"The World's Most Courageous Teacher" reveals the inner circle secrets of the American school system. The legendary schoolteacher, John Taylor Gatto, invested over 10 years of dedicated research to uncover some of the most alarming ideas and writings by the creators and advocates of mandatory attendance schooling, which show where the system came from and why it was created. He combined these facts with his personal experience as a teacher for 30 years in New York public schools, where he won many awards, including being named State Teacher of the Year twice, and has authored an all-time classic. This book was originally published in 2001, and has been printed a number of times. However, this updated version includes new essays from the author, as well as contributions from Dr. Ron Paul, David Ruenzel, and Richard Grove. This is the first of a 3 book volume which will help the reader gain a solid understanding about the American school organization and many of the hidden, yet powerful parts. In this first of set, Mr. Gatto's humble yet bold personality, mixed with humor and class, makes it an enjoyable read, despite the importance and implications of the subject. Mr. Gatto says, "It's time to take our schools back. If they mean to have a war, let it begin now."

With over 70,000 copies of the first edition in print, this radical treatise on public education has been a New Society Publishers’ bestseller for 10 years! Thirty years in New York City’s public schools led John Gatto to the sad conclusion that compulsory schooling does little but teach young people to follow orders like cogs in an industrial machine. This second edition describes the wide-spread impact of the book and Gatto’s "guerrilla teaching." John Gatto has been a teacher for 30 years and is a recipient of the New York State Teacher of the Year award. His other titles include A Different Kind of Teacher (Berkeley Hills Books, 2001) and The Underground History of American Education (Oxford Village Press, 2000).

The transformation of schooling from a twelve-year jail sentence to freedom to learn. John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction , now available in paperback, focuses on mechanisms of traditional education which 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 the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling. Gatto demonstrates that the harm school inflicts 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, to remain divided from natural alliances and to 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.

The underground history of the American education will take you on a journey into the background, philosophy, psychology, politics, and purposes of compulsion schooling.

This book gives a synopsis of American public education in a style that is "public-friendly." Its content is comprehensive, but pithy. It offers insights into public schools that merit attention and action by the public. Education jargon is defined in lay terms; educational tenets are uncovered; and educators' credentials are exposed. It is meant to inform you... and it may surprise you.

"This is an excellent text in the field of U.S. educational history. The author does a great job of linking past events to the current trends and debates in education. I am quite enthusiastic about this book. It is well-written, interesting, accessible, quite balanced in perspective, and comprehensive. It includes sections and details, that I found fascinating – and I think students will too." —Gina Giuliano, University at Albany, SUNY "This book offers a comprehensive and fair account of an American Educational History. The breadth and depth of material presented are vast and compelling." —Rich Milner, Vanderbilt University An up-to-date, contemporary examination of historical trends that have helped shape schools and education in the United States... Key Features: Covers education developments and trends beginning with the Colonial experience through the present day, placing an emphasis on post-World War II issues such as the role of technology, the standards movement, affirmative action, bilingual education, undocumented immigrants, and school choice. Introduces cutting-edge controversies in a way that allows students to consider a variety of viewpoints and develop their own thinking skills Examines the educational history of increasingly important groups in U.S. society, including that of African American women, Native Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans. Intended Audience This core text is designed for undergraduate and graduate courses such as Foundations of Education; Educational History; Introduction to Education; Philosophy of Education; American History; Sociology of Education; Educational Policy; and Educational Reform in the departments of Education, History, and Sociology.

As codirector of the Albany Free School, Chris Mercogliano has had remarkable success in helping a diverse population of youngsters find their way in the world. He regrets, however, that most kids' lives are subject to some form of control from dawn until dusk. Lamenting risk-averse parents, overstructured school days, and a lack of playtime and solitude, Mercogliano argues that we are robbing our young people of "that precious, irreplaceable period in their lives that nature has set aside for exploration and innocent discovery," leaving them ill-equipped to face adulthood. The "domestication of childhood" squeezes the adventure out of kids' lives and threatens to smother the spark that animates each child with talents, dreams, and inclinations. There is plenty that those involved with children can do to protect their spontaneity and exuberance. We can address their desperate thirst for knowledge, give them space to learn from their mistakes, and let them explore what their place in the adult world might be.

This insightful text challenges popular belief that faith-based Islamic schools isolate Muslim learners, impose dogmatic religious views, and disregard academic excellence. This book attempts to paint a starkly different picture. Grounded in the premise that not all Islamic schools are the same, the historical narratives illustrate varied visions and approaches to Islamic schooling that showcase a richness of educational thought and aspiration. A History of Islamic Schooling in North America traces the growth and evolution of elementary and secondary private Islamic schools in Canada and the United States. Intersecting narratives between schools established by indigenous African American Muslims as early as the 1930s with those established by immigrant Muslim communities in the 1970s demonstrate how and why Islamic Education is in a constant, ongoing process of evolution, renewal, and adaptation. Drawing on the voices, perspectives, and narratives of pioneers and visionaries who established the earliest Islamic schools, chapters articulate why Islamic schools were established, what distinguishes them from one another, and why they continue to be important. This book will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, academics, teaching professionals in the fields of Islamic education, religious studies, multicultural education curriculum studies, and faith-based teacher education.

The Atlantean Conspiracy Final Edition is the ultimate encyclopedia exposing the global conspiracy from Atlantis to Zion. Discover how world royalty through the Vatican and secret societies control literally every facet of our lives from behind the scenes and have done so for thousands of years. Topics covered include Presidential Bloodlines, The New World Order, Big Brother, FEMA Concentration Camps, Secret Societies, The Zionist Jew World Order, False Flags & The Hegelian Dialectic, The Lusitania & WWI, Pearl Harbor & WWII, Operation Northwoods, The Gulf of Tonkin & The Vietnam War, The Oklahoma City Bombing, The 9/11 Inside Job, Media Manipulation, The Health Conspiracy, Fluoride, Vaccines, Engineered AIDS, The Meat & Dairy Myth, The Cure for Everything, Masonic Symbology, Numerology, Time Manipulation, The Christian Conspiracy, Astrotheology, Magic Mushrooms, Atlantis, Kundalini, Enlightenment, Geocentric Cosmology, The NASA Moon and Mars Landing Hoaxes, Aliens, Controlled Opposition, and much more