A former teacher, Gatto left the classroom the same year he was named New York State Teacher of the Year. He announced his decision in a letter titled "I Quit, I Think".[5][non-primary source needed]
Using anecdotes gathered from thirty years of teaching, alongside documentation, Gatto presents his view of modern compulsion schooling as opposed to genuine education, describing a "conflict between systems which offer physical safety and certainty at the cost of suppressing free will, and those which offer liberty at the price of constant risk". Gatto argues that educational strategies promoted by government and industry leaders for over a century included the creation of a system that keeps real power in the hands of very few people.
From the book's Introduction:
"... Underground History isn’t a history proper, but a collection of materials toward a history, embedded in a personal essay analyzing why mass compulsion schooling is unreformable. The history I have unearthed is important to our understanding; it’s a good start, I believe, but much remains undone."
"... what I’m trying to describe [is] that what has happened to our schools was inherent in the original design for a planned economy and a planned society laid down so proudly at the end of the nineteenth century."
^Hommerding, Leroy (2000-11-01). "The Underground History of American Education (Book Review): Library Journal". Library Journal. 125 (18): 94.
^"The Underground History of American Education (Book Review): Natural Life". Natural Life (75): 28. October 2000.
^"The Underground History of American Education (Book Review): Natural Life". Natural Life (82): 30. December 2001.
^Stone, M. K. (Spring 2002). "The underground history of american education: A schoolteacher's intimate investigation into the problem of modern schooling". Whole Earth. No. 107. p. 32.
