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Emily Wiebel

Dr. Rieman

English 1101X

April 5, 2010

The Same Old Thing

Let me begin with the same topic as John Taylor Gatto did in is essay “Against School”.

He began with the topic of the students and the teachers being bored during school. As the

article said students mostly say school is boring and it is almost always related to the teachers

(Gatto, 33). Teachers seem to be bored themselves and do not seem to love what they do or what

they are supposed to teach. How are you supposed to keep a student interested in the material if

the teacher does not enjoy it?

Many teachers today do not make class interesting, hands on, or sometimes even

productive. They know the material that is supposed to be taught and they do just that. They

make sure the information is given to the students but not in a way that is necessarily the best for

the students. Teachers have a mind set on the way that classes are supposed to be run and the

way that the information is supposed to be delivered. They need to open their minds and try new

teaching techniques that make class interesting for everyone.

When I was in school I had many teachers who did not seem to care about the way they

were teaching, they were there because it was their job and they had no choice. Don’t get me

wrong, I did have a few awesome teachers but the rest were nothing special. In the not so special

classes we would just read from the book or look through slides all during class. That is not

exciting or interesting in the least bit when you have to sit through a ninety minute class.

Teachers need to base their teaching strategies, technique, and lesson plans around the way that
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their students can learn the information.

To go along with the boring factor of school, are traditional schools necessary? Just as

Gatto stated “Is six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years of

schooling” actually needed (34)? In my opinion the way school is operated now it is not

necessary. I feel that a student should have the right to decide what classes they want and not be

forced to take a certain amount of one subject such as four history classes. The student should be

able to decide if they even need to take history. Personally for me, I did not need four history

classes for the career I would like and hope to do once I graduate. I am going into Criminal

Justice and Accounting. When I was in high school I could have benefited more from taking

extra math, business, and law classes rather than history and science.

I also believe once you reach your junior and senior year of high school you should be

encouraged to do the College Experience Program, which is when you take some of your classes

at the local college. This was extremely helpful to me and it prepared me for college. I was able

to get a sense of what college would be like without having the full work load to handle all at

once. When I came to UNCC I was already prepared and knew what to expect. School systems

should not necessarily make this mandatory, but if more students knew about the benefits or even

knew some information that the College Experience Program offered, I feel it would become

more popular, and the transition from high school to college would be easier.

The school systems today need to be improved to better suit their students. The teachers

need to become more engaged in the material they are teaching and the curriculums for the

school systems need to change to meet the best needs of the students. The students are the most

important part of school and they are also the future of the country. If they are not learning the

necessary information and skills they need what is going to happen?

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Work Cited

Gatto, John Taylor. “Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids and

Why.” Harper’s Magazine. Sept. 2001: 33-38. Print.