I just spotted this review on the global indymedia newswire

of what looks to be a great read: radical educational

theorist John Taylor Gatto's latest book, _The Underground

History of American Education_.

I can't emphasize how important it is for radicals

to examine the subject of education, and of how

the "educational system" is a system of totalist

indoctrination, private no less than public. There is

no escape -- for rich kids no less than poor kids. All

too often, leftists swallow the same tripe as everyone

else, believing the problem with The System is just not

enough money, usually not enough money in the schools of

poor neighborhoods. They thereby completely miss the fact

that The System is fundamentally oppressive, a system of

indoctrination designed to subjugate the individual to

the requirements of industrialism.

The problem is that, since everyone is churned through

this system, almost everyone comes to think that

education-as-factory-regimen (complete with bells just

like factories', no less!) is somehow the natural order

of things. But nothing could be further from the truth,

and Gatto in this book examines the actual evolution of

this system and the class and power structure interests

it was designed to serve.

I urge everyone to read at least one of the following:

Ivan Illich: _Deschooling Society_

Paulo Freire: anything by Freire

John Taylor Gatto: anything by Gatto

I leave you with this thought. Those of you who are

activists against the prison industrial complex should

ponder it: There are only two categories of citizens

who are routinely and systematically institutionalized

through absolutely no fault of their own: children,

and the aged.

The next issue of Harper's Magazine focuses on education, and Gatto is a participant in a roundtable discussion.

Also, if you're not ready to get serious with one of the above books, I'd recommend the Teenage Liberation Handbook, by Grace Llewellyn, which is written for (intelligent) young adults, and is influenced by the abovementioned authors.