John Taylor Gatto explains in his essay, “Against School”, how the state of boredom and childishness can occur too often in classrooms. Gatto's description is true for a majority of public school classrooms because most teachers lecture too much in a monotone and unenergetic way. While this description represents the current American educational norm, teachers, students, and communities can change these low expectations by each playing a role in help making learning in classrooms a more engaging environment. For example teachers can change their style of teaching and become more entertaining, students can come to school with more motivation to learn, and communities can help make a safer environment for a student to learn and attend school. …show more content…
The current state of the American education system has low expectations because students don't find their teachers entertaining.
When a teacher sits in his chair and lectures all class from a power-point, students are bound to get sidetracked and doze off. The inactive teacher shows little to know interest in a students education. Thus, students come to class under-motivated, complain about school because the teacher lectures with a monotonous regularity, but are expected to be fully attentive. A teacher who doesn't push his students to get involved and teaches with no energy will not get as much attention and participation from the students. Another factor why American education system is substandard is because schooling has become a routine. Gatto explains through experience, how teaching for a long duration of his career has supplied him with enough reasons on why schooling is boring: “taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom”(308). Gatto believes that children are forced to attend school and must learn to become obedient, resulting in children not wanting to attend school and complain. Gatto deems schooling unnecessary because students become too dependent on the education system and uses Abraham Lincoln and George Washington as examples of successful Americans who never had a formal
education. Specifically, a change within how the teacher operates his classrooms has to occur in order to change the low expectations on the American education system. The student needs to take responsibility for learning while the teacher can help and motivate to a certain extent also is the administrator's jobs to make sure the school is a comfortable zone to feel safe and learn for the students. The community should be held responsible for providing an environment where students are able to attend school without any major difficulties. Parent's raise their children to become responsible, respectful, and to be apart of a school community. The teacher holds the biggest responsibility because they're the one who convey the knowledge they have to the students. An encouraging and enthusiastic teacher will energize his students. Being active and conversational, versus being lethargic, will help engage students into participating and discussing the topics and studies of what is being learned. Teachers who can differentiate the ways topics are learned can keep the students on the edge of their seats each school day. Activities and work that require students to collaborate, will help stop the texting, private conversations, and day dreaming during class. Teachers who are understanding and encourage students have an immense impact on students motivation. Pushing students outside their boundaries, making them think outside the box will help enable them to gain the confidence to beat their personal best. Teachers who's learning process is bland and monotonous doesn't bring out the potential and from a student but rather bore them to the point of tears. Students should have a thirst for knowledge and be willing to become an expert on what subject or small topic they're learning as long as the teacher takes the time to plan out activities and use materials that interest students. Many factors account for why the current American education system has low expectations. Gatto's opinion on the schooling system is that he finds the system unnecessary. Gatto believes the education system does not prepare students enough for life after graduating from school and does not guarantee success. At best United states education system is mediocre when compared to other countries, such as Japan, Korea, China, Switzerland, and Netherlands. Schooling in the U.S. has become a routine and feeds students both necessary and necessary information. U.S. schools also try to keep students together, make them take the same classes, gain the same knowledge, as if they all have the same identity, Students are bored more often in classrooms whether it's because the teacher isn't entertaining or lacks energy. The description of a classroom with students inattentive and unmotivated is common but is changeable with the help from administrators, parents, students and mostly teachers.
Historical facts are not easily countered and appeal to the reader’s logic. This works in Gatto’s favor because he is trying to convince a very large audience of varying opinions and educations to see his point of view. He questions the credibility of the current school system by comparing it to the education of historical American figures such as George Washington and Thomas Edison. He then goes onto argue the real goal of the system using figures and historical precedent - mainly the Prussianization of the school system. Gatto is a passionate libertarian, which may be part of the reason that he chose to mention political figures and the institution of the school system
As American’s we place a high level of importance on attending school and receiving a certain level of education. Across the world, the recommendations for attending school vastly differ based on the culture of the society. In America, we require our children to attend school until they are almost of legal age, push high school graduates to attend college and we constantly emphasize structured learning. Many children in today’s world lack many skills that would allow them to “teach” themselves outside of school leading to an increased interest in televisions, computers, and phones. Technology has taken away society’s attention away from independent learning such as reading, writing, and outside experiences. John Taylor Gatto’s emotional voice in his writing “Against School” has allowed me reveal my psychological voice regarding the educational system.
The average human would think that going to school and getting an education are the two key items needed to make it in life. Another common belief is, the higher someone goes with their education, the more successful they ought to be. Some may even question if school really makes anyone smarter or not. In order to analyze it, there needs to be recognition of ethos, which is the writer 's appeal to their own credibility, followed by pathos that appeals to the writer’s mind and emotions, and lastly, logos that is a writer’s appeal to logical reasoning. While using the three appeals, I will be analyzing “Against School” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto that gives a glimpse of what modern day schooling is like, and if it actually help kids
Gatto begins his argument with a personal account from when he was going through school as a student. He began falling into the “routine thinking” of school, where he was bored and felt unsatisfied with what he was learning. His Grandfather stated, that if [he] was bored, it was [his] fault and no one else 's. The obligation to amuse and instruct [himself] was entirely on [his] own” (Gatto, 115). Gatto reflects on his
Gatto begins his article by explaining that boredom is an everyday issue in modern schooling. Teachers struggle with boredom due to the attitudes and behavior of students and find it exhausting to teach kids when they behave in an immature manner. However, students also become frustrated with the repetition of useless information, as well as being forced to fit society’s standards. Gatto shifts the focus to his thoughts on the importance of mandatory schooling. He thinks that the lengthy school days are completely unnecessary.
To begin, there are several concepts about compulsory education that aggravates John Gatto and he explains his concerns in his essay “Against School.” Gatto’s first concern is everything is about school is boring. “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers (Gatto 608).” If the teachers are bored, they will create a dull and boring environment for the students. “Boredom and childishness were the natural state of affairs in the classroom (Gatto 608).” Lack of creativity and freedom is another concern of Gatto. “An educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects (Gatto 611).” Also, Gatto thinks school is unnecessary. “George Washington, Benjamin
Gatto uses the example of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln not attending twelve years of schooling and turning out just fine. In fact, he goes on to point out that most famous Americans in history, such as Edison, Carnegie and Rockefeller, to name a few rose to be admirals (p. 302), without attending high school. The main point Gatto seems to be explaining is that so many historians went without the twelve years of schooling and came out well educated. Although Gatto points out the historical stand point, Alfie Kohn uses past research to get his point across. As Kohn explains, studies after studies have shown that students starting from elementary school – up until graduate school are less interested in learning the material as a result of being graded. (p. 287) Also, the strive to get into college or graduate school depends on grades and GPA which puts more of a focus on having the highest grades and GPA, causing students to stress over making an A rather than a B or C, fearing that they may be turned down from a
In John Gatto’s essay “Against Schools” he states from experience as a school teacher that are current educational system is at fault (148). He claims that classrooms are often filled with boredom manufactured by repetitive class work and unenthusiastic teachings. Students are not actively engaged and challenged by their work and more often than not they have either already covered the concepts taught in class or they just do not understand what is being taught to them. The children contained in classrooms have come to believe that their teachers are not all that knowledgeable about the subjects that they are teaching and this advances their apathy towards education. The teachers also feel disadvantaged while fulfilling their roles as teachers because the students often bring rude and careless attitudes to class. Teachers often wish to change the curriculums that are set for students in order to create a more effective lesson plan, but they are restricted by strict regulations and consequences that bind them to their compulsory teachings (148-149). An active illustration of John Gatto’s perspective on our educational system can be found in Mike Rose’s essay “I Just Wanna Be Average” (157). Throughout this piece of literature the author Mike Rose describes the kind of education he received while undergoing teachings in the vocational track. During Mike’s vocational experiences he was taught by teachers that were inexperienced and poorly trained in the subjects they taught. As a result, their lesson plan and the assignments they prepared for class were not designed to proficiently teach students anything practical. For example, the curriculum of Mike Rose’s English class for the entire semester consisted of the repeated reading of ...
We live in a society where we are surrounded by people telling us that school/education and being educated is the only way to succeed. However, the school system is not up to the standards we want it to uphold. There are three issues we discuss the most which are the government, the student, and the teacher. In John Taylor Gatto 's essay “Against School”, we see the inside perspective of the educational system from the view of a teacher. In “I Just Wanna Be Average”, an essay written by Mike Rose, we hear a student 's experience of being in a vocational class in the lower level class in the educational system when he was supposed to be in the higher class.
Most high school students can 't wait for their school year to be over because they feel exhausted by the seven long periods of classes and not to mention boredom. John Taylor Gatto, a former New York State Teacher of the Year wrote an article called "Against School." Gatto criticizes the school system for their inability to meet the students’ expectations and for putting limits on their ability to learn. The children feel neglected, and the teachers feel helpless because they have to work with students who are not interested in the materials they are given. Gatto mentions how US high schools have become affected by adapting to the Prussian education system. According to Gatto, the purpose of high school is to manipulate the student 's mind
Many people think that going to school is the only way to get an education, to gain knowledge, to have a better understanding of society. Malcolm X didn 't necessarily believe that and nor did John Taylor Gatto, who wrote an article "Why Schools Don’t Educate." Gatto believed that schools kept children from being independent. If schools kept children from being independent than children weren 't being mentally alive, it was holding a child back from actual education. When they are in school the children focus on the time rather than the actual assignment, making them possibly fail because they lost the real importance of education. Gatto stated "The homeschooling movement has quietly grown to a size where one and a half million young people are being educated entirely by their own parents. Last month the education press reported the amazing news that children schooled at home seem to be five or even ten years ahead of their formally trained peers in their ability to think." (1) This shows that students that are given time to actually study and stay focus on one subject without being timed are more likely to succeed than a child that attends school. Given students the feeling of being mentally alive, to be able to embrace the
In John Gatto’s essay “Against Schools” he states from experience as a school teacher that are current educational system is at fault (148). He claims that classrooms are often filled with boredom manufactured by repetitive class work and unenthusiastic teachings. Students are not actively engaged and challenged by their work and more often than not they have either already covered t...
He argues that students “want to be doing something real” (Gatto 23). Also, he explains that they produce a manageable working class and “mindless consumers” (27-28). His point is that students want to learn something new that helps them in their life better than actual books from school which don’t apply their interests and their experience (23). He recommends home-schooling as an option to schools (24). Gatto claims that contemporary schools “adopted one of the very worst aspects of Prussian culture: an educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects.... ...
...her ups, and then once their ideas of education update, so can school systems, then teachers themselves. Maiers “Keys to Student Engagement” shows the raw potential that school systems already have. It also shows that students need the drive and ambition to succeed. Tristan’s article on edutopia provides ideas that are already in motion. His ideas and tips have already started to work in public high school in his community. With the guidance and vision of these three authors public school issues could cease to exist. Even though there’s a lot involved getting administrators (and some teachers) on board, it is possible, and in the near future, a reality.
Knowledge is power, and Gatto knows that a formal education is not the only path to knowledge. Throughout his passage he had cited that many of the schools he worked at had issues. Weather they be the simple nature of boredom that he found in ever institute he went to, this is often bred by the instructors themselves feeling bored and uninterested by what they teach and the teachers too were inflicted the same ordeal the students are going through. The morning to afternoon classes, five days a week, 180 days a year. He has felt this himself and it is hard to disagree with someone with his background or at least sympathize with what he is saying.