John Taylor Gatto Rhetorical Analysis

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his experience as a teacher, but he also presents historical evidence that suggests that the public school system is an outdated structure, originally meant to dumb down students as well as program them to be obedient pawns in society.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.

John Gatto’s essay, “The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher” was very interesting to read. Right away I was able to recognize his ironic and sarcastic tone. His essay gives sign not only to modern education but also modern society and what we build our lives upon. Gatto writing made me think beyond what I normally would and opened my eyes to more faults within our education system that I never realized.

Jon Cozart begins his satire of the 2016 political campaigns by targeting on Hillary Clinton first. In order to understand the claims, he makes in the piece it is necessary to have an understanding of all of the different events that were happening during the campaign. Without an understanding of the political climate throughout the campaigns, Cozart’s claims are not as potent. Specifically, in Hillary’s section he uses her focus on women’s rights and her reputation as shifty as the foundation for his argument. Jon Cozart believes Hillary to be power hungry and egotistical and uses rhetorical tropes and schemes to paint this picture of Hillary.

One study found that kids felt maintenance in school were almost as unnerving as the passing of a guardian or losing their sight. More positive options recorded by the creator included additional help amid the school year or summer school. In the wake of perusing the article, I find that I am in finished concurrence with the writer. My own child, who is a low accomplishing understudy, was horrendously unnerved that he would be kept down after second grade. When he enlisted for school and we inspected the class list for third grade, he inhaled a capable of being heard a murmur of alleviation. He let me know that he had been perplexed all late spring that he was going to

The rhetorical strategies that format Don’t Stay in School are distinct and efficient in that Brown’s personal apprehensions are accurately revealed in virtue of the lyrical influence. For instance, Don’t Stay in School opens with Brown enumerating which indispensable life lessons were disregarded in schools’ curriculums. Specifically, he presents cases in which topics possessing little to no correspondence to average life were instead educated. During the whole of his track, Brown attempts to vocalize how utterly impractical it is that required subjects are taught over basic abilities that may manage to free masses of students from impending adversity. Therefore, Brown establishes his argument concerning the school system by way of indicating

America’s education system is increasingly being criticized for it not functioning properly and failing our students. In fact, this notion is so widely believed that when typing ‘American education system’ on a search engine, two of the three predictive texts attempt to complete this phrase with words that have a negative connotation, such as ‘failing’ and ‘flaws’. The internet, newspapers, television, etc. are all saturated with criticisms of the American school system and solutions for this important issue. Taking a much different approach, award-winning educator and author of Against School, John Gatto insists that the school system is not failing at all, because it is not actually meant to educate, but to house children for “schooling.” Quite the contrary is succeeding in its true purpose.

Do teachers really educate? Teachers recite material to students and do not go into depth, because teachers do not want to be at school any more than students do. Now-a-days school is not really an option. Kids know they have to go to school , but they do not really understand why. Thinking about the subject, why do kids have to go to school? John Taylor Gatto was a school teacher for 30 years, therefore he knows how the school system works. Gatto explains schooling may not be necessary. People may disagree, but he said school not education. Some of the country’s best leaders did great without schooling. This rhetoric analysis of “Against School” shows some of the behind the scenes of schools, such as, why do kids not like school, or even why they act the way they do. In “Against School”, Gatto implies the reasoning behind the education provided for students in order to convince the school system of the differences from schooling throughout time.

Hailed as “easily the most controversial figure associated with Harlem in the 1920s”, it is undeniable that Marcus Garvey’s idiosyncratic nature earned him some attention. However, this recognition was terminable. Although Garvey was once labeled a “hero to millions of blacks”, the title was fleeting. Garvey’s initial veneration, is largely due to his political philosophy, which contributed greatly to his popularity (Gates and Smith 984). Furthermore, the original degree of his adoration, made his decline dramatic.

Policemen and women are one of the most trustworthy people around. However, sometimes the police can be the least trustworthy in the right circumstances.

Teachers should take students under their wing and really try to show you what it is they are trying to teach you and work with our learning styles and interests. Teachers have to be more open-minded and love engaging with kids. The best teachers are the ones who takes the different learning styles and puts them together for every lesson so that no child is left behind. Supportive teachers are those who put in the extra time to make sure that all students are comfortable in their classroom. The way a teacher is interacting with a student has become less sensitive every year. I believe that the government is causing this desensitization. Teachers aren’t getting paid enough so teachers are getting frustrated and caring less and it is taking a hit on our students in America. Teachers have to really get to know the child for who they are rather than just another regular student. For all these things a teacher must want to be in the classroom and enjoy being with her students. If the teachers are not being recognized properly by the government this can make teachers give up.

John Gatto, a school teacher in the Manhattan area, taught for thirty years at a variety of different schools. During these years, he realized that children were frequently bored with classroom activities as a result of how they were being taught. Students were not being challenged and often already knew the concepts behind the materials taught. Jean Anyon further supports and agrees with Gatto’s statements about the public school system. In her article, she specifies that schools in wealthy

One of the first authors who begins to evaluate the role of schooling is the world is Jackson who in his article tries to consider the classroom, seeing how such a great part of our day as children is spent there. He reviews the main attention of his essay like so: “In three major ways them – as members of crowds, as potential recipients of praise or reproof, and as pawns of institutional authorities – students are confronted with aspects of reality that at least during their childhood are fairly confined to the hours spent in classrooms. Certainly, related conditions are encountered in other environments” (Jackson, 1968/1990 pg10-11). The important part of this quote is the fact that the three facets mentioned by the author are as he said, “aspects of reality”. As a consequence, we can begin to see his idea that classrooms formulate the youth of our nation for the real world. But definitely as education remains, the method becomes more difficult and thereby leads us to the next author.

There’s a famous saying that goes “is a teacher really teaching when the student is not learning?”. Growing up within the American educational system, I always asked that question to myself and wondered in what ways was the system challenging us? Both Alfie Kohn and John Taylor Gatto agree that there are many flaws within the structure, school is tedious and students aren't really learning, therefore holding us back from our true potential. I am more in favor of Kohn because schools are significant to society and if we fix a few mistakes then and there, we might make learning exciting once again.

In the United States, the average student wakes up around 6-8 a.m. in order to attend school to meet the country’s requirements in education. Because students are waking up early everyday, they are extremely unmotivated to achieve their country’s expectations. Students are expected to excel in math, science, English, and social studies, and they expect them to use their knowledge in these four categories to help make the country the best educated country. In my opinion, this puts a lot of pressure on the students, and discourages them to actually learn the material they are taught. Rather than absorbing the material, the students are memorizing it in order to pass the next exam, and once they pass the exam with an A, they completely forget about the material. Because the students are disinterested, this makes the teachers jobs extremely boring. In the piece, “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, Gatto utilizes ethos and logos to convince the public that the school system is flawed, and students deserve a better education that what they are receiving due to the fact that students are constantly bored in their ‘laboratories of experimentation’.