![]() First edition | |
Author | John Taylor Gatto |
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Language | English |
Subject | Education, History |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Publisher | Oxford Village Press |
Publication date | 2000 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Paperback and Hardcover |
Pages | 412 (Paperback) |
ISBN | 0-945700-04-0 (Paperback), ISBN 0-945700-05-9 (Hardcover) |
OCLC | 45004688 |
811/.54 20 | |
LC Class | PS3557.R1987 O5 1993 |
Text | The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling at Internet Archive |
The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling (ISBN 0-945700-05-9, pbk. ISBN 0-945700-04-0) is a critique of the United States education system by John Taylor Gatto.[1][2][3][4]
A former teacher, Gatto left the classroom the same year he was named New York State Teacher of the Year. He announced his decision in a letter titled "I Quit, I Think".[5][non-primary source needed]
Using anecdotes gathered from thirty years of teaching, alongside documentation, Gatto presents his view of modern compulsion schooling as opposed to genuine education, describing a "conflict between systems which offer physical safety and certainty at the cost of suppressing free will, and those which offer liberty at the price of constant risk". Gatto argues that educational strategies promoted by government and industry leaders for over a century included the creation of a system that keeps real power in the hands of very few people.
From the book's Introduction:
The book was read from 2006-2007 for the Unwelcome Guests radio show.[6][7][non-primary source needed]