Episode Details

Luki and Dave discuss John Taylor Gatto's angry polemic "Weapons of Mass Instruction" and his theory that schools exist to help propagate an elite class that profits off the students that it trains to become consumption-happy conformists. In the process, he argues that many impressive people did not require formal education, challenges the orthodoxy of sending our kids to school, and invites us to consider "unschooling" or letting our children explore the world on foot. Do we agree with his theories? What should we do with these ideas as parents and educators? 

This is the 1st in a series of discussions on our topic for the season, "What is Wrong with Education."

Music: Play it Again by Christopher Norton, performed by Victoria Hsu