Weapons of Mass Instruction

John Taylor Gatto's "Weapons of Mass Instruction," now available in paperback, focuses on the mechanisms of traditional education that cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, "Dumbing Us Down," introduced the now-famous expression of the title into common vernacular. "Weapons of Mass Instruction" adds another chilling metaphor to the critique against conventional schooling. Gatto demonstrates that the harm inflicted by schools 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, remain divided from natural alliances, and 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.