Origins & History of American Compulsory Schooling - An Interview with John Taylor Gatto

After nearly 30 years in the public schools, John Taylor Gatto has quit his job as a schoolteacher to become one of the country's most articulate critics of American education. The author of Dumbing Us Down currently lives in New York City, where he is working on a book about the history of compulsory education called The Empty Child.

Below is an excerpt from an interview with John Taylor Gatto. To read the whole interview go to the Flatland Books website.


Martin: In Dumbing Us Down, you speak of education as almost mind control and the conscious effort to keep people stupid.