ABSTRACT
The work of Ivan Illich and Paulo Freire forewarned scholars of the purposes and dangers of "banking education" in ways that illustrated how schooling sorts citizens into winners and losers and indoctrinates all of its inductees into a logic of consumerism and self-interest. John Gatto, A. Molnar, and Henry Giroux decry the increased commercialization of the schooling experience where students are prepared for and targeted by marketing. The ways in which compulsory schooling requires a system of bribes, threats, and oppression should indicate the fundamental flaws of the system, unless it is understood through the logic of capitalism. The connections between special education and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) are frightening, as it seems this militaristic, skill-driven, behaviorist paradigm has been generalized to the entire population, especially the poor. Alfie Kohn demystified the neoconservative agenda put forth by the architects of NCLB and the total disregard for science that contests their purposes.
