Mass Instruction". Just looking at the way our school systems treats teens is enough to come to a full understanding of why teens develop so slowly. Most teens have no responsibility or any need for a real worry in…
on “Are "teens" born or made? An interesting twist.” ↗Interesting. Would you say that this book argues similar things that John Taylor Gatto's books do (ie. Weapons of Mass Instruction, Dumbing Us Down)?
on “You can increase your intelligence” ↗…base part of their admissions process on the attractiveness of the applicant because they want to project a certain image. I'm not sure if this is true or not, and I can't find a citation, but it was in Weapons of Mass Instruction [1] I believe, but possibly Dumbing Us Down [2]. It was in his letter to his niece at the end of Weapons, if I recall correctly. I have also been told by a friend that is going to graduate school to…
on “Just Do It: Move to Silicon Valley” ↗This was literally the example in the book "Weapons of Mass Instruction" by Gatto.
on “Nanny state discovers Linux, demands it check kids' IDs before booting” ↗I already read The Underground History of American Education. Is it worth reading Weapons of Mass Instruction too? Not that it greatly matters, of course, since there is absolutely nothing I can do about it as I have already decided not to have kids.
on “Against School - John Taylor Gatto” ↗…shouting about it for a half century. [0] https://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldviewpedia/transcript/j... [1] https://steelonsteel.com/quotes-from-progressive-elites/ [2] https://nwvstore.com/product/weapons-of-mass-instruction/ --- Some quotes for the curious: From [0]: John Dewey, Karl Marx, Aldous Huxley, B. F. Skinner, and Benjamin Bloom were interested in a student’s academic achievement only if it would in some…
on “IQ decline and Piaget: Does the rot start at the top? [pdf]” ↗"I already read The Underground History of American Education. Is it worth reading Weapons of Mass Instruction too?" No. Weapons of Mass Instruction is basically just excerpts from Underground History. I think there are a few new things, but mostly what happened is that the publisher for Underground History backed…
on “Against School - John Taylor Gatto” ↗The book I'm reading Weapons of Mass Instruction explains this as being part of the goals of forced schooling as designed by Carnegie and other industrialist to make easier to manage laborers.
on “IQ scores are falling and have been for decades (2018)” ↗