John Taylor Gatto

Quotes

• “The primary goal of real education is not to deliver facts but to guide students to the truths that will allow them to take responsibility for their lives.”

• “School is a twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know.”

• “There isn’t a right way to be educated; there are as many ways as there are fingerprints. We don’t need state-certified teachers to make education happen — that probably guarantees it won’t.”

• “This was once a land where every sane person knew how to build a shelter, grow food, and entertain one another. Now we have been rendered permanent children. It’s the architects of forced schooling who are responsible for that.”

• “I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress genius because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.”

Books by John Taylor Gatto in order

Books by John Taylor Gatto in the order they were published, from Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1972) to Education's Not the Point (2023).

1. 1Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestKen Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest1972
2. 2Dumbing Us DownDumbing Us Down1991
3. 3The Exhausted SchoolThe Exhausted School1993
4. 4A Different Kind of TeacherA Different Kind of Teacher2000
5. 5Challenging the GiantChallenging the Giant2000
6. 6Beyond SchoolingBeyond Schooling2001
7. 7The Underground History of American EducationThe Underground History of American Education2003
8. 8Weapons of Mass InstructionWeapons of Mass Instruction2008
9. 9HomeschoolingHomeschooling2010
10. 10The Adventures of Snider, the CIA Spider, by John Taylor GatThe Adventures of Snider, the CIA Spider, by John Taylor Gatto2017
11. 11Education's Not the PointEducation's Not the Point2023