Essay 2 - assesment

Using the templates in They Say / I say, develop an essay that takes a nuanced position about some aspect of contemporary schooling. You should draw on either Freire or Gatto or both, as well as your own experiences and thinking to support your ideas.

After reading John Gatto’s article “Against School,” I was left very intrigued as well as amazed. Mr. Gatto is a very prestigious man and knows how to write, that much I can say, however I don’t want to give him the benefit of the doubt, personally I think he is wrong and I think his credibility is somewhat in question. From experience I know that my education was anything but conformity, or brainwashing, and definitely not robotic.

Gatto’s article initially begins on how he had been teaching for thirty years but when he lost his teaching license he realized he had been worked by the system. He was convinced that most students and teachers in America’s educational system were mindless products, simply bored. Taught by his grandfather, Gatto learned that boring people should be avoided and not trusted. I agree that school is boring, by means that not all subjects appeal and those likings are personal choices. I was greatly influenced by my elders as a child as well but my actions remained separate from their advice, taking things with a grain of salt I learned that it was better to formulate my own opinions and discover things on my own.

Gatto wonders if school is even necessary, he states, “ Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary?” Gatto complicates it even more when he writes, “ ...a considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve-year wringer our kids go through...Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln?” Sure these men were unschooled and were prominent people but from our history these men are a dime a dozen, few people are such prodigies. Schools are backbones for children and their education, if that wasn’t the case then why would I be in a college scenario. I’ve been to 4 different schools growing up and not one of them hindered me or felt conformist. The range of my educational level was different too, one school was in a bad area with lower standards and then my high school was one of the best in the city if not the best. All of them gave me equal opportunities to think for myself and be unique.

Gatto’s interpretation of America’s schooling system, the nineteenth century Prussian way. The six steps or goals that is the actual purpose of our schools: Adjustive, integrating, diagnostic and directive, differentiating, the propaedeutic. All functions in the system that idealize that schools should destroy interesting material, intentionally make children alike, determine social roles, choose a select few (survival of the fittest), and finally the people who will be in charge of implementation. Where I grew up in Southern California it certainly did not feel the entrapment of the Prussian lifestyle. I always felt that teachers went out of their way to help out students. Many of them were very non traditional, asking for permission to use books out of the curriculum or their styles of teaching were different. Using creative games they had invented or maybe not assign homework because they thought it was up to the student to choose for themselves. Sure they gave us “goals” but who doesn’t want our next generation of children to be as successful or more than the previous. My science teacher wrote on every handout, “ Future Scientist Of America,” even if we hated science or had no intentions of being educators. I think he felt motivated to inspire kids in his on way.

As “educated” as Mr. Gatto is, I think he has some issues to work out. I mean he criticizes schooling so much and hates the system enough to go through numerous schools himself. He attends both public and private schools growing up and attends at least 7 Universities for his undergrad and graduate works. He also joined and served in the U.S Army talk about conformity. For a teacher with 30 years of profession I don’t understand his motive or why he changes. Is his grandfather that much of an influence or just something he can write about? Is he bitter? I don’t know him or know enough to say, however I do know that school is a fundamental part to a students success not only for myself but for the people I relate with. Where would I be without school? Not here at state that’s sure.