I'm reading a very thought-provoking book that has me thinking about education — again! The book is "Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling" by John Taylor Gatto.  

This description is from Amazon.com:

John Taylor Gatto's "Weapons of Mass Instruction" focuses on mechanisms of familiar schooling that cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking and create a false view of learning as a by-product of rote-memorization drills.

Here is a demonstration that the harm school inflicts is quite rational and deliberate, following high-level political theories constructed by Plato, Calvin, Spinoza, Fichte, Darwin, Wundt and others, which contend the term "education" is meaningless... The real function of pedagogy is to render the common population manageable.

Realizing that goal demands that the young be conditioned to rely upon experts, remain divided from natural alliances, and accept disconnections from the experiences that create self-reliance and independence.

Escaping this trap requires a different way of growing up, one Gatto calls "open source learning."

John Taylor Gatto taught for 30 years in public schools before resigning from school-teaching in the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal during the year he was named New York State's official Teacher of the Year. Since then, he has traveled three million miles lecturing on school reform.

I know John well, and he is likeable and pleasant as can be. He is a thoughful person and a wordsmith. You can find him on Internet videos if you want to see him in action. I don't always agree with him, but I love his gentle provocative nature, the questions he asks and the arguments he makes. I recommend this book if you want to find yourself thinking about education in ways you might not have thought about before.

—The assistant headmaster at Delphian School in Sheridan, Ore., Mark Siegel focuses on social studies, business/economics, science/technology and school information systems. Active in local, state and national public and private school affairs, Mark directs the Oregon Federation of Independent Schools and serves on the Council for American Private Education's board.

To read more blog entries by Mark Siegel, visit The Delphian School.