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Education's Not the Point
Education's Not the Why Schools Fail to Train Children's Minds and Nurture Their Characters
These essays are a "must read" for parents concerned about their children's education. John Taylor Gatto gives some insights into the "dumbed-down" nature of modern schools, the men behind modern schooling, and why the schools are not designed to provide an "education" for our children. Dorothy Sayers concisely and humorously describes the kind of education schoolchildren should receive, so that they can think for themselves, read original sources, and formulate their own ideas. Elizabeth Hanson speaks to the traditional wisdom of delaying formal education in favor of a "heart" education, so children do not suffer from the kind of anxiety, depression and learning disorders that have become so prevalent in the post-modern world.
These essays are a "must read" for parents concerned about their children's education. John Taylor Gatto gives some insights into the "dumbed-down" nature of modern schools, the men behind modern schooling, and why the schools are not designed to provide an "education" for our children. Dorothy Sayers concisely and humorously describes the kind of education schoolchildren should receive, so that they can think for themselves, read original sources, and formulate their own ideas. Elizabeth Hanson speaks to the traditional wisdom of delaying formal education in favor of a "heart" education, so children do not suffer from the kind of anxiety, depression and learning disorders that have become so prevalent in the post-modern world.
98 pages, Paperback
Published August 5, 2024
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About the author
John Taylor Gatto
22 books588 followersJohn Taylor Gatto is an American retired school teacher of 29 years and 8 months and author of several books on education. He is an activist critical of compulsory schooling and of what he characterizes as the hegemonic nature of discourse on education and the education professions.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 4, 2025
A collection of three authors’ essays on education, challenging methods being used today and which began 100 years ago. Makes for interesting reading as more and more people begin to question how we are educating today and for what purpose. A paradigm shift is going to happen and it is perhaps by looking to the past that we can reconstruct educational practices to move us forward.
November 4, 2025
3.5/5⭐️
John Taylor Gatto never fails to get the wheels turning with his writings on institutionalised/compulsory schooling. This collection of essays highlight some critical issues and grievances with the model of mass schooling and its detrimental approach of extending childhood whereby infantilising young people. This then traps them into curated mindsets that suppress critical thinking, discourage individuality and squash the entrepreneurial spirit in favour of churning out more worker bees.
Not as brilliantly voiced as his other work Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling which I highly recommend but still a thought provoking collection.
Quotes:
“Childish people, for all the noise they make, are nearly helpless. They always fall back into line because they have no other choice, they lack the inner resources to be self-sustaining.”
“Centralized popular entertainment removed the necessity to entertain oneself, easy credit removed the necessity of learning self-maintenance (until it was too late, of course), easy divorce the necessity of working at relationships, and I could go on and on—virtually every institution, including the churches, conspired to eliminate maturity in the society.”
“And the less mature societies became, the wealthier and more stable they graze because, when management is given a free hand to work its will on a homogenized population, the road to prosperity is open. The only price that consumers have to pay is to surrender liberty, principle, morality, and mind.”
“Extending the period of childhood, controlling the environment of childhood, placing the children in a society of carefully selected strangers who followed orders minutely, dividing the children from one another in a variety of subtle ways, setting them into interminable, meaningless competitions so the natural bonds of sociability among them were strained to the breaking point—all these were techniques to prepare the ground for the scientific management of a vast population.”
“Through newspapers, magazines, television, radio, song, websites, and more, a relentless wave of propaganda washes over us morning to night, building and reinforcing attitudes and opinions, gushers of information we have no way to gauge the accuracy of, no way at all. The contents of our minds, in some important fashion, are built upon a foundation of faith not very different in kind from religious faith, if we depend upon media for our opinions.”
“Think of it this way: well-schooled people are trained to reflexively accept the opinions of their betters, to reflexively obey the commands of their superiors and to continually defer to the judgments of strangers. This is how high marks are distributed in schools. Later, when the school game is finished, the exhortations of advertisers, prominent people, and government officials will replace the orders of schoolteachers.”
“Well-schooled people have a low threshold of boredom. They need constant novelty to feel alive. Since they have only the flimsiest inner life—having sacrificed the time to develop one to schooling—they feel the need to constantly stay in touch with official voices through television, radio, internet, cell, commercial entertainment including music, pop journalism and shallow friendships and acquaintanceships frequently left behind for other ones.”
“Extending kid’s childhood is a curse on the kid’s future, while a blessing of course to management. Don’t allow your boy and girl to define themselves by what they consume; the prizes of such a life habit are too contemptible to be worth the cost. And when you next find yourself appalled and disgusted by the childish and irresponsible behavior you see all around you, think of school as its forge, and do something about it.”
John Taylor Gatto never fails to get the wheels turning with his writings on institutionalised/compulsory schooling. This collection of essays highlight some critical issues and grievances with the model of mass schooling and its detrimental approach of extending childhood whereby infantilising young people. This then traps them into curated mindsets that suppress critical thinking, discourage individuality and squash the entrepreneurial spirit in favour of churning out more worker bees.
Not as brilliantly voiced as his other work Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling which I highly recommend but still a thought provoking collection.
Quotes:
“Childish people, for all the noise they make, are nearly helpless. They always fall back into line because they have no other choice, they lack the inner resources to be self-sustaining.”
“Centralized popular entertainment removed the necessity to entertain oneself, easy credit removed the necessity of learning self-maintenance (until it was too late, of course), easy divorce the necessity of working at relationships, and I could go on and on—virtually every institution, including the churches, conspired to eliminate maturity in the society.”
“And the less mature societies became, the wealthier and more stable they graze because, when management is given a free hand to work its will on a homogenized population, the road to prosperity is open. The only price that consumers have to pay is to surrender liberty, principle, morality, and mind.”
“Extending the period of childhood, controlling the environment of childhood, placing the children in a society of carefully selected strangers who followed orders minutely, dividing the children from one another in a variety of subtle ways, setting them into interminable, meaningless competitions so the natural bonds of sociability among them were strained to the breaking point—all these were techniques to prepare the ground for the scientific management of a vast population.”
“Through newspapers, magazines, television, radio, song, websites, and more, a relentless wave of propaganda washes over us morning to night, building and reinforcing attitudes and opinions, gushers of information we have no way to gauge the accuracy of, no way at all. The contents of our minds, in some important fashion, are built upon a foundation of faith not very different in kind from religious faith, if we depend upon media for our opinions.”
“Think of it this way: well-schooled people are trained to reflexively accept the opinions of their betters, to reflexively obey the commands of their superiors and to continually defer to the judgments of strangers. This is how high marks are distributed in schools. Later, when the school game is finished, the exhortations of advertisers, prominent people, and government officials will replace the orders of schoolteachers.”
“Well-schooled people have a low threshold of boredom. They need constant novelty to feel alive. Since they have only the flimsiest inner life—having sacrificed the time to develop one to schooling—they feel the need to constantly stay in touch with official voices through television, radio, internet, cell, commercial entertainment including music, pop journalism and shallow friendships and acquaintanceships frequently left behind for other ones.”
“Extending kid’s childhood is a curse on the kid’s future, while a blessing of course to management. Don’t allow your boy and girl to define themselves by what they consume; the prizes of such a life habit are too contemptible to be worth the cost. And when you next find yourself appalled and disgusted by the childish and irresponsible behavior you see all around you, think of school as its forge, and do something about it.”
November 11, 2025
Great food for thought. I don't agree 100% with any of the authors, but they all have valid points. It's been obvious to me since I was a child in school myself that education wasn't their #1 objective - #1 was detention (in the building, not "detention" as in the punishment). As I got older, social engineering was the obvious #2 objective. And now that I'm older still, I'm not sure if there isn't another objective or two to knock education even lower on the rank of objectives...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews