Analysis Of John Taylor Gatto's Idiot School System

Imagine a world without artists, poets, inventors, authors, or designers… Can’t do it? You don’t have to .All you have to do is look at the students being molded by the American public school system, a group of boring conforming unimaginative robots. The problem with the American school system, as argued by John Taylor Gatto in his article “Against School”, is that it’s designed to create students to conform and adapt, to determine their social roles. Schools don’t pay nearly as much attention in encouraging the students to think more critically or creative as they do in making sure they are labeled by some absurd “standardized test”. The school system needs to focus on creating a group of innovators, creative students who think outside the

When students become critical thinkers they are analyzing and reflecting on what they are learning, therefor advancing their skills in problem solving. Problem solving requires one to be able to tackle the problem abstractly from many points of view. Often problems can have more than one solution so it is required to be able to analyze the information and be able to apply it in various ways. In “Idiot Nation” by Michael Moore, he argues that the lack of attention political leaders give to schools in America is one of the biggest factors hindering proper education .Moore puts the blame on leaders like Dwight D. Eisenhower and William Clark, as well as the people who vote for them. The problem is that “the political leaders...have decided it’s a bigger priority to build another bomber than educate our children.”(Moore 131)Moore believes leaders put more effort into military artillery rather than proper education .The solution to America’s problems is not more bombs or weapons. The real solution are the children, the future of America. Therefore it is vital that we turn them into impeccable problem solvers, to solve America’s problems not with weapons but with knowledge. Critical thinking does just that. In an article called “How Critical is Critical Thinking” by Shawn Ryan D he makes references to the various studies of critical thinking and its relation to problem solving.

Amongst the many arguments that Gatto makes in his article, one of the ones that stands out the most is the one that schooling is created to deteriorate any type of originality in an individual. Gatto argues that not only does school train kids to think they should “consume nonstop” but “even better” it “encouraged them not to think at all” (Gatto154). Gatto believes that schools are creating absent minded individuals that can only think about consuming so that the businesses are the only one benefitting. Critical thinking once again gives the solution to such accusation. Critical thinking can create more open minded individual or students rather than absent minded ones .When students truly reflect and analyze information they are doing more than memorizing it, they are understanding it and finding where they can apply it in their everyday lives. The students are expanding their horizons and developing various ways of thinking and seeing situation rather than just the same fixed positions all the time. A school with open minded individuals can create a better atmosphere too because the students will feel more comfortable expressing original new ideas without the fear of being mocked or ridiculed. Open minded individuals can propose new ideas that can benefit the class as a whole such as a new insightful way of seeing a poem or an idea for a