What is it that sets the difference between man and animal? Could it be our emotions? Maybe it might possibly be our wit. Or, it could be the massive amounts of knowledge and information we transfer through generation after generation. Education has been a part of humanity’s past for over 10,000 years. It’s all about preparing our children to thrive after we’re dead and gone. From learning to hunt, pick berries, and farm, to learning to read, utilize arithmetic, and conducting science, kids have been learning since homo erectus became homo sapiens. However, it’s only been in the recent century that a formal, standardized education has been forced upon most of the world. This new mandatory program put kids in a classroom for six hours a day, five days a week, jamming information they don’t want down their throats. Critics like John Taylor …show more content…
The current schooling system limits growth potential as a side effect of general education, not as an intended result. What is the heart of Gatto’s thesis, and what is the message he is trying to send? In summary, he says that school is dumbing us down, in 7 distinct ways, of which are: making students emotionally and intellectually dependent, indifferent, bored, paranoid, and provisionally esteemed (meaning that they “require constant confirmation by experts,” Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, Gatto, 1992). This is achieved through ‘brainwashing’ the students, encouraging and nourishing the growth of habits like seeking out approval or satisfaction from authorities. Gatto also compares our educational system to that of Prussian society, where the population was raised like cattle to more easily manage them through Pavlov-like conditioning, as the information taught to students is only there to confuse the students. It’s easy to fall back on the strawman fallacy to criticize Gatto’s argument, to say that Prussia has no relevance and doesn’t compare to the National School Board of
Most high school students can 't wait for their school year to be over because they feel exhausted by the seven long periods of classes and not to mention boredom. John Taylor Gatto, a former New York State Teacher of the Year wrote an article called "Against School." Gatto criticizes the school system for their inability to meet the students’ expectations and for putting limits on their ability to learn. The children feel neglected, and the teachers feel helpless because they have to work with students who are not interested in the materials they are given. Gatto mentions how US high schools have become affected by adapting to the Prussian education system. According to Gatto, the purpose of high school is to manipulate the student 's mind
The application of Prussian derived normal schools set in motion a series of obviously undemocratic trends that resulted in some extent to under educated teachers. Within the new system of common schooling, what was compulsory to the unique education of an educator was the minimum academic knowledge within elementary curriculum to be taught and extensive training related to instructional mechanics and pedagogy. These were criticized as “…training technicians but not educating scholars…” ( Tozer, S., & Senese, G. (2009)
The average human would think that going to school and getting an education are the two key items needed to make it in life. Another common belief is, the higher someone goes with their education, the more successful they ought to be. Some may even question if school really makes anyone smarter or not. In order to analyze it, there needs to be recognition of ethos, which is the writer 's appeal to their own credibility, followed by pathos that appeals to the writer’s mind and emotions, and lastly, logos that is a writer’s appeal to logical reasoning. While using the three appeals, I will be analyzing “Against School” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto that gives a glimpse of what modern day schooling is like, and if it actually help kids
How has education depicted from history? Pepellashi tells us how education descended from history. It all started when the U.S. did not have any vision of education for the American people. The piece states that education comes from this one model that everyone followed, “the Prussian model”. This model shapes that students are being enforced to learn in an easy way rather than a difficult way. The student does not acknowledge what he/she is being taught, so this student obeys to whatever he/she learns. They are being thought to follow authority, a way a life that everyone has lived on. Pepellashi says that “Maybe we would respect authority more while blindly following authority less if education followed t...
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the American educational system has undergone much transition in response to our changing society. Though there have been many problems raised throughout the years in regard to what our school systems should be teaching our children, there have also been many developments.
In John Gatto’s essay “Against Schools” he states from experience as a school teacher that are current educational system is at fault (148). He claims that classrooms are often filled with boredom manufactured by repetitive class work and unenthusiastic teachings. Students are not actively engaged and challenged by their work and more often than not they have either already covered the concepts taught in class or they just do not understand what is being taught to them. The children contained in classrooms have come to believe that their teachers are not all that knowledgeable about the subjects that they are teaching and this advances their apathy towards education. The teachers also feel disadvantaged while fulfilling their roles as teachers because the students often bring rude and careless attitudes to class. Teachers often wish to change the curriculums that are set for students in order to create a more effective lesson plan, but they are restricted by strict regulations and consequences that bind them to their compulsory teachings (148-149). An active illustration of John Gatto’s perspective on our educational system can be found in Mike Rose’s essay “I Just Wanna Be Average” (157). Throughout this piece of literature the author Mike Rose describes the kind of education he received while undergoing teachings in the vocational track. During Mike’s vocational experiences he was taught by teachers that were inexperienced and poorly trained in the subjects they taught. As a result, their lesson plan and the assignments they prepared for class were not designed to proficiently teach students anything practical. For example, the curriculum of Mike Rose’s English class for the entire semester consisted of the repeated reading of ...
Kids are the future of the world, and education is what allows us teach them the things they need to be successful. However, there has been debate if this is what education really does. Does education empower us? Or does it stifle personal growth? Question like this should be asked in order to figure out if the education kids are receiving are allowing them to reach their maximum potential, or holding them back.
Graff begins by talking about the educational system, and why it flawed in many ways, but in particular, one: Todays schools overlook the intellectual potential of street smart students, and how shaping lessons to work more readily with how people actually learn, we could develop into something capable of competing with the world. In schools, students are forced to recite and remember dull and subject heavy works in order to prepare them for the future, and for higher education. “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic. We assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato, Shakespeare, the French Revolution, and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating, fashion, sports, TV, or video games.” (Graff, 198-199) In everyday life, students are able to learn and teach themselves something new everyday. It is those students, the “young person who is impressively “street smart” but does poorly in school” (Graff, 198), that we are sweeping away from education and forcing to seek life in places that are generally less successful than those who attend a college or university.
A long, long time ago, God decided to punish the wicked people, but before he did that, he instructed Noah to build an ark and fill it with two of every animal he can find along with his family. Animals and humans. The book I would like to use throughout this essay is “ Crossing ,” by Gary Paulsen. This book took place in Juarez, Mexico, where a bridge could mean so much. Each character in this book was being compared to an animal, to make us more understand about each of them. Each of them are also different. From the shape of their eyes, the way they react to something, and those are what made each of them different and special. Paulson compares animals and humans by their simliar characteristics and their behaviors.
In his essay “Against School,” John Taylor Gatto illustrates his view point that the American population would be better off by managing their own education. He compares the school system to the concept of boredom; that students as well as teachers are victims of the long ago adopted Prussian educational system: “We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simply and glorious. Let them manage themselves.” In other words, Gatto believes that the main reason for the existence of schooling consists in that it trains our children to be obedient citizens who can’t think on their own. His point is that as a society we cut off the intelligence and creativity
Another issue I felt as if it is it is important is hidden curriculum. After reading these two articles one can say that labeling schools can harm a students learning. Not only because this is teaching students to have different mindsets on how they learn but they start seeing how other students learn and compare themselves too them. Making it seem they are at a different learning level than the others. When reading “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, she says that these are more of “hidden curriculum” for students. She observes several different elementary schools that have many students with different kinds of backgrounds. From their economic class, to their social class, to race, to their learning levels on basic
... people are more advantaged than others and will receive a top notch education, while others will receive a mediocre education that will prepare them less for college and more for a working class job. There most likely is a connection between social class and the educational opportunities presented to students, but it is also possible that other social forces are at play which determines the quality of a student’s education. In Gatto’s essay it was argued that are educational system is designed to perpetuate faults in order to create a manageable society. He supports his argument with various strong statements which makes his logic convincing, but he falls short when backing the credibility of his claims. The strengths of his essay prove to also be its weakness, which results in a piece of literature that only succeeds in arousing emotional reactions from readers.
These animals that are depicted in the picture above are just a mere representation of students in the school system today. Society believes that standardized testing is a fair judgment of child intelligence but it’s not. Each student has their own strengths and weaknesses that make them uniquely great and it isn’t fair to rate them on the same standards. School should be a place where a student can discover and develop his/her own unique gifts, talents, abilities, and passions (Bull, 2017). Not to be conformed by what people perceive as an equal right way of testing. At the same time, parents and teachers want their child
The author studied five schools of different social classes. Its object of study is to verify that there are differences in the curriculum explicit and hidden in standard primary schools social stratification of knowledge. Furthermore, he studies the hidden curriculum Anyon reached the following conclusions: In the working-class schools, life inside is marked by the resistance that students opposed to the demands of school. In the middle class, it is anxiety before school and social promotion opportunities. At school for wealthy families, life inside the brand narcissism. And at school for the elite, it is the idea of excellence that sets the tone. The ways these curricula favor a certain relation to the world of work are explained in different methods and techniques. Thus, in working-class schools noted that the tasks taking place inside preparing for a mechanical and routine work by rote learning. In middle school class, the finding of more conceptual and less emphasis on skills, along with increased content, led him to think that this is how Anyon prepare them for administrative work.
Hidden curriculum is one of the most important concepts which build our society. Trends underlying this concept influence and modify children’s thoughts and behavior. Most people even do not understand how strong and controversial the basis they get from schools and universities is. In addition, people generally do not notice the significance of difference between what is said and what is considered, as well as between what is genuinely right and what is right according to the rules. What is hidden curriculum? A lot of aspects of this concept are hidden and unspeakable. Generally, hidden curriculum can be described as values and beliefs, and even lessons which are unofficial, unwritten or unintentional which children get at educational institutions