The Pros And Cons Of Public Education

John Taylor Gatto, former New York City Teacher of the Year and author of “Against School: How public education cripples our kids, and why,” believes that forced schooling essentially molds young minds into society’s servants. Gatto begins his argument by drawing on his own experience as a teacher and the history of schooling. He then demonstrates how schools turn children into consumers. Despite the fact that he believes that public education cripples young minds, he concludes by offering a solution. Although Gatto argues his point well by bringing in personal experience, background history, and effects, he generalizes many points, lowering his credibility.

As Laurence Powell Jobs once said, “It’s not that our high school system was not designed well, but that it was designed in 1906 when the country was just out of the industrial era. There hasn’t been a substantial systemic change the way we do high school since then.” It’s no secret that the current school system used in America is outdated and problematic. With a plethora of obvious issues in need of fixing, there are noticeable differences between America and other countries. Steps needed to improve the system can be implemented. Although times have changed, the American education system has become outdated and thus is riddled with faults. When compared to other education systems, it is clear that the American schooling system is in need of reform.

The visionary outlined his plans for the institution in a reading titled, Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. As a means of resolving public health issues and providing care for the physically or mentally ill., Franklin constructed the idea for the first map for a public hospital in Pennsylvania. The final bit of philanthropic advice given from Franklin outlines a list of the 13 virtues necessary to live a virtuous life. Franklin mastered all of the virtues on his list and felt that others could benefit from his system “not [by] attempting the whole at once, but [by fixing] one of them at a time” (Franklin, 96). As a philanthropist, Franklin continuously sought after ways to improve his community. With the help of his Junto, Franklin succeeded in leading new undertakings of social advancement. “He expressed his hope to produce something for the common Benefit of Mankind” (Franklin, 6).

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.

Expansion of education is closely related to idealistic views of democracy. In developing and wealthy nations, education is valued because it helps the individual mind to develop capabilities. In contrast, education has also been seen as a way to promote equality. Having access to public education, in theory, has the potential to reduce poverty and promote equality. If all are entitled to the same public education, not to mention they are required by law, why do school systems seem segregate their students? Researchers have searched for the answer and have theorized that economic background, tracking, and hidden curriculum are a few things that help contribute to the imaginary lines drawn between students in society.

According to Samuel Flam and William Keane authors of Public Schools: Private Enterprise, the definition of privatize is “...the process of turning over to private companies, programs, services and sometimes properties previously operated and/or owned by a government agency” (Flam & Keane, 1997, p.15). Privatizing of a school service is selling a service of the school district to a private company that runs, maintains and keeps up the service. The school district no longer oversees this service and virtually has no control over what they do but outsourcing this service would cut back on the economic spending of the school. A school service is something that students receive that is provided for them in school to enhance their well-being. In the school system, some examples of services that could be outsourced by a private company are school lunches, buses and janitor staff. According to Joe Argon author of Changing of the Guard, “for schools, transportation, food service, HVAC maintenance, computer servicing and printing continue to be the areas privatized most often” (Argon, 1997). The main issue behind this is finding out if privatizing school services does the school district more harm or good and what happens to the services and students after they have been privatized.

Over the course of the early stages in America, colonies were formed on the multiple regions of the eastern coastline. Each colony had their own views on religion, legislation, and moral values that contributed to the creation of the American ideals. These ideals include democracy, rights, liberty, and equality. After thoroughly reviewing the weekly readings and notes taken from given lectures, I believe that the religious Massachusetts Bay society more epitomized American ideals during the early colonial era. The reasoning that led to this conclusion starts with the legislation of this colony.

With the many diverse characteristics of the Unites States, perhaps the most troubling is the rising gap in the distribution of wealth. As the wealth gap in the United States rises exponentially, the gap in the quality of public schooling rises with it. For a country that prides itself in prestigious outlets of education, the system of public schooling seems to be miserably failing. Public education, a system that some fight to destroy while others fight to preserve, is perhaps the only source of academic opportunity for many individuals living in this country. The fact that someone can live in a certain area and receive a higher quality of public education than someone else living in a different area in the same country—even in the same state—is a problem that should not trouble a ‘progressive’ democratic society. Unfortunately, areas of lower socioeconomic status receive much less funding than areas of higher socioeconomic status, where property taxes account for 45% of funding in public school districts. Naturally, the impoverished residents of poor neighborhoods pay a harsh price in this situation, sending their children to an underfunded school with little to no resources, where sometimes teachers must supply the classroom from their own pocket. As Rogerson and Fernandez note, “a system that allows the accidents of geography and birth to determine the quality of education received by an individual is inimical to the idea of equal opportunity in the marketplace”

Franklin was shifting gears during this time of his life. He was forty-three years old, a wealthy printer, but he retried, tackling non-commercial pursuits like science, politics, and education. This is when he observed that lack of higher education available in Pennsylvania. He longed to open a school for boys that would teach them the practical skills needed in their future endeavors. He stated, “Students preparing for the ministry or medicine would study classical languages, while those becoming merchants would focus upon ‘living languages.’ In addition, Franklin hoped that all students would learn practical skills, including planting and

Colonial America’s social life was probably the most interesting aspect of their new lives. They had two main laws by which to live by; The Moral Law and the Law of Grace. According to the Moral Law, every man was to love his neighbor, and help in times of want or distress. However the Law of Grace, calls men to put a difference between Christians and others.

Education has been the subject of some of the most heated discussions in American history. It is a key point in political platforms. It has been subject to countless attempts at reform, most recently No Child Left Behind and Common Core. Ardent supporters of institutional schools say that schools provide access to quality education that will allow the youth of our country to gain necessary skills to succeed in life. Critics take a far more cynical view. The book Rereading America poses the question, “Does education empower us? Or does it stifle personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds?” The authors of this question miss a key distinction between education and schooling that leaves the answer far from clear-cut. While education empowers, the one-size-fits-all compulsory delivery system is stifling personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds.

Education is an issue that touches everyone’s lives in one way or another. Whether you are a parent, student, teacher, taxpayer, or employee, the effects of education on society can be seen everyday. For this reason, public schools are a top concern among political leaders. Over the past twenty-five years, confidence in the nation’s public school system has dramatically declined. While the public for the most part seems to support their school district, criticism is not lacking. Recent years especially have shown dissipating support. It appears that the prevailing view is that public education, as a whole, is in bad condition and is in need of a renewed effort to fix it. Private schools seem to fare

     I have examined and compared public versus private education. Also, this collection of information should help you understand differences between public and private schools. Aspects of equality and achievement in private and public education will be dissected and evaluated.

The greatly discussed dilemma of having a child be taught in a public school setting versus a homeschool setting has been evaluated by parents since the idea was first introduced in the 1970’s. Public schooling had been the standard method of teaching since it is a requirement for states to provide public, free education for children in grades K-12. However, the backlash against the system began when two educational theorists and supporters of school reform, John Holt and Raymond Moore, started to question both the techniques and the products of public schools. Some parents went on to support the ideas of them and began to teach their children in the environment of their own homes for several different reasons. Some included moral or religious reasons, a desire for high educational achievement, dissatisfaction with public schools’ instructional program, or concerns about drugs and peer pressure in a public school environment. Child development specialists believe that homeschooled children are isolated from the outside world, therefore making them socially handicapped. If being exposed to this type of education on an elementary school level, the child can suffer from the lack of fundamental development of effective social skills needed for a lifetime ahead of them.

Many struggling parents wish they could send their children to private schools essentially from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. And so my question is: What is the real worth of a private education? According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Education posted by College Smart, private school students generally perform higher than their public school counterparts on standardized achievement tests. As a product of public elementary and high school education, I am currently seeing some of the struggles that public school students face after high school graduation when they enter college. I realize now that, behind the high tuition costs, private schools provide caring, challenges, and