The public education system has the capacity to slowly and quietly resist all attempts at systemic change or reform; this resistance has become even more tangible and definable over the past fifteen years as reforms to bring schools up-to-date are attempted and blocked by Industrial Age understandings driven by corporate, political, and financial needs. Surgenor identifies the intellectual, emotional, and organizational factors that keep North American education locked within the Industrial Age paradigm. Exploring the differences between the Industrial Age and Information Age paradigms, The Gated Society demonstrates how those differences would impact the practice, form, and function of education systems.