Gatto

In the early 1960s, Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist at Yale, conducted a series of experiments that became famous. Unsuspecting Americans were recruited for what purportedly was an experiment in learning. A man who pretended to be a recruit himself was wired up to a phony machine that supposedly administered shocks. He was the "learner." In some versions of the experiment he was in an adjoining room. The unsuspecting subject of the experiment, the "teacher," read lists of words that tested the learner's memory. Each time the learner got one wrong, which he intentionally did, the teacher was instructed by a man in a white lab coat to deliver a shock. With each wrong answer the voltage went up. From the other room came recorded and convincing protests from the learner — even though no shock was actually being administered.

With each wrong answer came an electric shock that the teacher, a random male participant, had to physically cause. The teacher could hear the learner after a while begging to stop. At this point the teachers causing the pain are obviously uncomfortable. Some start by laughing nervously and other just immediately beg to stop the experiment. At this point the experimenter gives a series of orders to push the teacher to continue. As a result, two-thirds of participants carried on shocking the learner to the highest level of four hundred and fifty volts. All the participants involved continued up to three hundred

The test subjects failed to think critically and even act morally in the face of authority. The teachers often referred to the experimenter to continue when they knew the learner was in pain. Even after the learner had gone silent the test subjects continued. The test subject didn’t know if they were alive in the room or not and the majority continued regardlessly.

Imagine being strapped down with the fear of getting shocked repeatedly from getting only one question wrong. For the experiment one of the “learners” quotes when being shocked, “Through the microphone.. Let me out, let me out! I’ve had enough, let me outta here!” (Skinner 36). This quote shows how much pain the people were in and how much trauma it caused both the “learner” and “teacher”.

With each incorrect answer, the voltage of the electric shock would increase, beginning at a voltage of 15 volts to a deadly voltage of 450 volts. However, the experiment was most definitely rigged. The learners were hired actors used as part of the experiment to determine whether the teacher (one of the 40 male participants) would continue to obey the commands of the experimenter despite the blood chilling screams from the opposite room.  Milgram further explains in detail why the reasoning behind his experiment is surprisingly valid. The most important information of Milgram’s article provides a table recording the different variations of shock levels, beginning from slight shock to XXX. The different levels of shock voltages are measured from 15 volts to 450 volts. The right side of the table attributes to number of teachers who found the corresponding voltage as their maximum shock. A majority of the teachers did not identify a maximum shock until 300 volts was reached. At this point, various teachers discontinued the experiment and refused to participate further. However, Milgram states “of the 40 subjects, 26 obeyed the orders of the experimenter until the end, proceeding to punish the victim until they reached the most potent shock available on the shock generator”(376). Milgram’s data shows that 65 percent of the men chosen, decided to inflict the highest pain threshold upon

Now as the voltage would increase, the fake screams of the learner (the accomplice) would become louder and more agonizing so that the “teacher” would get tricked into thinking he was actually causing the learner physical pain. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether the “teacher” would continue to administer the shocks each time the voltage increased even though he could hear the learners screams just because the experimenter/ authoritative figure would instruct him to do so. The result of the experiment was that 62.5% of the “teachers” went to the max voltage (450 volts) even though the “learner” was instructed to stay quiet once the voltage got above 300 volts to make it seem as if the “learner” had lost consciousness which proved that the majority of people would in fact, listen to what an authoritative figure tells them to do even though it could be causing another severe pain. What you can take away from this is that in the end, the majority of the “teachers” (participants) were willing to administer a fatal shock and potentially end someone’s life just because an authoritative figure instructed them to which proved Stanley Milgram’s purpose of the experiment. Now this experiment was said to be unethical because of the fact that Milgram deceived the participants and tricked them into believing that they could have actually murdered another human being. The experience of

On arriving for the experiment they were told that they would play he role of the teacher. They were to read a series of words pairs to an individual on the opposite side of a partition. They were to test the individuals' memory by giving him a word and asking him to select the correct matching word from four alternatives. Each time the learner made an error, they were to give him/her an electric shock at the touch of a lever. The individual was strapped into an electric chair while they watched. The teachers had levers in front of them labelled from 15 to 450 volts and switches labelled from slight shock to danger: severe shock to the final ‘XXX'. They were instructed to move one lever higher on the shock generator each time the learner made an error. There were not of course any shocks.

Milgram gathered volunteers and actors and split them into groups of a “learner” or “teacher”. What the volunteers didn’t know was that the actors were always placed in the learner group. In the experiment, the teacher would ask the learner a series of questions, and if the learner got the answer wrong, they were told to give the actor an electric shock. The shock would increase in voltage with each wrong answer. The experimenter would encourage the teachers to keep administering shocks for the sake of the experiment.

How Americans learn is important topic for debate because it is essential to continue our global dominance. With that said, it is necessary to do whatever we can to improve our learning institutes, but Gatto who authored “Against School” and Kozol who wrote “Preparing Minds for Markets” don’t give enough credit to what our schools are doing successfully. There is absolutely no reason to tear down a system that has shaped Americans for decades, especially not because we are bored there or being prepared to be a manager.

In July 1961, Stanley Milgram began to conduct an experiment to test human obedience at Yale University. He wanted to see how German Nazis could inflict the extermination of the Jewish population, and to see how much pain they would inflict on another person just by giving instructions. Milgram put an ad in the newspaper and he got forty males volunteers between the ages of twenty and fifty. He would choose one of the volunteers and an actor who went by the name Mr. Wallace. They would draw a slip of paper which both said “Teacher”. The actor would say he got “Learner,” and the experiment would begin.

At this point, the Teacher and Learner were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other. The Teacher was then given an electric shock from the electro-shock generator as a sample what the Learner would supposedly to receive during the experiment. After the Teacher was given a list of word pairs which he was to teach the Learner. The Teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read four possible answers. To respond the Learner would press a button to indicate their answer, if the answer was wrong the teacher would shock the Learner with the voltage increasing by 15-volts for each wrong answer, if correct the Teacher would read the next word pair. The subjects believed that for each wrong answer the Learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After a series of wrong answers the Learner would start complaining about their heart, afterwards there would be no response from the Learner at all. Many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner at this point in the experiment. Some paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment, while most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. A few subjects even began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs of extreme stress when they heard the screams of the

I don’t think anyone has a complete picture of the problem facing America’s education system. There is not just one “fix all” solution and there never will be. People forget what the word “system’ means. A system consists of individual parts that, when combined, function as a working machine. Our machines and systems are always improving as we improve. Every machine and system has a predecessor and just as equally will likely have a successor. When dealing with anything that evolves, one has to consider the path that evolution tends to follow. That process usually includes replacing or upgrading one part at a time. Sometimes you can replace a particular of the system and achieve obvious results, but it is a naive notion to assume that is always

However, this experiment was all fake, the learner was also a person who knew what was going on just like how it was for the Asch Conformity, there were no real shocks they just gave fake screams to make it seem like it was real! The whole point was to test if the teacher would follow the directions and go all the way to 450 volts. Some people actually gave up because they couldn’t live with hurting an innocent person and some people went all the way to 450 volts. I remember watching this experiment in one of my high school classes I am still just as shocked as I was while watching the video.

The notorious “when will I ever use this again” statement comes into play more often then none when students are taught the same materials every year. A required education shouldn’t change, but the education that is being taught should be able to be expanded and changed to accommodate all students. Changing the curriculum of schools and intertwine classes to teach real world skills would keep students interested and perhaps even relieve some factors that make becoming an adult overwhelming for some. Every individual should be educated on common tasks that they will have to preform as they grow older and become more independent. An education system should not only teach young people how to be well rounded citizens, but need to also prepare them

Mandatory schooling seems long while you are in school or fresh out of it. When you graduate you feel like you know everything and that your views are correct and based on solid evidence and experience. I know this to be true. I was there. To one extent or another I felt and thought that. I was wrong. I had lived in the same town for 17 years. My elementary school was kindergarten through eighth and had only 300 students. I graduated high school with a huge class of 44 other people. At that time I’d never left the state. In fact I hadn’t traveled more