Summary Of The Sanctuary Of School By Lynda Barry

Boarding School Seasons by Brenda J. Child offers a look into the boarding school experiences of many American Indian students. Child favors unpublished sources such as letters to give an uncensored inside look into boarding school experiences. However, she also includes other sources such as school newspapers, oral history collections, photographs, biographies, United States government publications, and annual reports. Government boarding schools were created to help the American government gain more control over Indians and to push the Natives to adopt the white ways of life such as language, skill, and education. While integration was the ultimate objective, Child sets out “to show that even with the challenges of cultural assimilation and a devastating land policy, American Indian people, even children, placed limits on assimilation and also defined and shaped the boarding school era.” (viii) The boarding schools designed to tear American Indian families apart did not succeed in isolating children from their tribes, but created bonds and

Residential schools are educational institutions established for Indigenous children. It was funded by the Canadian government and administered by Christian churches with the sole purpose of civilizing the native children and assimilate them into the modern western culture. In the novel Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson describes the impact of residential schools on multiple characters in the story. Uncle Mick, Aunt Trudy, and Josh are just a few who have experienced many types of abuse-physical, sexual, emotional and spiritual. Those horrid memories left permanent emotional scars and still resides with them even until adulthood. Residential schools disrupted lives, isolated families, eliminated cultural identity and caused long-term problems among the Indigenous community.

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.

Lynda Barry is a writer, teacher, and cartoonist who is best known for her comic strips about troubled family life. “The Sanctuary of School” portrays school as the haven that Barry found it to be during her childhood. School, Barry explains, was the place she felt safe and where she had the opportunity to utilize art as a coping mechanism for her home life. Through this narration of her childhood, Barry also addresses the importance of funding our nation’s education system and providing students with opportunities they do not receive at home. I believe that the message of the author is crucial as students in underprivileged neighborhoods may not have the creative outlets they need in school. The essay allows me to reflect on my own fortunate

Elementary and middle school years (6-12) are Erikson’s fourth stage in which the child must resolve the crisis between industry and inferiority. During this stage, a child becomes more aware of themselves as individuals. It is important that a child learn the feeling of success; if not allowed enough success, they might develop a sense of inferiority or incompetence. Again, it is about the balance of industry and inferiority that leads to competence both intellectually and socially. Despite the fact that the Welsh school administration placed Jeannette in classes for students with learning disabilities, she knows she is smart. She was in honors classes in Phoenix and continues to excel academically under the guidance of her parents. She reads on her own and understands that education is important. Despite her placement in the lower classes and not having any close friends, she is able to develop a sense of industry.

In Lynda Barry's essay “The Sanctuary of School” the author addresses the ongoing issue of funding for public schools in America. She is trying to persuade her American audience, such as the school board, and parents, that we need to keep the public schools. Barry is the perfect person to argue the importance of public schools and art and the children who attend them because she was one of those children. She is now a famous cartoonist and author, and she thanks her public school experience for her success. Her essay was intended for the people who believe they aren't important, people who work for school boards, maybe some parents, and the United States Department of Education. In “The Sanctuary of School,” Lynda Barry uses a sense of

Mandatory, enforced schooling is common all over the world, and is generally seen as a public good, and a privilege of first world countries. However, author and teacher John Gatto argues that mandatory schooling destroys your ability to be free thinkers and therefore should not exist, in his piece “Against School”. Despite his effective use of ethos, Gatto’s argument fails to be convincing due to logical fallacies, and a lack of evidence or first hand experience.

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.

Schools today cut every extracurricular activity they possibly can to reduce overall cost and funding. I would not exactly say that the children come first. When saying, "I wonder now when the country will face its children and say the pledge right back" she is stating that the school system and parents ask questions first and are not willing to always give it their all. Mainly because they have other things in life that they deem more important than teaching of the children, or even giving attention to children."Drawing came to mean everything to me. I learned to build myself a life preserver that I could carry into my home." Barry was talking about art and the love of drawing, the love of escaping through her art! Art, Music, Band and all

Lynda Barry disagrees with the how the school system is now and wants to change it: “We are told in a thousand ways that not only are public schools important, but that the children who attend them, the children who needs them the most, are not important either” (71-72). Lynda Barry disagrees with the statement because she’s talking about how the schools need to change FOR the children and not the other way around. Also, Barry wants to say children needs a voice and people to stand up from them. Zitkala-sa describes her school experience as negative because of the abuse she got: “I cried out loud, shaking, my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck and heard them gnaw off one of my thick blades. Then, I lost my spirit” (46-47). Zitkala-sa disagrees with the statement because of her horrible experience at school. Zitkala-sa also believes that her position on the National council of American Indians helped to change the education for

Our reading for this week is from the uniquely formatted book written by Harry and Rosemary Wong titled, “The First Days of School; How to be an Effective Teacher.” The focus section of our reading is based in Unit C of the text, which focuses of Classroom Management. Chapters 11-16 were read, and these chapters focus on the topics of how to have a well managed classroom, effectively preparing the classroom, how to introduce yourself to students, seating arrangement/assignment, starting a class, and the proper timing and execution of taking roll. Essentially each chapter of this text follows the same format. There will be a few paragraphs discussing what “effective teachers” would do followed by a few paragraphs about what “ineffective teachers”

Personally, “The Sanctuary of School” offers the strongest conflict. Namely, the conflict of Man v. Society, because troubled children like Lynda Barry contend with those who think before and after school programs are unimportant.

When children dread going to school, do you ever question why the child has already lost their eagerness for learning? In Chicago, Illinois, and numerous other places in the US, you can come across kids walking with their heads down and hands behind their backs in a single file line as if they are inmates. You’ll also discover that the cafeteria is dead silent to avoid the “overwhelming noise” of children enjoying their food and friends. With all of this being said, these schools sound more like boot camps than a place of learning. In the article, “Why some schools feel like prisons?” the writer, Samina Hadi-Tabassum, begins with a brilliant introduction, provides outstanding personal stories, and detailed examples to support their claim. The

One element that diminishes Holt’s essay is generalizations. He attempts to use generalizations to make it appear as though school is an evil place that needs to be saved. For instance, he says,

Ever school has carried its legends, secrets, and stories, many which are overseen by the curriculum. In Liberty Elementary, there lies, ones secret that tends to stir the minds of the students every so often that Halloween approaches, and the coaches are given the opportunity to scare the children. According to Coach Espinoza, the story ties way back to the 1900’s when the city was in its midst expanding into further other unsettled territory.