Robinson 1
Oliver RobinsonEnglish 1101xDr. RiemanNovember 19
th
2009Gatto is Against SchoolIn John Taylor Gatto’s article, “Against School” he writes how ourmodern day education system “Cripples” the students and needs to becompletely reformed. As a former teacher, Gatto brings about many goodpoints, such as going to school less and changing the structure of the currentschool system. As a student the idea of less school is obviously appealing,but as I looked deeper into Gatto’s article and the points he makes, but failsto back up, I saw someone who is angered by the system and wants tochange it so that in the future children will be able to become more creativeand successful which will inevitably help the country. Gatto has faith in thechildren but not in the system and he wants every reader of his article toknow that the system is failing the future geniuses of this country.After reading this article to myself and then hearing what others had tosay about it, I began to agree with most, if not all, of what Gatto had to say.However, I wanted more substance to the arguments he made against ourmodern school system. Gatto mentions how students today are bored andeven the teachers become bored with an overused and oversimplifiedcurriculum; this could not be truer. After this point is made Gatto lets the
Robinson 2
readers down by not coming up with ideas how to change this boring attitudemost people have towards school. He was a teacher for many years, as hestates in the opening paragraph, so it would be assumed that he had time tothink about how he would change the system.Although this is a minor let down Gatto adds substance to the articlewhen he gives a brief, eye opening history lesson to the reader. Not much of the article surprised me until he reveals the true origins of the public schoolsystem, according to Gatto the military state of Prussia was the templateused to create our current system. He reveals that the basis was to teachchildren how to be good people, good citizens and make them reach theirpersonal best. This sounds harmless enough until Gatto describes the trueideas of the Prussian system which are “To produce mediocre intellects, tohamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, andto ensure docile and incomplete citizens” (36). This surprising revelationgives Gatto’s argument a whole new level of interest from a reader’s point of view. What I would have liked to see is ways in which Gatto thinks thesystem can break away from its Prussian origins and into a more interactivesystem. Gatto does not give any of his own suggestions in this piece but thismay not be what the article was all about. Instead of writing an article aboutall of his ideas maybe Gatto just wanted to bring to the reader’s attentionways in which this modern system is failing the students. Perhaps he wantedall of the readers to make a stand and try and change the current system.
Robinson 3
This is the second piece in this course to deal with the failures of ourpublic school system. First was Jean Anyon’s essay on her findings of ahidden curriculum and now second is John Taylor Gatto’s piece on ourcrippling school system. Although many readers could argue that Anyon’sfindings are as valid as Gatto’s article I would have to say that Gatto’s factbased article has more power to it. Anyon argues that the school systemworks fine for those in a higher class but fails those in a lower class. She hada small amount of evidence for this and never brought any factual articles orcitations to back up her study. Gatto however brings his own knowledge asan educator as well as factual based findings to tell the reader how it is. These two essays are similar in that they both bring about faults in ourcurrent education system, Gatto’s factual based article simply does a better job of convincing the reader that there is a problem with the system and itneeds to be addressed.After reading this article and the many points Gatto makes against theschool system it is not hard to be angered and want to change the currentsystem. Gatto does a great job of evoking passion in the reader against thesystem by slowly giving the reader points that are backed by facts that arehard to ignore. However, Gatto could have given the reader more ideas onhow to change the system by giving his own opinion. I am positive that therewere many readers eager to read what he had to say about the future of education. The passion Gatto has on this topic is evident throughout thearticle which gives the article a great strength. Although the article makes
of 00
Gatto Interpretation Draft #3
615 Reads
Info and Rating
| Category: | Uncategorized. |
| Rating: | |
| Upload Date: | 12/09/2009 |
| Copyright: | Attribution Non-commercial |
| Tags: |
Leave a Comment