In John Gatto’s article “Against School” he argues that the American public school system conditions children to be gullible, mindless consumers. Looking back at my four years in high school I realize I agree with him. I went to Canarsie high school and it came with the shittiest educators. When I was in high school I was literally thrown a textbook by my Global Studies teacher, Mr. Severin. He would always say…”read page 554″ then go in his little corner, kick his feet up and go to sleep. Teachers like this thats in our educational system honestly and truthfully need to go.
Although the K-12 education system in the United States is troubled with issues, like boring content and a curriculum with useless information, it is a necessary part of our society. While I’ve definitely been in many classes where the only thing I care about is how fast the seconds tick away from the class being over. I believe that our education system, as boring as it may be, is necessary to give children an education to hopefully improve their lives and their future. Gatto gives the examples of Carnegie, Twain and Farragut among others as successful people who did NOT receive a high school education. Similar examples could be pulled from today’s society just like Bill Gates and Steve jobs who both did not complete college. Unlike during Carnegie, Twain and Farragut’s time, we live in a more complex world that requires greater knowledge to succeed. Nowadays it is no longer possible to be successful like Edison by just inviting a light bulb.
The problem now is that when we go to college, we are exposed to the small percentage of people who were able to figure out the meaning of education in life, or in my case, to the percentage of people who had the most terrible education. When we go to college we have to figure out the true meaning of education that Gatto is trying to tell us. In English, we have to read the material, and actually understand what the author is hinting at, not like in high school where you can just be cool with the teacher, not do any work and they will pass you. No matter the material we are learning, there is a certain point of understanding that is needed in order to fully take in the work we are doing. We are working towards future careers. We are working towards being successful in life. It’s a big issue to force students to study specific things, which don’t help them improve.
Gatto argues that the purpose of education in public schools is to produce “harmless electorate,” “a servile labor force,” and “mindless consumers.” According to Gatto, he is blaming public schools by explain that the purpose of education is to shape students to certain expectations and habits without their interests. He argues that students “want to be doing something real”. Also, He explains that they produce a manageable working class and “mindless consumers”. His point is that students want to learn something new that help them in their life, better than actual books from school which don’t apply their interests and their experience.
