Renegade Thought In 1991 New York Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto and a former student of his rented Carnegie Hall for the night, invited many different representatives from the unschooling and alternative education world to speak, and turned them loose on an audience of about a thousand people. This book is the collected speaches from that October night.
From the distance of ten years, the maverick nature of this event is fading somewhat. Any alternative--or at least the distrust of public schools--is now part of mainstream debate in America. "The Exhausted School" is worth reading nonetheless for the fire in the belly passion these men and women felt in offering a better way. And it's important to remember that Gatto--with his "Teacher of the Year" credibility---is the guy who got the dialogue started. Even the idea of renting such a venerable performance space for the event defies elitist decorum. The fact that certain teachers' unions and teachers' colleges tried to diss the "speakout" adds additional outlaw cachet.
Old homeschooling and unschooling hands won't find anything particularly new here--Gatto's speaches are reprinted elsewhere. But the various Sudbury-style and community grassroots school reps' presentations --as well as the pleas of Gatto's young students--are wonderful. If you're feeling draggy in your commitment to a Better Way than the American Public Education Behemoth, this book is like a good hug.
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