Issues Surrounding Society's Identity In Cathy Davidson, Karen Ho,

He attempts, and succeeds, in shocking readers into remembering their school experiences in a more negative light, achieved by juxtaposing the strict Prussian military system with our current educational environment. Gatto has no quarrels mentioning the rigid segregation this system is especially tailored to create between the powerful, yet numerically minute, elite and a gargantuan working class forced into general servitude. The sensitivity of such a topic and the long history of social stratification the United States has endured forces readers to understand that, beneath the colorful language and indefatigable tone, this article is a very serious analysis of educational corruption and the abuse of social class as it relates to educational background. A focal point of Gatto’s argument remains the already apparent lack of individuality within school systems. He does not write about how constricting school uniforms can be to an identity or the ability to express oneself being diminished. No, Gatto concerns himself, and his readers, with how students are treated as machines by administrative staff in schools. Students are to be pass produced, manufactured using interchange parts and fixed when something does not fit the mold. He writes about how children are used from the second they enter kindergarten as small cogs in a larger machine of conformity, a machine which exists purely to prevent the elite from being forced of their high horses. Stringing each of the myriad arguments he makes regarding the motive schools hide behind an encouraging positivity together into a magnificent tapestry of dissent, Gatto forces readers to reevaluate their own perspective on one of the most singularly fundamental aspects of their life and

“School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers.  School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently” (Gatto 670).  In the present day school system, students are becoming more of products of an institutionalized school system

School, everyone summons different thoughts and connotations whenever they hear that word. Although people range in their opinions of school, many can agree that schools all have the same goal: to educate their students. This is proving to be false; John Taylor Gatto provides evidence of this in his essay, “Against School.” Within this text he explains how schools are not educating students to be the best they can be, instead teachers are teaching them to become role players in today’s society and to be desensitized from their natural creativity. Gatto, a three time New York Teacher of the Year, has had his fair share of teaching. Gatto provides evidence to the audience that they have been wrong all along about the way a school functions. His ideals prove that the schooling systems in today’s society are not what they seem; schools are thought to develop and help a student unlock their full potential but through the evidence that Gatto provides us he shows that the education system does anything but that. He shows us this by appealing to the audience’s logos and pathos or their logical and emotional natures.

The authors establish credibility for themselves using ethos. They state that they are the “presidents of leading American colleges and universities” which effectively demonstrates their integrity as leaders of the nation’s most prestigious institutions. The reputation they assert early in the letter identifies them as highly reliable and upright, thus validating that that their opinions are worth regard. Additionally, the letter is signed by numerous presidents and chancellors of respected schools around America. This helped argue the writers point because their argument was supported by the most respected and intelligent individuals in our society.

Ever since its inception, human civilization has been run by a pecking order; a small group of elitists on the top of the chain of command dictate the social norms for the remaining individuals on the antithetical end of the spectrum. Individuals with traits outside these norms are ostracized and looked down upon by the hierarchy. Cathy Davidson’s, Project Classroom Makeover, promotes the use of customization in the education system to accommodate every students’ learning habits over the current use of standardization and curriculum based teachings. On the other hand, Karen Ho’s, Biographies of Hegemony, is about how one’s environment is engineered by institutions, which in turn establish hierarchies who set standards for society. However, Son by Andrew Solomon describes how horizontal identities, traits influenced by peer groups that separate individuals from their families, are seen as abnormalities and those with such identities are on the bottom of the said hierarchy. Based on Davidson’s, Solomon’s, and Ho’s works, individualism does into question because society forces individuals to conform to the standardized norm in which they are not allowed to have unique identities.

Students’ identities are changed after attending educational institutions, which influence one’s identity because that institution shared or state such values. As student tries to fit and get along with other students in that institution they become someone who they never been, or have never thought of becoming one. If they are attending a military institution such as The Citadel, they must follow many rules, to be an “ideal” man at the Citadel. Which change certain behaviors and beliefs from their personality. This behaviors and belief are passed on by the upperclassmen to the new cadets, and if the new cadets don’t follow them they will not be allowed to fit with rest of the cadets. The upperclassmen teach the difference of wrong and right which he feels according to his views and force the new cadet to think in same way. So, Faludi says that, “the group mentality that pervades The Citadel assures that any desire on the part of a cadet to speak out about the mounting violence will usually be squelched by the threat of ostracism and shame…The power and authoritarianism of the peer group at The Citadel is exceptional because the college gives a handful of older students leave to “govern” the others as they see fit” (81). Which means that cadets are trained to think in a certain situation in a certain way. Each cadet is trained to tolerate pain and humiliation, but are not allowed to complain about it to anyone. Violence is a way to create a bond among

In Susan Faludi’s, “The Naked Citadel,” Faludi attributes the fact that the institutions demand to form a “the big bad macho school”(73) overrides what is truly best for the cadets, and in disregarding the cadets, they overlook the true purpose of what it means to mold men. Distinctly, In the excerpt, “Project Classroom Makeover,” the author, Cathy Davidson articulates the importance of self-reliance and strongly informs the readers that although one is not necessarily gifted in all aspects, “everyone had a unique way go learning”(65). The educational philosophies of the Citadel and the institutions from the nineteen fifties and on as mentioned in “An Army of One: Me," differ in regards to the self spectrum the institutions oblige by being the narcissistic self that instils the overbearing importance of self-worth, as well as the low self esteem self that solely focus on academic excellence confining students to doubt themselves. Like the students in Mrs. Davidson’s eccentric classroom, the schools that encourage confidence in self allow students to display his or her uniqueness and trust in him or herself therefore freeing them from this distinct, yet narrow

Educational Systems Need Change In the anthology Identity a Reader for Writers by John Scenters- Zapico, Cathy Davidson, in her writing “Project Classroom Makeover”, discusses how the educational system needs a big upgrade. She also talks about how so many people in today’s society seem so disinterested in school. Davidson uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, pathos, and logos to get her message across to the intended audience of teachers, that the way schools are teaching needs to change.

When the committee chooses the applicants that they want, they choose kids with very unique qualities. They have to stand out from others and be well rounded; basically be perfect in the university eyes. Those kids would be described as stereotypical ultra-high achieving elite college students or in James Atlas words “Super People”. William Deresiewicz shared his own personal experience about being in the Ivy Leagues in his article. “These enviable youngsters appear to be the winners in the race we have made of childhood”, said Deresiewicz. He watched many of his students on campus and realized that the reality is different. The elite education system has students who are smart and driven but also students who are insecure and clueless to their purpose in this world. They are great at what they do but they don’t really know why they are doing it. Many students hide behind this façade and hide their fears, anxiety or depression. It’s very unhealthy, but they will do whatever they have to do to succeed. The students are terrified of failing, it’s very scary and they can’t take that risk because it could jeopardize their future. Some students leave the Ivy League schools because they felt as if the environment was stifling their soul. They want to experience getting a real education and live life to the

Every public school lunch room is filled with many tables, every day these tables are the perfect place for a student to find where they “belong”. Like Beverly Daniel Tatum states in “Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”, part of the social groups forming in high schools goes to thank adolescents. Tatum writes, “As children enter adolescence, they begin to explore the question of identity, asking ‘Who am I?’ ‘Who can I be?’”(375). At this point in their life everyone begins to see their own interests and hobbies that makes them a little different than others. Because students are starting to realize their differences, in modern day high schools there are many social groups that students can identify with and feel the most comfortable being themselves.

In the Anthology, Rereading America, Jean Anyon and Jonathan Kozol challenge the reader to really think deeply into the cultural myths that society fills Americans with. In Anyons Article, From Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum, she discusses five different elementary schools all with different socioeconomic classes and talks about how each student is taught to fit the same types of jobs that their parents do so they remain on the same social class level. It can be justified that my educational experience was quite empowering throughout high school because of the good teachers who gave us a voice in the classroom, and brand new facilities which helped me feel comfortable at school.

What makes an individual special from anyone else? Is it their physical attributes, their upbringing, perhaps the effect of their environment? All of these things are the just the beginning layers of what encompasses a person’s identity. Identity is the knowledge of who we are and what groups we belong to, and unfortunately, it is not easily determined from person to person. It is a complex, developmental process that begins at birth and continues throughout an individual’s life (Sheets). One’s identity makes every individual unique, and this uniqueness facilitates growth by exchanging philosophies, ideas, and knowledge. Consequently, the most essential environment for these exchanges to occur is within a classroom. In Gregory Michie’s novel, Holler If You Hear Me, he accounts his time spent teaching inner city middle schools in Chicago. During his time in the Chicago Public School System, conflict of identity between teacher and student is present, which ultimately leads him to assess his teaching methods and reevaluate the processes he uses to connect with his students. Because the identities of his students differ from his own, Michie implements cultural relevant and sustaining pedagogy in his classroom in order to combat the students’ apathy, boredom, and lack of interest in school. There is importance in the way in which student and teacher identities intersect, and throughout Michie’s novel he demonstrates that by bringing in material that relates to the students’

Though both Davidson and Ho discuss several instances on how students are placed in a hierarchy and how success is primarily based off an intuition’s standards, the idea of democratization that Davidson presents conveys that a person’s identity involves more than just the standards of these institutions.

Don Robertson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman explore the theme of personal identity throughout their works, from Robertson’s The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, to Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Though both Don Robertson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman both illustrate and explore the theme of personal identity in very different ways, there are also many similar ways it is illustrated and explored by both authors as well. Don Robertson shows this theme of personal identity through Morris Bird’s cautious sense of right and wrong and how he tries to atone for his mistakes throughout the book and wanting to earn self-respect for himself as well as through his journey to see his best friend, Stanley Chaloupka while Gilman shows this through the

Social identity theory, it is a person’s sense that is based around the group they are in, either by their personal identity or with different kinds of social identities. That is, people will try to improve their own image of themselves. The theory was proposed by Henri Tajfel. People can increase their self-esteem by both their own achievement and interaction with a successful group of people. This shows the importance of social belonging. This theory is based around three mental processes, social categorization, social identification and social comparison.