Angela Valenzuela's Subtractive Schooling

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.

In the attempt to persuade his readers in “Against School: How public education cripples our kids, and why”, John Gatto relied on his passion for education to express his thoughts. Having a bad experience as a teacher in our current school system, he believes that our system isn’t what it should be. He believes that our kids aren’t being educated. With the use of frequent rhetorical questions, personal experiences, and an appeal to ethos using other respectable men’s work, Gatto clarified his points about our schools in the America.

“Still Separate, Still Unequal”, written by Jonathan Kozol, describes the reality of urban public schools and the isolation and segregation the students there face today. Jonathan Kozol illustrates the grim reality of the inequality that African American and Hispanic children face within todays public education system. In this essay, Kozol shows the reader, with alarming statistics and percentages, just how segregated Americas urban schools have become. He also brings light to the fact that suburban schools, with predominantly white students, are given far better funding and a much higher quality education, than the poverty stricken schools of the urban neighborhoods.

John Gatto’s “Against School” is a persuasive essay arguing both the ineffectiveness and negative outcomes of today’s public school system. Not only does Gatto provide credibility with his experience as a teacher, but he also presents historical evidence that suggests that the public school system is an outdated structure, originally meant to dumb down students as well as program them to be obedient pawns in society. Fact and authority alone do not supplement his argument. Gatto also uses emotional appeals, such as fear and doubt, to tear down the reader’s trust in the schooling system. Although it may seem to be so, Gatto’s argument is not one sided. He also offers suggestions to make the educational system more efficient at the hands of

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.

Diane Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University. She makes a very compelling, but extremely one-sided argument that educational reforms such as “No Child Left Behind” are causing students to have lesser opportunities in schools. Her argument is directed towards school boards, parents, and lawmakers who have the ability to change school and state policies on education. She wants those people to believe that the current school system is not effective in giving students a quality education and preparing them for life. Diane Ravitch’s argument brings up a question for readers: Is it beneficial for students when schools cut funding to non-tested subjects? According to Ravitch, most of the schools in the country, except for the ones in the most affluent communities base their

The greatest country in the world still has problems evenly distributing education to its youth. The articles I have read for this unit have a common theme regarding our education system. The authors illustrate to the reader about the struggles in America concerning how we obtain and education. Oppression, politics, racism, and socioeconomic status are a few examples of what is wrong with our country and its means of delivering a fair education to all Americans.

The idea of subtractive schooling was first introduced by Angela Valenzuela in previous work before she wrote Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring, but expands on the idea in this book. She describes subtractive schooling as a type of schooling that deprives students of social and cultural resources, causing them to be more susceptible to academic failure (3). More specifically, this type of schooling refers to how immigrant and multilingual children whose native or first language is not English. In her book, Valenzuela details the many different ways the current school system is subtractive, all of them coming back to the idea of the loss for potential social capital. Social capital in this context means valuable social ties and networks that can add tangible resources like financial support or abstract resources like emotional support to help further a student in their educational path. Subtractive schooling takes away social capital in a number of ways.

She explains that students are seemed as incompetent and ignorant due to their level of proficiency in the English language, but in reality, there is a high chance they are smart individuals. Unfortunately, because American schools fail to understand the Mexican schooling system, students are left to suffer the consequences. Angela, explained that school that provide ESL or ELL classes participate in subtractive schooling. Subtractive schooling can be described as the removal of language and culture and forcemeat into the language and culture of the dominant culture, in this case English. The example that Angela used was the De-Mexicanization of students who migrated from Mexico to the United States and are forced into learning English and adopting the American lifestyle. Angela informs that students want to know that educators cared about them before being cared for. In order to do this, educators must embrace the culture of the students rather demolish it and make it into something else. Based on the issues that Angela provided it seems that teachers are unaware or just assume that Mexican-Americans do not care about school based on their attitude and style of dress. It seems that a great percentage of students drop out or fail to provide high marks in school because of the

In Rereading America an excerpt by Michael Moore entitled “Idiot Nation” focuses on the collapsing educational system in the United States of America. Moore brings to light his view on the failures of the educational system and the lack of financing that has been caused from the top of the food chain. Politicians as well as American corporations contribute to the decline in education according to Moore. He attempts to give the reader a clear picture of where America places the importance of educational funding. He follows-up with detailed examples on what districts and schools resort to in order to gain financial support for their programs. Moore is quick to point out the irony of politics and education in America

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.

But shocking and uncomfortably plausible conspiracy theories aside, let us begin by observing and acknowledging the massive flaws of the US’ public education system. There are several aspects surrounding the reasons and evidence of the belief that massive dysfunction, the incursion of the 13th amendment regarding compulsory education, and largely useless content being taught in school is overwhelmingly relevant in the modern school system;

Valenzuela’s “Subjective Schooling” discuss about how school taught student how to perform rather than the method they use to do it. This separate the idea between their learning and academic achievement. An example were used to compare between knowledge learns from textbook and moral ethnic. A person can have much knowledge but fail to capture the sense of reasoning for human love to care and respect other beside themselves. The reading shows how Mexican children were treated negatively because of their culture and history. This creates the effects of subtractive schooling forming a barrier between students and teachers. It shift away from the environment that could helps

While Pedro’s story is fictional, it mirrors real events and thoughts of English language learners. They often have a high absentee rate due to a dislike of school because of a feeling of not belonging. They tend to avoid school because they do not feel like part of the school community. They do not understand the language, the customs, nor the curriculum. School is a torturous six hours for them and often times many will risk failure rather than subject themselves to the discomfort of

“Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years,” Gatto wrote as one of his thesis statements. There were several objectives in his article that all revolved around school, specifically public schools. He believes public schools were not made for individuals to become the best they could be, but rather the children going to the schools just become ‘mediocre’ and no one is doing anything to change that. Gatto used his personal life as part of the background for this article, attending both public and private schools in Pennsylvania during his childhood. Growing up in both public and private schools gave him perspective not all people have, but he also grew up to undertake graduate work at five different colleges all across the Unites States. During 2003, the time ‘Against School’ was written the Higher Education Act was amended, allowing low and middle-income students an education they normally could not afford. Also, the K-12 online schooling was launched by a non-profit granting easier approaches to home-schooling.