John Taylor Gatto, the NY State Teacher of the Year in 2000-ish (not sure of year), wrote "Dumbing Us Down" from years teaching in some of the worst (and best)

John Taylor Gatto, the NY State Teacher of the Year in 2000-ish (not sure of year), wrote "Dumbing Us Down" from years teaching in some of the worst (and best) NYC classrooms, and doing wonderful things for his kids all the while. His thesis is that the public school system is pretty much doing what it was founded to do in the 19th century: to hone down kids to be good, obedient, unthinking factory workers and military, to the lowest common denominator. His "Underground History of American Education" expands on that quite a bit. Most definitely worth reading.