Weapons of Mass Instruction

The idea of public education gained sympathy with the American populace because of its idealistic notion that the poor needed access to education in order to be able to pull themselves out of poverty. Gatto's story is that the compulsory part of public education has much darker and deeper roots.

If you are student, you deserve to know why you have to go to school and why you are bored when you get there. Parents also need to know why standardized testing takes up so much time in school. It is an eye-opener for the teachers too if they wish to know why their initial enthusiasm for teaching gets dissipated with the passing of time.