John Taylor Gatto Against School Summary

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“Against School”

“Against School” is a controversial article written by John Taylor Gatto. In the essay he describes the American School system as a “prison” and talks about how it attempts to make all the children equal by teaching the students topics that society think is acceptable. He also goes on to state, “Students would be willing to study if they were more motivated and were actually educated instead of schooled”. Many people say that the only way to become successful now a days is to go to school and get an education. Now I agree with this statement but what I don’t agree with is how the school system teaches. Even though some might discredit Gatto’s claims that we should get rid of compulsory teaching because he think it’s a huge …show more content…

Also if school wasn’t mandatory student education would be based on if the child would want to learn or not. Another con would be that at what age would a child determine if they want to educate themselves or not. These are some of the cons of self-managing, but overall it’s more of a positive outcome. If a student wants to learn he/she will do it. This of course would cause segregation but it’s not a bad type of segregation because now the student would have the power to change they’re life by educating …show more content…

Statistics show that 1 in 5 students qualify as clinically depressed meaning 20% of students are depressed. That’s a pretty big percentage of students that are depressed. Where does most of this stress come from? School of course. Six classes in a day, each teacher assigns homework, sometimes some teachers might not give homework but its still a huge amount of work. Then there’s test that can make or break your grade. All the studying they did for the test to try to pass it. Now imagine studying like crazy and failing a test that drops your grade from a 95 to a 90 or 85 percent. This brings kids down because all the homework they did to raise the grade just so it can drop down all because of a test. Students carry these burdens each day and at home parents make it worse at times and then some students even get part time jobs. The fact that they survive through all that is a miracle but how could we reduce the stress? You guessed right! By getting rid of compulsory teaching and allowing students to manage themselves. They wouldn’t worry about test, homework, or catching up on lessons they missed. They could take breaks whenever they felt like it or call it quits when they want. No hassles of running to class to not be tardy.
Gatto isn’t telling us to get rid of education he’s simply stating alternatives to gaining knowledge that could benefit children and give them more responsibility and freedom. Some parents might

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