In chapter 13, Gatto explores the influence on BF Skinner and Behavioralism in the school system. To refresh your memory, behavioralism is the theory that we are all born as blank slates, and what we become is merely the sum total of our experiences. T…

Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. That is really all I can say after reading this chapter. In chapter 14 Gatto connects the history of Western spirituality and forced schooling in a way that I would not have believed possible 30 minutes ago.
I can’t possib…

I found this chapter fascinating on several levels. I’m really just now starting to comprehend the corporate influences that led to forced schooling. It really wasn’t a nefarious government plot. It was a nefarious, racist, elitist plot funded by corpo…

In chapter 11, Gatto examines the role of racism is the early days of forced schooling.
In the thirty years between 1890 and 1920, the original idea of America as a cosmopolitan association of peoples, each with its own integrity, gave way to urgent ca…

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
DATE: 16 May, 2005 Fredericksburg, VA
THE UNGRADUATION STORE IS NOT OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Home Educator and long time blogger Chris O’Donnell has announced the non-opening of The Ungraduation Store at his well known web…

I’ve been thinking about this a bit, spurred on by the annual rush of feel good graduation stories in the local paper.
What exactly is high school graduation for a homeschooler? The dictionary definition is either completion of a course of study, or th…

Chapter 10 is all about Gatto’s childhood and how it impacted his teaching methodology and ultimately his repudiation of the teaching profession. I found it a nice little story, but it didn’t really connect with me, probably because I grew up a militar…

I’m not sure if I’ve really got my brain wrapped around this chapter yet. I may have to read again to really get it. Gatto squarely lays the blame for public education, and the state of our current society in general, at the feet of two people most of …

In this chapter, Gatto explores the specific reasons and events behind forced schooling, or the mass production of people. The great industrialists on the late 19th and early 20th century correctly foresaw that coal, and later oil, could bring about gr…