John Taylor Gatto, who was a teacher at the public school for twenty-six years, and the writer of the essay “Against School” that first appeared in Harper’s magazine in 2001, censures and blames the American public school’s educational system in his argumentative essay with various convincible supporting ideas. Gatto argues that the demands of public education system’s schooling are essential problems in “Against School”. Gatto shows some positive examples of the educating without forced schooling and shows models of the ‘success without forced modern schooling’. Indeed, the writer insists that historically forced schooling is not related to intellectual and financial success in American history. James Bryant Conant, who was the twenty-third …show more content…
As Gatto showed his subject positions of the essay as the writer, he can give the trustable and convincible information to the reader who reads “Against School”, and has doubts about the efficiency of the public school system in the United States of the America. Because he shows his subject positions as the writer of the essay, also reader’s position can be decided as teacher, student, and parents. Gatto can talk with his company at his public school in his essay, and he can talk to other teachers who have the job as a public school teacher in America, and feel the problem as the teacher who teaches the student in the public schooling system. He can talk with students who graduate or apply public school in America also. In addition, Gatto can discuss with parents who have sons and daughters in the public school in America, also he can show his idea to older people who want to change American public school system in his essay. Likewise, Gatto’s subject positions can decide his ideas, develop the way for the readers, and affect whole essay’s flow. Gatto’s subject positions as the teacher, father, and ancestor can help to understand essentially the present’s American public school …show more content…
There are many supporting ideas such as success without modern schooling, criticism of American education systems, and basic functions of modern teachings. Furthermore, writer’s subject positions can help to understand his idea to the reader who have the same subject positions such as teacher in the public school, father who have sons and daughters, and an older people who want to change the American public school system, which force schooling not true learning. These examples help to find the reason people change the school system. Gatto uses these controlling ideas to support his idea and to convince the reader by developing his questions about the deficiency school system in the United States of
As American’s we place a high level of importance on attending school and receiving a certain level of education. Across the world, the recommendations for attending school vastly differ based on the culture of the society. In America, we require our children to attend school until they are almost of legal age, push high school graduates to attend college and we constantly emphasize structured learning. Many children in today’s world lack many skills that would allow them to “teach” themselves outside of school leading to an increased interest in televisions, computers, and phones. Technology has taken away society’s attention away from independent learning such as reading, writing, and outside experiences. John Taylor Gatto’s emotional voice in his writing “Against School” has allowed me reveal my psychological voice regarding the educational system.
Otherwise, why now the parents spend a lot of money to send their children to a good school to study, because the school education environment to the children’s influence is very important. When Wes A moved to Bronx, his mother had made a decision to send her children to private school after her seeing how poor the public school system had become, so she worked multiple jobs to manage the cost and relied on her parents to take care the children before and after school while at work. “My mother decided soon after our move to the Bronx that I was not going to public school. She wasn’t a snob, she was scared.”(47) Because she knew, if the children are growth of a bad education environment, the children of the world to know nature will be distorted. Without a good education, there is also no habits; No good sense, and also there will be some bad behavior. Today, the rate of crime is high; almost all can find the root cause of their growth environment. Maybe the lack of discipline, discouraged by mistake friends or too much stress, but all shows the importance of good education environment for children to grow
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
Many Americans do not question the credibility of the education system within the country because they believe it forms good citizens and creates a stepping-stone to success. John Taylor Gatto is an American teacher who has experience in the classroom for thirty years and has now devoted his life to critiquing American schools exploiting his own experiences. In his essay “Against School”, he argues that the 12-year system of school may not be necessary, due to its curriculum, and that it may be a tactic of manipulation from the government to promote obedience. I agree with his argument because there are many paths to individual success outside of public education, such as homeschooling or vocational school.
Schools are the basic foundation of knowledge, which is imparted to children. They give a chance for children to gain knowledge in various fields such as humanity, literature, history, mathematics and science. By obtaining knowledge, they are in a better position to know the world around them. A school is a society where faith and other values are developed. Schools also play an important role in a democratic social set up. Students of today are the citizens of tomorrow. Schools are the backbone of a society, where children interact with other children and develop certain social skills. Education in schools opens doors to various opportunities that would not be possible if it had not been for the knowledge one gained at school. However, in the articles, “Idiot Nation” by Michael Moore and “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, the authors express their concerns about the degrading quality of education. There are many problems the education system is facing today, and several of them are having negative effects on the quality of the education that the students are receiving which are highlighted aptly by the effective use of rhetorical strategies by Moore and Gatto.
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.
John Taylor Gatto in his essay “Against School” explains the lack of motivation that students have to the educational system of the USA. He also explains the damage that the system makes to both, students and teachers, by the non-interesting topics they are taught in class. Furthermore, he enlightens the indifference of students towards the teacher, seem as incompetent and unprepared. In addition, he also highlights the dark side of the school system which intends to brainwash and rescind the ideas from students. He addresses a main goal of the educational system; convert juveniles into the next docile and manageable generation. Wherefore, he proposes an educational system that should be structured and not controlled. In addition, he demonstrates
Historical facts are not easily countered and appeal to the reader’s logic. This works in Gatto’s favor because he is trying to convince a very large audience of varying opinions and educations to see his point of view. He questions the credibility of the current school system by comparing it to the education of historical American figures such as George Washington and Thomas Edison. He then goes onto argue the real goal of the system using figures and historical precedent - mainly the Prussianization of the school system. Gatto is a passionate libertarian, which may be part of the reason that he chose to mention political figures and the institution of the school system
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
Gatto, John Taylor. "Against School." In Rereading America. 8th ed. Edited by Gary Columbo, Robert
... 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.
A majority of our school system has not been keeping up with the rest of the world. If you compare our schooling system and standards to other parts of the world you will see that there is connection between them. What needs to change in our system that can improve according to Gatto is that the school system should allow student to learn what they want and allow teachers to teach how they want, in order to give the people a sense of individualism and creativity not to make them into drones of
Dr. Ray’s nationwide research indicates that more than 90% percent of the parents do not hold valid, government approved teaching certificates (2009). Whereas, all teachers, both public and private, have those certificates, and are taught, trained and certified to teach each certain aged students (“Home Schooling” 2011). Since the quality of education neither monitored nor regulated by the government, it is doubtful to trust the quality of education that parents provide to their children (“Home Schooling”, 2011). Teachers and administrators firmly control the quality of education they provide to students. They are concerned not only with the academics, but also with the engagement of the students in extracurricular activities at the school. Therefore classroom education is able to provide socialization, which is an important aspect of youth
John Taylor Gatto, in his essay “Against School: How Public Education Cripples our Kids, and why”, argues that the contemporary purpose of education in public schools is to produce “harmless electorate,” “a servile labor force,” and “mindless consumers” (28). According to Gatto, he is blaming public schools by explain that the purpose of education is to shape students to certain expectations and habits without their interests. 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 help them in their life better than actual books from school which don’t apply their interests and their experience (23). So he recommends home-schooling as option to schools (24). Gatto claims that contemporary schools “adopted one of the very worst aspect...
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