[CAF Note: If you want to understand the US education system, read and listen to John Taylor Gatto. If you want to support a REALLY worthy cause and support one of the people who has done a tremendous amount to protect American children, contribute to the fundraising effort for John Taylor Gatto!]

On December 15, 1935, John Taylor Gatto was born in Western Pennsylvania, in the coal mining and steel milling town of Monongahela, about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. During his early school years, he spent a year at an elite Jesuit boarding school near Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where as you’ll soon hear, he learned to think dialectically, and was beaten by the nuns sufficiently to create his outspoken temperament, which has endured lifelong.

John did undergraduate work at Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh, and Columbia, and then served in the U.S. Army medical corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Following army service, John did graduate work at the City University of New York, Hunter College, Yeshiva University, the University of California, Cornell, and Reed College; which is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in Oregon.

Like many famous American iconoclasts, John honed his skills in a variety of professions before finding his talent for teaching, which proves to be his real gift to this world.

Continue reading Mr. Gatto’s bio

Related Reading:

John Taylor Gatto

Make donations to Mr. Gatto’s recovery Include a note at checkout that says “For John Taylor Gatto” to insure proper delivery.