This is the type of thing that undermines you

As Dante observed, you had to really search to find those negative reviews.

"...kids performed better in school when teachers were allowed to beat them."

This reviewer must have learned reading comprehension from you:

1- Teachers are STILL allowed to beat kids in way too many school systems (especially the parochial schools)

2- The period when teachers everywhere were allowed to beat kids coincided historically, in some instances, with higher grades and more educated students, but nowhere is it cited as cause and effect, since the intelligence and education levels (i,e,; the level at which they were truly educated) began to drop decades before the movement to abolish corporal punishment in school began to gain ground.

I doubt that Gatto is advocating a return to the one-room school house, but I definitely am, as the only viable alternative to home schooling.
In the one-room schoolhouse, children were not separated artificially by age, but logically by development and accomplishment. The teacher knew the students and could assess and develop their skills in each area much better than the teachers who saw them only for a relatively few months and were forced to impose a standardized curriculum upon each child; the infamous "one size fits all" model.

For the totally uninformed among you, one size does NOT fit all.

Maybe what really bothered the high school math teacher was Gatto's assertion that reading, writing, and basic arithmetic could be taught in 6-8 weeks, tops. After that, the teachers are mainly baby-sitters.

His credentials? John Taylor Gatto was New York State Teacher of the Year twice and New York City Teacher of the Year three times, so don't bother to claim that he is unfamiliar with the system.

Then he quit, and wrote a piece for the Opinion-Editorial page of the New York Times. The response was overwhelming, and he has spent the rest of the time as a consultant to groups and individuals who want to ensure that their children are truly educated and not merely indoctrinated.

And, I defy you to find someone whose credentials are better, or even equal, and who condemns his writings, especially "Dumbing Us Down", which I urge you to read. It seems to have taken hold in your case.