The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders.

Teaching is a function, not a profession. Anything with something to offer can teach.

The shocking possibility that dumb people don't exist in sufficient numbers to warrant the millions of careers devoted to tending them will seem incredible to you. Yet that is my central proposition: the mass dumbness which justifies official schooling first had to be dreamed of; it isn't real.

The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders.

I feel ashamed that so many of us cannot imagine a better way to do things than locking children up all day in cells instead of letting them grow up knowing their families, mingling with the world, assuming real obligations, striving to be independent and self-reliant and free.

Children allowed to take responsibility and given a serious part in the larger world are always superior to those merely permitted to play and be passive.

This was once a land where every sane person knew how to build a shelter, grow food, and entertain one another. Now we have been rendered permanent children. It’s the architects of forced schooling who are responsible for that.