“Against School” by Joe Ghatto In the article entitled “Against School,” Joe Ghatto puts up a very convincing argument against the current US education system. Ghatto argues that the system used to administer public education poses more disadvantages rather than advantages to children. Due to its rigidness, children often complain of boredom within the classroom. The majority of the students think that they learn unnecessary things, which they are already aware of. Ghatto also states that the notion that success in life is dependent on schooling is very misguided. A look at the history of the United States reveals that some of the most successful individuals did not undergo a rigid education system. For example, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto satirically poses several questions concerning the purpose, structure, function, and need of the current educational system in the United States. Utilizing anecdotes from his thirty years of teaching experience and extensive research on the historical origins of many modern school customs to justify his tantalizing arguments, Gatto rhetorically inquires about the true motives and rationale behind an outdated institution system which continually steals more than a dozen years of precious life from millions of Americans in the pursuit of furthering a prejudicial class-separation bound together by conformity.
Botstein once argued in his book Jefferson’s Children that “the American high school are obsolete”. In detail, the dissemination
The meaning of the word education is defined as an enlightening experience in which one receives or gives some form of systematic instruction. This definition is further facilitated through John Taylor Gatto’s utilization of the literary techniques pathos and logos within his own article Against School. While this specific work strives to describe what an ideal education would include, it also presents a more encapsulated view of how flawed some contemporary schools have become to this very day: using fifth column determination and other techniques to suppress student creative ability and efface motivation within students.
Thomas Jefferson is one of Americas most known noble leaders. Who had a vision for public schooling in the new United States of America in Enlightment ideas yet restricted by his own understanding of race, gender, and class (Conant, J.B 1962). Jefferson trusted that a more "normal" social structure would suit the creating political attitudes of the nation. He envisioned a "meritocracy," in which instructed men would serve in public office. Since their education would at last be for the public great, Jefferson composed and presented a bill sketching out a plan for public schooling. As right on time as 1778, with the Revolutionary War in progress, Jefferson legislated for the general education of youth. His "Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge" would give three years of basic schooling for white youngsters in Virginia, (cited in Webb, 2006).
In “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto states that, “Boredom is a common condition for teachers and students.” The text questions if we really need forced schooling as a necessary part of our society. The text reads that schools are confining, restricted and do not promote a real education. A problem I have observed in the public schools, is the fact that all children do not learn in the same manner or at the same pace. There is no cookie cutter mold concerning education that all individuals can incorporate into. Standardized tests and curriculum in a one size fits all method is not an effective way for children to learn.
Mandatory, enforced schooling is common all over the world, and is generally seen as a public good, and a privilege of first world countries. However, author and teacher John Gatto argues that mandatory schooling destroys your ability to be free thinkers and therefore should not exist, in his piece “Against School”. Despite his effective use of ethos, Gatto’s argument fails to be convincing due to logical fallacies, and a lack of evidence or first hand experience.
Differently than some other countries, the United States has no national educational system since each state in the country has its own. However, some research from 1999 and 2006 shows that the American educational system is falling in a national scale. Experts argues that the system is ignoring cognitive and social aspects that are important for children’s development which would further help them for adult life. Studies indicates that the educational system is not achieving the real purpose of education: prepare kids for their personal and professional life. As a result, what could be worse than a school system that limits creativity and fails to develop kids with critical thinking and diverse social skills needed for adult life?
The American education system has, since its inception, been subject to ridicule and disdain on the parts of many. Despite the fact that many scholars believe that the system has flaws, there has been no consensus as to what needs to be changed. Sam Chaltain, the previous National Director of the Forum for Education and Democracy and now an active participant in educational reform debates, argues that the system should shift its focus on standardization away from students and instead to teachers and schools. Nikhil Goyal, author of Schools on Trial: How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice, holds that we should do away with standardization altogether, giving children the opportunity to accomplish what they want with their education and allow them to flourish in a less stifling environment. Peter Gow, the author of a multitude of books about potential changes in school policy, focuses on fourth grade specifically, suggesting that a year in elementary school focused solely on cultivating reading skills would greatly benefit students in the future. Although this is a radical stance, Gow’s point remains valid; teaching
Education has been the subject of some of the most heated discussions in American history. It is a key point in political platforms. It has been subject to countless attempts at reform, most recently No Child Left Behind and Common Core. Ardent supporters of institutional schools say that schools provide access to quality education that will allow the youth of our country to gain necessary skills to succeed in life. Critics take a far more cynical view. The book Rereading America poses the question, “Does education empower us? Or does it stifle personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds?” The authors of this question miss a key distinction between education and schooling that leaves the answer far from clear-cut. While education empowers, the one-size-fits-all compulsory delivery system is stifling personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds.
Let’s do away with the school system. In “Against school, John Taylor Gatto says, “They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said that they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around” (Gatto 608). Gatto uses his article “Against School” to talk about how the school system is not necessary. He uses certain rhetorical strategies and personal experiences to do so. In “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto uses his personal experience in his thirty years of working in the school system and some rhetorical strategies to convince people who have children in the public-school system that kids do not need to be put in the system to have an education.
In a progressively more globalized world that necessitates more effective educational practices, the U.S., once the biggest global force in education, has seen its dominance slowly slip out, and its educational status fall even lower than that of several third-world countries. The decline experienced in American school system academic achievement is not as a result of lack of funding, but as a consequence of the overall educational system watering down. According to Gatto, educating children through the existing public school system of America is crippling rather than helping them. From his essay, ‘Against School,’ it is established that the goal of the whole public school system is to limit people’s intelligence in an attempt to create a society that is manageable. Gatto continues to state that action is needed to change this situation. He supports his assertions using current and historical information about the American school system and his personal experience. After reading his article, one realizes that most of Gatto’s arguments are true. It is true that the American education system is making the students comfort to the government and society norms, which is why they are easily bored. This essay’s goal will, therefore, be to support John Gatto’s beliefs.
In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto criticizes America’s system of schooling children, arguing that the whole system is bad and unfixable. In the majority of the essay Gatto relies on personal anecdotes, historical examples that do not correspond with modern day society, and bold unsubstantiated claims. Due to this, instead of convincing parents to take their children out of school and rethink our societies schooling structure, he just leaves the reader confused over what the problems he’s criticizing truly are.
The essay ‘Against the school’ by John Taylor Gatto draws our attention on to all the cons of attending twelve years of high-school. Gatto has experience in teaching profession for twenty-six years in schools of Manhattan, he shares from his experience that he majored in boredom and could see that everywhere around him. He also points out the initial reason why schools came into existence and what the purpose it fulfils now. He also educates us on the fact that all the great discoverers never attended school and were self-educated.The main idea Gatto addresses in his article are that public schooling is doing the youth an injustice.He implies that the purpose of schooling, now is to turn children into good employes and someone who follows orders.
The education system has been a controversy over the years; many people are in favor of it while others are against it. Sir Ken Robinson’s main argument is that the education system in the west does not target its students, but rather more the work life. Furthermore the system makes it seem like only certain people are capable of succeeding, and it teaches its students that there is one only way, excluding or isolating divergent thinking; I agree with Sir Robinson that the education system is not doing its best since I have seen it myself, for all my life I have been a student, and still am.
Since the eighteenth century, there have been heated debates about the proper role of government in American public education. Thomas Jefferson, a product of classical education in the tradition of the Enlightenment, was primarily concerned with the political value of education. For Jefferson, an educated populace was a prerequisite of a free republic. In 1779, he proposed a bill that would provide three years of publicly funded education for all free citizens, to prepare the citizenry to make political decisions at the ballot box (12) Horace Mann, on the other hand, viewed equality of opportunity as the primary goal of public education. Mann identified social goals for education as well, arguing that crime rates and tension between the classes would decrease if students from different socio-economic backgrounds were educated together in the public schools (33, 67). In Mann’s view, public education would ensure that “all members of society are given equal chances to pursue wealth and enter any occupation or social class” (66). Mann contended that public schooling would also benefit the economy, since a highly skilled workforce increases overall productivity in the marketplace, leading to national prosperity – an early example of “Human Capital Theory” (90?) Over the past two hundred years, Americans have continuously bickered in the halls of government over public education. Spring contends that even today, “The goals of American schools are politically determined”. (3)