Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation into the Problem of Modern Schooling Book

Six stars. where do i click to give six stars?

i don't even know how to convey the wonderfulness of this book. john taylor gatto taught 8th grade english for 30 years in NYC. in his final few years he was named NYC and NY State Teacher of the Year. then he quit in disgust, his resignation letter ending up published in the Wall Street Journal. he quit because he finally realised that universal compulsory schooling does ghastly harm to every human life it consumes. after he quit, he did 10 years of frantic research to find out how such a system could have come into existence. this book is so well researched, it blew me away.

yes, it's about the history of education, but it's also about the history of american business, about the meaning of life, about politics, bureaucracy, philosophy, psychology, good and evil, the genius of the western outlook, utopianism, progressivism, fabianism, eugenics, phrenology, and so much more.

maybe what best conveys my love of this book is the fact that i plan to write a letter to the author. i have never written a letter to an author in my life.

the book can actually be read free online, in its entirety, at