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, the University of Pittsburgh, Yeshiva, Hunter College and the University of California
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website = http://www.johntaylorgatto.com
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John Taylor Gatto [After learning he was regularly confused with another teacher named John Gatto, he added Taylor to his pen name.] (born December 15, 1935 [ [http://www.stephenmorse.com/birthday/birthday2.html Birthdatabase (.com)] ] ) 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.

Biography

Gatto was born in the Pittsburgh-area steel town of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. In his youth he attended public schools throughout the Pittsburgh Metro Area including Swissvale, Monongahela, and Uniontown as well as a Catholic boarding school in Latrobe. He did undergraduate work at Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia, then served in the U.S. Army medical corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Following army service he did graduate work at the City University of New York, Hunter College, Yeshiva, the University 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 the Conservative Party of New York against incumbent David 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 (accessed October 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 from libertarian organizations, including the "Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Excellence in Advancement of Educational Freedom" in 1997. He promotes homeschooling, and specifically unschooling. 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 2008

Bibliography

* "" (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"]