New Times for Education: Issues of Development & Fairness

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

“Tinkering Towards Utopia” examines the tension between the American school system, past and present. This article addresses the fact that if we only focus on change can cause us to ignore the stability in the school system. Instead of only focusing on changing the school system, we need to take the positive aspects already in place into consideration. If certain tactics are working, we should not change them. One of the points that I agree with the most in this article is that change where it counts the most, in terms of the interactions between teachers and students. We read that this is the hardest to achieve, but the most important. Achieving a good relationship with your student is important because you could be the one that changes

The author compares today’s school system to that of the past, which concerned itself with teaching students,

Consequently, the rational step taken is to deconsecrate schools into outwardly irreversible place of esteemed value of social order (Kozol, 3). He further noted many ways of opening the issue in complete observation of the class, which he believed can be attained by the quotation of many respected people’s word, such as Horace Mann who was diffident in articulating the real utility of public schools. Nonetheless, he also provided some other ways of embarking on this which he conscientiously noted that has exposed their conjecture of public schools as adults (Kozol, 4). Additionally, he said the best way of achieving this is by disseminating this purpose to students through dialogue as recommended by Doris Lessing (Kozol 4). Finally, he stated that there is no deceit of learning to be a responsive, affectionate or sympathetic person.

Education is meant to broaden the minds of incoming generations to the diverse cultures and aspects of the world. While its purpose is meant to open up horizons, it has also held up the task of oppressing opposing thoughts and judgments. Author James Baldwin exposes this truth in his article, “A Talk to Teachers,” as he chastises the education system’s contradicting actions inasmuch as the support of an all-encompassing education while scorning unconventional thinking. Baldwin’s purpose to confront the antithetical activity to hopefully change the system’s ways is attempted by persuading teachers who “deal with the minds and hearts of young people” that a paradox of education occurs when students develop a conscience--they become “at war” with society--is valid in that education should allow development for individual thoughts and varied opinions to challenge for the reconstruction of society’s oppressive nature.

As the bell rings, all the students jump up and race towards the school exit, looking towards the rest of the weekend doing whatever they want to do. A lot of students despise school, saying that it is torture sitting in a classroom writing on paper. The problem is, American education is broken. But how? We have to look at how the past American education worked, how the system is broken, and how we fix it.

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.

In the book, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? : Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World, published by John Wiley & Sons on August 14, 2014, the author, Yong Zhao, states that while China gets the highest test scores on the PISA exam, parents in China often send their children to western schools. In short Yong Zhao, a Chinese native who was born in Sichuan, claims that Western countries, Britain and America, should not try and adopt China’s education system for many reasons. I my opinion this book did not seem important to pre-service teachers, but after further thought and reading, I conclude that this book is valuable to not only pre-service teachers, but to anyone that is involved in education because it provides reasons why we should not try to adopt China’s education system.

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.

Mireya, the student particularly interested in pursuing a successful life, questioned the school’s actions when she asked “Why is it [...] that students who do not need what we need get so much more? And we who need it so much more get so much less?” (Kozol 208). Students like Mireya do not get to experience the variety of challenging preparatory classes that many others take for granted. A classroom full of hopefuls should have the chance to experience the liberation that knowledge provides for them, but because the school they attend doesn’t cater towards their needs, they are stuck in a perpetual confinement void of education and success that manages to extend to the generations below them as

Renovations must be done in educational systems to enable success for students in the changing world of today. In Herbert’s essay, he expresses that education is not improving in ways it needs to. These changes prove to be essential when looked at from the student and societal aspect. At this point, schools are not adjusting to time changes. Herbert supports this claim by stating, “The U.S. has not yet faced up

Education should not only be looked at as attending college and passing exams to succeed in school. It should be seen more as the complete development of one's personality, intellectual development, and moral evolution. The system tells everyone to learn the same material, even if the students are bored and even if they’re sleeping during class. In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto states, “teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subject and clearly weren’t interested in learning” (Gatto). This shows the teachers and the students disconnect from the context because either it’s irrelevant or not being taught in inspiring ways.

As times become worse, children become more neglected by their parents or guardians. Children who are neglected usually do not like to stay home often. However, it is required by law that children have to go to school. What child wouldn’t want to go to school when their teacher lets them paint by themselves in the back of the classroom and treats them like they are not invisible? Tons of children across the country depend on going to school, just to get away from home. School is their happiness. However, there are arising issues of school systems and the outcome could ruin some of the children’s happiness.

Every year in the United States there are many high schools students that do not graduate and receive a degree. The United States curriculum for students in public education has slowly declined, and continues to do so. Students are required to learn information that is confusing, useless, and boring. They are also learning how to be accepted into society, independence, and stepping beyond only thinking about themselves. John Taylor Gatto is a speaker, consultant, writer, and a retired teacher of twenty-six years who studies and analyzes students and their learning abilities and learning environment. One of Gatto’s more popular essay on these issues is “Against School”. During his twenty-six years as an educator, Gatto watched and witnessed the decline of a public school education and the issues that caused it. This brought him to write informative and argumentative essays about public schools and the level of education. Gatto uses rhetoric in his essay “Against School” to give the audience a visual idea of the struggles students and educators face. Gatto uses his writing to question the public school education and to demand a change from students, educators, and public school officials. Gatto proposes that anyone can make a difference in the way in which public school education is being taught and the responsibilities that come from and fall on the students and educators. In “Against