The Importance Of Schooling Conductive To Learning

Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he is fed for a lifetime. In today’s society, education is very similar to this statement. Schools are commanded to teach aspects of life that only benefit the student for an end-of-the-year test. Students are not taught what is to come in the life after school. Because of the poor quality in education today, the emphasis on standardized test has become overwhelming.

What is the main argument the author makes and how does it apply to contemporary education?

In the attempt to persuade his readers in “Against School: How public education cripples our kids, and why”, John Gatto relied on his passion for education to express his thoughts. Having a bad experience as a teacher in our current school system, he believes that our system isn’t what it should be. He believes that our kids aren’t being educated. With the use of frequent rhetorical questions, personal experiences, and an appeal to ethos using other respectable men’s work, Gatto clarified his points about our schools in the America.

With this essay Gatto intends to get the proverbial wheels by changing the reader 's mind by presenting them his own view of the educational world.He argues that the public school system crippled children ,he writes on how schooling has made some non-useful changes in the past generation following the others. He touches base with what was the purpose of schooling and what effects it has on students and how they may benefit from schooling and also how it harms them in some way. He shares a great deal about his own experience of teaching and his student’s response; he also refers to some articles written on schooling by great authors.

In a progressively more globalized world that necessitates more effective educational practices, the U.S., once the biggest global force in education, has seen its dominance slowly slip out, and its educational status fall even lower than that of several third-world countries. The decline experienced in American school system academic achievement is not as a result of lack of funding, but as a consequence of the overall educational system watering down. According to Gatto, educating children through the existing public school system of America is crippling rather than helping them. From his essay, ‘Against School,’ it is established that the goal of the whole public school system is to limit people’s intelligence in an attempt to create a society that is manageable. Gatto continues to state that action is needed to change this situation. He supports his assertions using current and historical information about the American school system and his personal experience. After reading his article, one realizes that most of Gatto’s arguments are true. It is true that the American education system is making the students comfort to the government and society norms, which is why they are easily bored. This essay’s goal will, therefore, be to support John Gatto’s beliefs.

In “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto states that, “Boredom is a common condition for teachers and students.” The text questions if we really need forced schooling as a necessary part of our society. The text reads that schools are confining, restricted and do not promote a real education. A problem I have observed in the public schools, is the fact that all children do not learn in the same manner or at the same pace. There is no cookie cutter mold concerning education that all individuals can incorporate into. Standardized tests and curriculum in a one size fits all method is not an effective way for children to learn.

Education gives common people the means to turning dreams into reality. Education allows common people to open up their minds to various possibilities, that will arise from becoming educated. But, yet there are times where our education systems do not uphold student/learners to a high norm. Although, problems with education systems rarely occur, inadequate performance in school can be feasible if there are issues within the child’s household. Nonetheless, students who face inconsistent dilemmas, fail since they attempt to solve both problems.

Class after class, day after day, I often sense a massive amount of repetition with school. Each lesson feels more like a chore than an actual learning experience. That’s the way school has always been though, like a job. It is hard to note that there is any sort of progress being made in terms of the everyday learning experience. In his essay, Against School, educator John Taylor Gatto claims that the everyday boredom of school is truly meant to demoralize and dumb down students, destroying individuality and the ability to create independent and critical thinkers. Gatto explains how children are not really growing up, they are only getting older, indicating that public schools exist only to “cripple our kids.” By using his experience in the classroom, Gatto creates an element of pathos and develops a structure which almost fools readers into inferencing what his opinion truly is. Gatto ultimately, through these rhetorical devices, wants to ignite thoughts about what the true purpose of school is, displaying the modern day public school education as a factory to create a mindless population of students.

In the article “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, the author uses multiple rhetorical strategies in order to persuade the reader to agree that there is a serious problem with the public schooling system. Throughout the article he is able to appeal to the reader through his own personal stories and experiences that he had during his 30 years of teaching in schools throughout New York City. He points out major flaws in the public education, including how the purpose is not to educate; but instead make obedient citizens and to make all students equal. Gatto’s personal experiences and seemingly expert knowledge on the school system sets up the reader to be susceptible to his rhetorical strategies.

Throughout Kozol’s piece, he makes the reader think about the situation America’s school system is in through his claims, style and supporting evidence.

However, our focus is so fixated on the child’s cognitive growth and performance on these standardized tests, that I feel we lose sight of our mission to also help the child develop socially, emotionally, linguistically and ethically. I think this is largely because a school is viewed as successful when it’s students perform well. But, the quality of an education cannot be measured by how well the child is performing on standardized assessments. All it demonstrates is that the child is learning what he or she is being taught. But is it a good education, and are children learning what they should? That would depend on one’s definition, and according to Dennis Littky, “our country does not have a common definition of learning” (2015, p. 159). I think that the goal of education should be to teach students to learn how to think in a way that is translated in to whatever profession they choose. For the most part, I agree with Littky’s definition of learning. He writes, “Learning is to problem solve and think critically, to analyze and interpret different perspectives, to be creative and use the world as a tool to innovate, to be proficient in reading, writing, and math” (2015, p. 159), I think that learners should be able to demonstrate these skills - but I think that there should be an overarching emphasis on the moral and civic character growth of our

“The child soon learns not to ask questions - the teacher is not there to satisfy his curiosity” (Holt 73). This is what John Holt thinks the American education system is all about. He thinks that school is a place where individuality and creativity come to die. He wrote an essay that explains his belief further that is titled, “School is bad for Children.” Holt uses several rhetorical devices and logical fallacies such as generalizations - stereotypes, making assumptions, and “either or fallacy” that weakens his argument.

Education is not to teach children how to learn; no, it is to make factory workers. Students are expected to memorize facts the teacher narrates and recite them back later for an exam, quiz, or

“The Right to Control One’s Learning”, by John Holt, is an article that focuses on how people should have the right to control and direct their own method of learning. Holt goes in depth by claiming that the school systems are corrupting the students and their right of controlling their own learning is in jeopardy. The article has pro-learning and anti-schooling as the overall tone. Speaking about this, I do believe that general schooling is necessary, students can still achieve similar results without being forced in an unjust and strict environment. Holt provides various points which includes students’ freedom of choice, school being too oppressive, and unnecessary teachings at school.

Education was not made to teach children how to learn, no it was made to have the students memorize facts and recite them back at a later date. This type of education could be called “narrative education”. There is no conversation between the student and teacher rather, it “involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students)” (240). The teacher just talks of the information they deem important and the students don’t question it. Instead, they quietly listen while frantically trying to write down all they need in order to understand. However, by making learning a flat experience “words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity” (240). They lose their meaning because there is no point to understanding them, when comprehension isn’t needed to pass a test. When all a teacher does is narrate