Abolish Compulsory Government Schooling

I just finished reading my second book by John Taylor Gatto (December 15, 1935 – October 25, 2018.)

He advocates for the abolition of compulsory schooling and his reasons make for an amazing read. And he's a great writer.

I first questioned compulsory education when I was about nine years old, in Grade 4. It was November.

How can I remember it was in November?

Because it was on, or slightly before Remembrance Day and we were being treated to the standard lecture about why Remembrance Day was so important.

The story went like this.

Canadians had fought and sacrificed their lives in two world wars to defend our freedom.

I already knew that my attendance in that classroom had been mandated by the state, so I put up my hand as I had been trained to do, and asked the following question:

"If Canada is a free country, then how come we are forced to be in school?"

I can't remember the answer I received and, at that age, I didn't dwell on the subject for more than a minute. But I still remember asking that question. Something about what we were being "taught" seemed to be full of BS.

Barely ten years later I stumbled into libertarianism which prompted me to reject the legitimacy of compulsory government education for two reasons.

1 - in a free country, the state should be prohibited from compelling obedience,

and,

2 - in a free country, the state should be prohibited from forcing some people to pay for other people's education.

People called me every name in the book, including dumb, naive, and stupid, but no one was able to provide a credible rebuttal to my assessment that the basic morality of compulsory government education was corrupt. And I was never able to shake the conviction that any system based on moral corruption would result in anything but misery and failure in the long run. (And look at where we are today!)

Call me a confirmation bias addict, but John Taylor Gatto's book just gave me a whole bunch of reasons to believe that I was right all along.

Weapons of Mass Instruction