Mao Zedong is famous as a revolutionary and the first leader of the People’s Republic of China. The revolution he led was distinctive for its reliance on a highly sophisticated and increasingly coercive education system. This case looks at the development of Mao’s ideas about education and the growth of the re-education system in ever-larger applications. That education system was effective on an enormous scale, teaching political philosophy to a peasant population that was largely illiterate at the beginning of the revolution. The system has, however, been widely criticized for indoctrination and extreme coercion. This case examines the forces and influences that contributed to the system and raises fundamental but often over-looked questions about education in general. For, aspects of the aspirations and techniques of the system Mao instigated can be readily recognized in a wide variety of educational programs.