Throw off the shackles of formal schooling and embark upon a rich
journey of self-directed, life-long learning
After over 100 years of mandatory schooling in the U.S., literacy rates
have dropped, families are fragmented, learning disabilities are
skyrocketing, and children and youth are increasingly disaffected.
Thirty years of teaching in the public school system led John Taylor
Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory governmental schooling is to
blame, accomplishing little but to teach young people to follow orders
like cogs in an industrial machine.
He became a fierce advocate of families and young people taking back
education and learning, arguing that genius is as common as dirt, but
that conventional schooling is driving out the natural curiosity and
problem-solving skills we're born with, replacing it with
rule-following, fragmented time, and disillusionment.
Gatto's radical treatise on public education, a New Society Publishers
bestseller for 25 years, continues to bang the drum for an unshackling
of children and learning from formal schooling. Now, in an
ever-more-rapidly changing world with an explosion of alternative routes
to learning, it's poised to continue to shake the world of institutional
education for many more years.
Featuring a new foreword from Zachary Slayback, an Ivy League dropout
and cofounder of tech start-up career foundry Praxis, this 25th
anniversary edition will inspire new generations of parents and students
to take control of learning and kickstart an empowered society of
self-directed lifetime-learners.
