Against School

After reading “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, I automatically disliked and disagreed with his view on childhood. He instantly attacked children that don’t grow up fast enough and it confused me. I couldn’t picture someone forcing a child into an advanced educational system for the reason of wanting them to grow up faster. Children will always develop at different times. Gatto’s description of the school systems basically sounds like he’s talking about prison or a sweat shop. He claims that schools aren’t places for children to learn, develop, and thrive. But, some of Gatto’s criticism is fair. He believes that one of the main problems with the school system is boredom, both on the parts of the students and the teachers. “… their teachers were every bit as bored as they were.” (page 1) He states from his personal experience that schoolteachers are not even interested in being there at all and the students follow right in their footsteps. While some of Gatto’s criticism is fair, I think that he bends reality a bit. He only focuses on the bad view of the schooling system. Gatto doesn’t discuss some of the good that comes with school. While he talks about the negative effect that a bad teacher can have on a child, he doesn’t mention the huge impact that a good teacher can have on a child’s life. He also doesn’t mention that schools can be a way for people to make something of themselves in the future. So while Gatto offers some reasonable judgement of the American school system, he also shows some unfairness against it, and doesn’t really paint a picture for the readers.