If, for any reason, you have begun questioning the mandatory public school system, there is a book I recommend:
The Underground History of American Education, Volume I: An Intimate Investigation Into the Prison of Modern Schooling by John Taylor Gatto.
A careful online search may yield a PDF version, and I easily acquired an audio book version which I listened to while working... multiple times.
While the underlying focus of the book is education, this tome includes FAR more historical and contextual references revealing societal issues we all deal with.
Here it is, as available in paperback on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998919101/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_nG11Ab8WS00GR
