Brown1

Breena Brown

Jan Rieman

English 1101x

7 April 2010

What Does it Mean to be Educated?

In John Taylor Gatto’s essay, “Against School”, the issue of education is discussed. He states,

“…plenty of people throughout the world today find a new way to educate themselves without

resorting to a system of compulsory secondary schools that all too often resemble prisons. Why

then do Americans confuse education with just a system?” (34). Gatto brings up an important issue

of what is education and why is it typically associated with schools. He provides several examples of

famous people like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, that had little

schooling, yet turned out to be incredibly intelligent. I believe that schooling should not define a

person’s intelligence or their level of education.

Nowadays, when a person is asked their level of education, they immediately

respond with the highest grade in school that they reached. However, I do not believe that question

can be answered with just the person’s school record. To me, education is more than math,

language arts, social studies and science. Education is constantly learning new concepts in

academics, but also in life. Not all life lessons can be taught in school. In fact, the only life lessons

that I’ve learned in school were ones like time management, perseverance and discipline, all of

which I figured out on my own and not from a teacher. Gatto created a list called, “12 Things You

Might Not Have Learned in a Classroom”, in which he described what he thought “really educated

people” knew. For example, he claimed that a really educated person would “create new things and

find new experiences” but that can happen in or outside of a classroom. School is not necessary in
 Brown2

this case to be considered somewhat educated. New experiences like those that Gatto is talking

about can occur through simply living your life.

People like my great grandmother, who stopped attending school after fifth grade, lived

their lives and experienced new events and gained more knowledge in everything they do even in

their failures. When discussing his 1,000 attempts to invent the light bulb, Thomas Edison once

said, “I have not failed 1,000 times. I successfully found 1,000 ways to not make a light bulb”. I

believe that Edison is right in what he’s truly saying. People can only succeed if they learn from

their failures and their mistakes. Gatto refers to Edison and several other famous people like

Farragut, Twain and Rockefeller as “unschooled, perhaps, but not uneducated” (34). Simply

because someone does not go to school doesn’t mean they aren’t smart or aren’t qualified for

decent jobs.

These days, people without high school degrees are lucky to get jobs at McDonalds or Taco

Bell. Typically, they aren’t even given a chance at big businesses and corporations. It’s the same

situation with people without a college degree. I don’t think it’s fair for a college graduate to be

considered smarter or more intelligent than someone who didn’t go to college. Businesses prefer

employees with college degrees. I don’t believe that a degree defines a person or means that

they’re more qualified for a particular job than some high school graduate. College means success

nowadays. In this society, people are pushed to go to college so that they can become “successful”, I

don’t think college guarantees success nor do I believe that dropping out of high school guarantees

failure. I personally feel like our society, including my parents, forced me into coming to UNCC. If I

believed it was possible to get a really good job without a degree, then I wouldn’t have come to

college. I’m currently a Middle School Education major. My previous education greatly affected my

choice in major because middle school was a useless experience for me. I don’t believe that I

learned anything and I want to make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else. I want to help the
 Brown3

students succeed, not necessarily attend high school or college, but I want them to learn. Sadly, the

people that choose not to complete high school or attend college are discriminated against when it

comes to applying for jobs.

Another one of Gatto’s “12 Things You Might Not Have Learned in a Classroom” is that one

must “choose a vocation that contributes to the common good”. In order to get a vocation that does

so, a college degree is almost mandatory. I do agree that a job is beneficial to a person, however I

don’t agree with Gatto when he says that a really educated person must have a job that helps out

the community. Brilliant people can work in the worst jobs that are extremely detrimental to

everyone.

The real meaning of education is different for everyone, but I believe that school and college

isn’t necessary for a person to be considered educated. There is a significant difference between

being unschooled and uneducated. I don’t always agree with Gatto, but I think for the most part he’s

correct like when he talks about the famous people being uneducated. I know several elderly people

that dropped out of school very early in their childhood, but they are some of the most intelligent

people I have ever known. Whether they learn through their work, family or parental influence or

other life experiences, they are far more intelligent than some of my professors here at UNCC.

School doesn’t equal brilliance.

Self Assessment:

Professor Rieman,

The people that edited my paper said that I had several grammatical errors, so I attempted to fix all
of them. I’m not entirely sure if I caught them all. I fixed the ones they pointed out and re-read my
paper several times out loud and in my head, looking for any errors I missed. Also, I added the part
about my major. One of my peers asked me if my past education experiences affected my major and
the reasons behind my choosing Middle School education. This peer workshop was helpful, but I
didn’t really get much feedback so I’m not sure if there’s anything else I should change.