John Taylor Gatto's thoughts on education differ from Mann's idea that school is the source of success. Gatto believes that school is unnecessary and hinders children's growth. He states, “In this country we have been taught to think of 'success' as synonymous with, or at least dependent on, 'education,' but historically this is true in neither an intellectual nor a financial sense” (144). Gatto supports his claim by referring to famous Americans, such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, who "were not the product of a school system, and none of them ever 'graduated' from a high school." . (143). Horace Mann believes that success comes from school. And Gatto does not agree with his idea and believes that school paralyzes children.