John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto#cite_note-0" >[1]</a> (born December 15, 1935<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto#cite_note-1" >[2]</a>) is a retired <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States" >American</a> school <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teacher" title="Teacher" >teacher</a> with nearly 30 years experience in the classroom, and author of several books on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education" title="Education" >education</a>. He is an activist critical of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_schooling" title="Compulsory schooling" class="mw-redirect" >compulsory schooling</a>, of the perceived divide between the teen years and adulthood, and of what he characterizes as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegemony" title="Hegemony" >hegemonic</a> nature of discourse on education and the education professions.

<h2 >Biography</h2>

Gatto was born in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh" title="Pittsburgh" >Pittsburgh</a>-area steel town of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongahela,Pennsylvania" title="Monongahela, Pennsylvania" >Monongahela, Pennsylvania</a>. In his youth he attended public schools throughout the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Metro_Area" title="Pittsburgh Metro Area" class="mw-redirect" >Pittsburgh Metro Area</a> including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissvale,Pennsylvania" title="Swissvale, Pennsylvania" >Swissvale</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongahela,Pennsylvania" title="Monongahela, Pennsylvania" >Monongahela</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniontown,Pennsylvania" title="Uniontown, Pennsylvania" >Uniontown</a> as well as a Catholic boarding school in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrobe,Pennsylvania" title="Latrobe, Pennsylvania" >Latrobe</a>. He did undergraduate work at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_University" title="Cornell University" >Cornell</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Pittsburgh" title="University of Pittsburgh" >University of Pittsburgh</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University" title="Columbia University" >Columbia</a>, then served in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Army" title="U.S. Army" class="mw-redirect" >U.S. Army</a> medical corps at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Knox" title="Fort Knox" >Fort Knox</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky" title="Kentucky" >Kentucky</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Sam_Houston" title="Fort Sam Houston" >Fort Sam Houston</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas" title="Texas" >Texas</a>. Following army service he did graduate work at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_University_of_New_York" title="City University of New York" >City University of New York</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_College" title="Hunter College" >Hunter College</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshiva_University" title="Yeshiva University" >Yeshiva University</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley" title="University of California, Berkeley" >University of California, Berkeley</a>, and Cornell.

He worked as a writer and held several odd jobs before borrowing his roommate's license to investigate teaching. Gatto also ran for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York" title="New York" >New York</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Senate" title="New York State Senate" >State Senate</a>, 29th District in 1985 and 1988 as a member of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_of_New_York" title="Conservative Party of New York" class="mw-redirect" >Conservative Party of New York</a> against incumbent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Paterson" title="David Paterson" >David Paterson</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto#cite_note-2" >[3]</a>He was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto#cite_note-3" >[4]</a> In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue2.htm" >I Quit, I Think</a>, to the op-ed pages of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Journal" title="Wall Street Journal" class="mw-redirect" >Wall Street Journal</a>, saying that he no longer wished to "hurt kids to make a living." He then began a public speaking and writing career, and has received several awards from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism" >libertarian</a>organizations, including the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville" title="Alexis de Tocqueville" >Alexis de Tocqueville</a> Award for Excellence in Advancement of Educational Freedom in 1997.

He promotes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling" title="Homeschooling" >homeschooling</a>, and specifically <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling" title="Unschooling" >unschooling</a>. Wade A. Carpenter, associate professor of education at Berry College, has called his books "scathing" and "one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto#cite_note-4" >[5]</a> and describes himself as in agreement with Gatto.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto#cite_note-5" >[6]</a>

Gatto is currently working on a 3-part documentary about compulsory schooling, titled The Fourth Purpose. He says he was inspired by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns" title="Ken Burns" >Ken Burns</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civil_War_(documentary)" title="The Civil War (documentary)" class="mw-redirect" >Civil War</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto#cite_note-6" >[7]</a>

<h2 >[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Taylor_Gatto&action=edit&section=2&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Main thesis" >edit</a>]Main thesis</h2>

What does the school do with the children? Gatto states the following assertions in "Dumbing Us Down":

<ol >

<li >It makes the children confused. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that programming is similar to the television, it fills almost all the "free" time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.</li>

<li >It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.</li>

<li >It makes them indifferent.</li>

<li >It makes them emotionally dependent.</li>

<li >It makes them intellectually dependent.</li>

<li >It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).</li>

<li >It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto#cite_note-7" >[8]</a></li>

</ol>

<h2 >Bibliography</h2>

<ul >

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbing_Us_Down" title="Dumbing Us Down" >Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling</a> (1992).</li>

<li >The Exhausted School (1993).</li>

<li >A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling (2000). <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1893163210" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn" >ISBN 1-893163-21-0</a></li>

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Underground_History_of_American_Education" title="The Underground History of American Education" >The Underground History of American Education</a> (2001). (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm" >Complete Text online</a>)</li>

<li >Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling (2008). <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0865716315" class="internal mw-magiclink-isbn" >ISBN 0-86571-631-5</a></li>

<li >'Against School' (2001) (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm" >Complete Text Online</a>)</li>

</ul>

<ul >

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_pedagogy" title="Critical pedagogy" >Critical pedagogy</a></li>

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deschooling_Society" title="Deschooling Society" >Deschooling Society</a> (book by Ivan Illich)</li>

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_curriculum" title="Hidden curriculum" >Hidden curriculum</a></li>

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Children_Fail" title="How Children Fail" >How Children Fail</a> (book by John Holt)</li>

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_institution" title="Total institution" >Total institution</a></li>

</ul>

Other critics of public education:

<ul >

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachariah_Montgomery" title="Zachariah Montgomery" >Zachariah Montgomery</a></li>

<li ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Grant_White" title="Richard Grant White" >Richard Grant White</a></li>

</ul>

John Taylor Gatto

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