Prologue: Against School; Everything You Know About Schools is Wrong; Walkabout: London; Fat Stanley & the Lancaster Amish; David Sarnoff's Classroom; Hector Isn't the Problem; The Camino de Santiago; Weapons of Mass Instruction; What is Education?; A Letter to My Grand-daughter About Dartmouth; Incident at Highland High; Afterword: Invitation to an Open Conspiracy: The Bartleby Project; Index.

The transformation of schooling from a twelve-year jail sentence to freedom to learn Have our schools become mere Weapons of Mass Instruction, or can they be transformed to offer genuine freedom to learn? John Taylor Gatto has been a hero of mine for years. He has the courage to challenge an educational system that is obsolete and out of touch with reality. Years ago, he gave me the courage to speak out and write my books. I trust this book will give you the courage to speak out and challenge the system. — Robert Kiyosaki, author Rich Dad, Poor Dad John Taylor Gatto's voice must be heard … He knows why the (education) system is so utterly flawed and lays it out right here. We ignore his profound insights at our own peril. — Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, founder Zaytuna Institute (credits and title need checking) Weapons of Mass Instruction is a hard-hitting critique of the mechanisms of compulsory schooling which cripple imagination and discourage critical thinking. In his earlier book, John Taylor Gatto brought his now-famous title - Dumbing Us Down - into common use worldwide. Weapons of Mass Instruction promises to add another chilling metaphor to the lengthy brief against schooling. Weapons of Mass Instruction demonstrates that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy, Gatto claims, is to render the common population manageable, to remove the obligation of child care from adult workers so they are free to fuel the industrial economy, and to train the next generation into subservient obedience to the state. Gatto reveals that Ivy League schools do not produce the most successful graduates; that some of the world's riches entrepreneurs are high school drop outs; and that Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie didn't finish elementary school. Filled with examples of people who have escaped the trap of compulsory schooling, Weapons of Mass Instruction shows us that the realization of personal potential requires a different way of growing up and learning, one Gatto calls "open source learning." Urgent and controversial, this book is a page-turner that promises to appeal to all who harbor doubts about the current education system. A remarkable achievement. I can't remember ever reading such a profound analysis of modern education — Howard Zinn, on The Underground History of American Education

"John Taylor Gatto has been a hero of mine for years. He has the courage to challenge an educational system that is obsolete and out of touch with reality. Years ago, he gave me the courage to speak out and write my books. I trust this book will give you the courage to speak out." — Robert Kiyosaki, author, Rich Dad, Poor Dad "For over 20 years John Taylor Gatto has been working tirelessly to teach us the truth about our educational system - that compulsory schooling does not work to foster a democratic way of life." — Mary Leue, Founder of the Albany Free School"All of Gatto's words shine. Let's have Gatto as US Secretary of Education and then, this time, he can blow it all up." — George Meegan, author of The Longest Walk and world record holder, longest unbroken march in human history"We accept Mr Gatto's invitation to an open conspiracy against forced schooling here in Europe as well. The virtues of this book, its precise ideas, realistic proposals and sharp conscience, class it among the best works of Thoreau, Jefferson, Hume or Diderot. A masterly book." — The Kadmos Paris Magazine, Paris, October 2008."In Weapons of Mass Instruction, John Taylor Gatto points out the folly of the business of American education, especially standardized testing. Listen up, for children's sake." — Wendy Zeigler, artist and former student of John Taylor Gatto."It happens rarely, but whenever I do read a newspaper, listen to the radio, or watch television, on a variety of topics, I find myself wondering, "How? How can this happen? How can people be so gullible". Gatto has an answer and it is disturbing as well as compelling: 20th Century US education. His argument renews gratitude to my father for having given me the chance to dodge full immersion in the homogenizing machine, and makes me more determined than ever to pass this gift of becoming an individual on to my own children." — Tania Aebi, author of Maiden Voyage ; and world record holder, first circumnavigation of the world by a solo female sailor"I run a school. John Gatto is my conscience. He has taught me to hate school and love learning. This book will do that for others, and we need them." — Becky Elder, Northfield School of The Liberal Arts