- John Taylor Gatto
Infobox Person
name = John Taylor Gatto
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birth_date = Birth year and age|1935
birth_place = Monongahela, PA, USA
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residence = Oxford, NY
nationality = American
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known_for = Educational activist, New York State Teacher of the Year
education = Cornell, theUniversity of Pittsburgh ,Yeshiva ,Hunter College and theUniversity of California
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website = http://www.johntaylorgatto.com
footnotes =John Taylor Gatto [After learning he was regularly confused with another teacher named John Gatto, he added Taylor to his
pen name .] (bornDecember 15 ,1935 [ [http://www.stephenmorse.com/birthday/birthday2.html Birthdatabase (.com)] ] ) is an American retired schoolteacher of 29 years and 8 months and author of several books oneducation . He is an activist critical ofcompulsory schooling and of what he characterizes as the hegemonic nature of discourse on education and the education professions.Biography
Gatto was born in the
Pittsburgh -area steel town ofMonongahela, Pennsylvania . In his youth he attended public schools throughout thePittsburgh Metro Area including Swissvale,Monongahela , and Uniontown as well as a Catholic boarding school in Latrobe. He did undergraduate work at Cornell, theUniversity of Pittsburgh , and Columbia, then served in theU.S. Army medical corps atFort Knox ,Kentucky , andFort Sam Houston ,Texas . Following army service he did graduate work at theCity University of New York ,Hunter College ,Yeshiva , theUniversity of California , and Cornell.He worked as a writer and held several odd jobs before borrowing his roommate's license to investigate teaching. Gatto also ran for the
New York State Senate, 29th District in 1985 and 1988 as a member of theConservative Party of New York against incumbentDavid Paterson . [" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DC1639F933A25752C1A96E948260 THE ELECTIONS; New York State Senate] ". "New York Times ".November 10 ,1988 .] He was named New York City Teacher of the year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991. [ [http://www.highered.nysed.gov/kiap/TEACHING/new_york_state_teachers_of_theye.htm New York's Teachers of the Year] , New York State Education Department (accessedOctober 14 ,2007 ).] In 1991, he wrote a letter announcing his retirement, titled [http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/prologue2.htm I Quit, I Think] , to the op-ed pages of the "Wall Street Journal ," saying that he no longer wished to "hurt kids to make a living". He then began a public speaking and writing career, and has received several awards fromlibertarian organizations, including the "Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Excellence in Advancement of Educational Freedom" in 1997. He promoteshomeschooling , and specificallyunschooling . One professor of education has called his books "scathing" and "one-sided and hyperbolic, [but] not inaccurate." [Wade A. Carpenter, " [http://www.pilambda.org/horizons/v85-3/silverline.pdf For Those We Won't Reach: An Alternative] ," "Educational Horizons" 85, no. 3 (2007): 153n8.]Gatto is currently working on a 3-part documentary about compulsory schooling, titled "The Fourth Purpose". He says he was inspired by
Ken Burns 's "Civil War".Fact|date=August 2008Bibliography
* "" (1992).
*"The Exhausted School" (1993).
*"A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling" (2000). ISBN 1-893163-21-0
*"The Underground History of American Education " (2001). ( [http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm Complete Text online] )See also
*
Hidden curriculum
*Total institution
*Critical pedagogy References
External links
* [http://www.johntaylorgatto.com Official Website]
* [http://www.kinzaacademy.com Kinza Academy] , Homeschooling with the Classics. Gatto is on the Advisory Board.
* [http://www.altruists.org/downloads/by_subject/others/education/ Altruists.org] - download audio files of some of Gatto's talks
* [http://www.edflix.org/gatto.htm Video of Gatto interview, broken into topic sections]
* [http://www.homeschoolnewslink.com Collection of essays] Gatto is a regular columnist for The Link Homeschool Newspaper
* [http://www.wtp.org/archive/transcripts/john_taylor_gatto.html Transcript of radio interview with Jerry Brown]
* [http://www.waaromonderwijs.nl Gatto's November 2007 visit to Netherlands: audio, video and articles]Writings and lectures
* [http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm "Against School"] - originally published in "
Harper's Magazine ", September 2003
* [http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html "The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher"] - originally published in "Whole Earth Review ", Fall 1991
* [http://www.noogenesis.com/game_theory/Gatto/Gatto.html A set of quotes from Gatto and links to original essays]
* [http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=program-info&program_id=8005&nav=& Speech at a home schooling Conference by Radio for Peace] (MP3 )
* [http://www.altruists.org/gatto Collection of Gatto Files] , mainly MP3s
* [http://www.school-survival.net/articles/school/history/Institutional_schooling_must_be_destroyed.php "Institutional Schooling Must Be Destroyed"]
* [http://www.school-survival.net/articles/school/history/The_tyranny_of_compulsory_schooling.php "The Tyranny Of Compulsory Schooling"]
* [http://www.diablovalleyschool.org/psngatto.htm "The Public School Nightmare: Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought?"] , article published by Diablo Valley School
* [http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto.html "Why Schools Don't Educate"]
* [http://www.home-ed.vic.edu.au/2002/02/26/john-gatto-teacher-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/ "Teacher of the Year acceptance speech"]
* [http://www.4Brevard.com/choice/Public_Education.htm "A Short Angry History of American Forced Schooling"]
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