John Gatto Against School Summary

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In the September 2003 edition of Harper’s Magazine, John Taylor Gatto’s article “Against School” argues public schooling suppresses independent thought, is mass producing students of “standard” abilities, and lays blame on Prussian influence in American society circa 1840. Gatto is a former New York State and New York City Teacher of the Year and a widely published author on topics of public education and the cause and effect relationship of a system too engrained to change.
The first claim Gatto makes relates to the public school system’s objective to de-emphasize individual thinking and independence. He notes that at the turn of the 20th century, America was a mass production / mass consumption machine. Mass-Marketing was a growing tactical
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