Themes In Lynda Barry's The Sanctuary Of School

In Jonathon Kozol’s excerpt, Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, Kozol explains that public policy leaders and the school system need to work together in harmony to create policies and programs that specifically allow for underprivileged students to succeed. In the opening few paragraphs Kozol’s excerpt, Shame of the Nation, Kozol shared some of the letters he received from children who came from ghetto schools. These letters were comprised of how students in elementary school saw their school and how different it was from others. Specifically, white students. These letters as well explained that their school was lacking the things that made the school beautiful. For example, not having a garden or a playground

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experience as a teacher, but he also presents historical evidence that suggests that the public school system is an outdated structure, originally meant to dumb down students as well as program them to be obedient pawns in society.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

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

At Hazelwood High School, they do things differently than at my school. At Hazelwood, most of the people worry about themselves and nobody else. Most of the school doesn’t get good grades and the school does not do anything about it. One day in English class Andy walked out when they were reading Macbeth because it was too emotional for Andy to handle. His friends were concerned and told the school counselor. They said, “But… but… it seems like… like… he needs help or somethin’.” Then the counselor said, “Well, I probably shouldn’t tell you boys this, but he is getting some outside counseling… So you boys can relax and be assured that he is getting whatever help he needs”(100). At Harrisburg High School, if someone had an issue like that, the counselors and teachers would be concerned, even if the person was getting outside help. Another thing about education that is different than mine is the school. In Ronda’s English homework, she wrote, “Our school building must have been built about a million years ago, because it was brown and tall and raggedy-looking, but it fit right in with the rest of the day”(16). At my high school, we are very fortunate to have a very new building to learn inside of. At Hazelwood High, they were not fortunate enough to have a new high school be built. Culture and education are very important pieces of people’s

In Briana M. Wright’s essay, she uses logos, mood, strong diction, and juxtaposition to develop her argument that there is a lack of interest and personal responsibility in the public school system, which cause flaws in the American education system.

What is the role of public schools? Who should be governing public schools? This paper will address each side of these educational issues as well as offer a position statement and an action plan.

In Waiting for Superman, David Guggenheim’s documentary about America's school systems, he asks a multitude of very important questions that many people have been asking for a while now. Such as the question of if our teachers are essential to the well performance of a school, how can we, the everyday people, resolve poor performance within the school systems with an oftentimes uncritical view of teachers? In addition to that it raises the question on whether bad schools only exist in slums or other places as well. It also brings up the question can children excel in school if they are brought up in poverty.

When schools are converted to charters or “turned around” they are following the educational reform of Arne Duncan to give better education to underserved areas in Chicago. The myth of this is that these schools are highly beneficial to the underprivileged areas when in fact they are doing a great amount of harm. In “Arne Duncan and the Chicago Success Story: Myth or Reality?” the myth is recognized by stating the impact on children and teachers; a statement from the article says, “Renaissance 2010 was (and is) marketed as an opportunity to bring in new partners with creative approaches to education. That's the myth” (Brown, Gutstein, Lipman, 2009). As stated, the myth here is schools should be operated as markets and the charter school system does this by getting rid of the difficult working ways and replacing them with creative partners. Brown, Gutstein and Lipman further explain why the charter school is harming the community saying how students are facing attendance and violence problems, “…there is no guarantee that a student who had their school closed will attend a charter school and those who had their school closed down have faced destabilization of spikes in violence…” (Brown, Gutstein, Lipman, 2009). This demonstrates the fault of charter schools because it shows how community warnings were ignored on what school closings will do to the neighborhood. A further statement on the problem with teachers and charters schools found in the

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.

All this adds to the essay more credibility and strong inductive probability to the important role schools played as a safe refuge for children. In the other hand, all children that wanted to run away from their family or maybe for their economic problems just as she, could found refuge at the school (sanctuary). 4- In the essay, Barry reflects on her childhood experience and comes to realization about herself that she did not make when she was a small child. Read through the essay, listing the discoveries she makes about herself as she reflects.

In the year 2012, epic protest and meetings occurred to try and resolve the North Kitsap School District's chronic budget shortcomings. As a result of poor budgeting and a decreasing population, my school district faced multiple budget dilemmas. Due to our school districts close proximity to our local base, the military population greatly affects the number of students attending schools within the district. Needless to say, when a multitude military families moved away our school district's population began to fall like the leaves from the maple trees. Along with some of my fellow students, I fought against my school district when it threatened to cut a large portion of the Art Program’s funding at my high school. At the time, this included

It was the world I absolutely relied on. Without it, I don’t know where I would have gone” (2). The only people in my life who truly cared about me were my teachers. Teachers and the schools change students lives like they changed mine. “We all know that a good education system saves lives, but the people of this country are still told that cutting the budget for public schools is necessary” (3).

In the article entitled, A Tale of Two Schools: How Poor Children Are Lost to the World, by Jonathan Kozol, the writer is comparing the differences between New Trier High School, a school in Illinois that’s nestled in an affluent neighborhood against Du Sable High School, a school situated in an impoverished neighborhood that has 100% African American student in attendance. The article sadden and confirms things that myself and many others are already aware of, but has not been able to change. Schools located within the poor communities are

I enjoyed Barry’s narrative because she used specific detail referring to her emotions as specific events took place in the story. Even though Barry was a child when the narrative took place, her story has a double perspective; one involving a child sneaking out of the house to attend school early, and another being a grown woman making commentary on the American school system. One of the specific details that caught my eye as a reader was the fact that during class the teacher would excuse certain children to go to the back of the class and be free to express themselves artistically. The fact that the teacher would only pick certain students that she felt needed that time as a sort of catharsis is Barry’s way of describing through personal