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Homeschool and school compare and contrast
Homeschooling has become a popular alternative to public or private school for an increasing number of students in the United States
Homeschool and school compare and contrast
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In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto writes regarding his opinions that America’s current system of schooling children is bad within itself, and unfixable. In this essay Gatto includes confusing personal antecedents, historical examples that do not correspond with modern day society smoothly, and overall he just does not fully explain his already weak evidence. Due to this, instead of convincing parents to take their children out of school and rethink society, he just leaves the reader confused over what the problems truly are.
Gatto starts his paper off by addressing the problem of boredom in public schools, something who has ever attended a public school can attest to. Because the majority of his audience already agrees with
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In modern day American society it is a widely accepted belief that fifteen year olds should not be getting married because they are children and even though this happened in the past does not mean it should continue happening now. We have looked at the research and accepted that childhood is a distinct developmental stage, so looking at glorified historical figure’s childhoods is just not an effective method for Gatto to get his point …show more content…
He writes an entire anti-consumerism rant pointing out what he thinks to be flaws in our society, and then ends it with “our schooling, as intended, has seen to it” (Gatto 689). This structure is not an argument, it is a group of complaints and then an assertion of the blame onto the schools. Gatto doesn’t elaborate, give any type of personal or statistical evidence, or even explain his reasoning of how he thinks the way schools are related to this. In some places he states what he thinks schools are doing to children, that they are “encouraged to develop only the trivializing emotions of greed, envy, jealousy, and fear” (Gatto 689) However, he has no evidence of how schools are doing this, and this is not some universal statement such as that school can be boring, it’s an incredibly specific uncommon belief and in order to persuade anyone Gatto has to provide more evidence and
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
This argument can be valid in some cases, but students cannot learn everything on their own, they need guidance and help from teachers to develop the skills they need for the future. Gatto’s theory that children are kept at a baseline education is true; however, there are students who are pushing themselves to be above average, and he leaves theses students out of his argument. Gatto compares students to addicts, but does not specify what they are addicted to, making this a faulty argument. He claims society’s rise in immaturity has lasting effects on students maturity; although this can be true, he has no evidence to back up this
To begin, there are several concepts about compulsory education that aggravates John Gatto and he explains his concerns in his essay “Against School.” Gatto’s first concern is everything is about school is boring. “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers (Gatto 608).” If the teachers are bored, they will create a dull and boring environment for the students. “Boredom and childishness were the natural state of affairs in the classroom (Gatto 608).” Lack of creativity and freedom is another concern of Gatto. “An educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects (Gatto 611).” Also, Gatto thinks school is unnecessary. “George Washington, Benjamin
With the experience he has as a former teacher, Gatto knows exactly how the school system works better than the average human. He understands how the students feel about school, alongside with the teachers. Gatto used the logos appeal pretty well throughout the essay because of his experience as a teacher, he was able to provide logical reasonings that made sense and went along with what he was talking
Within the walls of our educational system lie many adverse problems. Is there a solution to such problems? If so, what is the solution? As we take a look at two different essays by two different authors’ John Gatto and Alfie Kohn, both highlight what’s wrong within our educational system in today’s society. As John Gatto explores the concept if schools are really as necessary as they’re made out to be; Alfie Kohn analyzes the non-importance of letter grades within our schools. Although both essays are fairly different, they still pose some similarities in relation to the educational system in today’s society.
Labaree discusses how the United State’s education is in a school syndrome, as people in America want schools to teach society’s ideals as well as let people express their individuality. These two demands are polar opposites that cannot be achieved. As the focus goes towards balancing these in hopes of improving society as a whole, the bettering of actual student learning is put on pause. Labaree talks about the beginning of education reform, in the 19th century, being the most successful in developing society; however, as education reform continued throughout time, its effectiveness wore off. He then addresses how the desire for education reform is more about improving society than it is about learning. He finishes his argument by providing possible solutions to fixing this problem, but states that fixing this problem will never happen because no one is willing to give up both demands. Overall, Labaree goes in wonderful detail explaining the problems of education reform. What made me choose this article was that he addressed the desire that people have on school systems in promoting both society normality and individuality. This correlates well with my topic in whether public school systems promote conformist ideals or individuality.
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class.
The main focus of the article “Against School”, by John Taylor Gatto is the problem of modern schooling. Throughout the paper, Gatto examines the background of schooling and explains the purpose of the modern school system. The article captures its audience by surprising them with all the different facts and ideas of modern schooling. It starts by telling the author’s own story about how boring secondary school teaching is, which can make readers think that being tired of teaching at a secondary school is what makes the author want to be completely against school. Gatto then writes that this problem is fixable. In his essay “Against School”, John Gatto makes everyone understand that he does not believe schooling is necessary. He gives examples
Gatto begins his argument with a personal account from when he was going through school as a student. He began falling into the “routine thinking” of school, where he was bored and felt unsatisfied with what he was learning. His Grandfather stated, that if [he] was bored, it was [his] fault and no one else 's. The obligation to amuse and instruct [himself] was entirely on [his] own” (Gatto, 115). Gatto reflects on his
Gatto’s underlying message in his writing is that we are setting ourselves up for mediocrity. Gatto conveys his ideas and messages by implementing facts into his argument. Gatto also conveys his message by relaying emotions on both sides of the spectrum as a student and educator which further displays his emotional voice. Gatto introduces his voice immediately by saying,
... 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.
He argues that students “want to be doing something real” (Gatto 23). Also, he explains that they produce a manageable working class and “mindless consumers” (27-28). His point is that students want to learn something new that helps them in their life better than actual books from school which don’t apply their interests and their experience (23). He recommends home-schooling as an option to schools (24). Gatto claims that contemporary schools “adopted one of the very worst aspects of Prussian culture: an educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects.... ...
Many people think that going to school is the only way to get an education, to gain knowledge, to have a better understanding of society. Malcolm X didn 't necessarily believe that and nor did John Taylor Gatto, who wrote an article "Why Schools Don’t Educate." Gatto believed that schools kept children from being independent. If schools kept children from being independent than children weren 't being mentally alive, it was holding a child back from actual education. When they are in school the children focus on the time rather than the actual assignment, making them possibly fail because they lost the real importance of education. Gatto stated "The homeschooling movement has quietly grown to a size where one and a half million young people are being educated entirely by their own parents. Last month the education press reported the amazing news that children schooled at home seem to be five or even ten years ahead of their formally trained peers in their ability to think." (1) This shows that students that are given time to actually study and stay focus on one subject without being timed are more likely to succeed than a child that attends school. Given students the feeling of being mentally alive, to be able to embrace the
A time approaches in every person’s life when they must come to learn new things. Speaking on behalf of all those who have attended school at some point in their life, I must say that most do not like it for its educational significance. Today’s youth undervalue the worth of America’s public school system to the point of shame. Hard-working, underpaid teachers and professors prepare to educate these ingrates as their living, and it’s exasperating for the students to not even care. I must be fair though and call attention to the fact that not everyone shares this loathe for education and schooling.
...ociety; we do not need teens, which are not ready for marriage, to be married. Marriage is all about compromise, understanding, and give and take. Teens have not fully grasped that concept yet. They need to experience more in life before becoming married. They are missing out on so much; it is truly not worth it to rush into marriage.