Author: mia carter

 Is your  Education being Advertised ?

 

       The society we live in now today is a place were having the newests and latest products is a big thing. Always feeling like you need those thing in order to fit in. Whether it’s the newest clothes,footwear, technology ,etc. We see the advertisement for these thing and think to ourselves that we really do need them. Constantly being pressured with the message that you need the newest things to fit in. Even when having something that’s already new to you there’s always something newer being added to the shelves making us want it. And the same thing happens when it comes to educational things. Is this type of consumerism drilled into our head and culture that it affects you? Is this consumerism  apart of your education making society gullible and mindless?

         

         The two groups that can answer these questions are teachers and students. This is the truth when it comes to John Taylor Gatto’s article “Against School,” where he rates public schools intentions and there effectiveness of their education. In his article Gatto states, “ School didn’t have to train kids in any direct sense to think they should consume nonstop, because it did something even better: it encouraged them not to think at all.”(4) It’s not like that schools promote consumerism but however they don’t disencourage it. Leaving students defenseless from advertisement. Not teaching students to stop and think but teach them to consume nonstop. To sit there and think what could happen or what should happen instead of just trusting it. Making them consumers as the believe in what they are being told without the information to back it up.

          

        As a teacher in the New York City school system were he grows to believe that the school system makes children oppose to education and preparing them to be responsible adults. Gatto mentions in the article, “ First, though , we must wake up to what our schools really are: laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands.”(5) Based on this statement, the public school system is the place were kid go to be brainwashed by the educational system. Drilling habits and attitudes that we would need in society. Schools are like science labs they study students and use students as experiments to see how the young minds will act by being drilled with information, habits and attitudes they think that will be used in society.

        

          When you turn Eighteen that’s the time when it  marks a point in your life when you are considered legally adults. By being legal they are able to make their own decisions and be held accountable for what they say and their actions. As a person who attended public school the idea of the education system drilling habits and attitudes that we would need in society is true. With these habits and attitudes being drilled into your head affects the decision making process because you think about how it’s going to affect your society and you. You think about all the things that you have learned and how you are going to us it in your life in society. Making you wonder if that what you been tough is going to help or hurt you. Being gullible is believing something without questioning the person or the information. If the goal for school’s is to feed information to students without giving further information. Making students foster the idea of gullible behavior. My experience at school were teachers would tell you something but you always think are they telling me the truth. Am i going to really needs this? Is this going to affect me later?Teachers always telling you don’t bring this don’t do that. That these things will help us when done with school. But the truth is all these thing somehow are apart of everyday life and part of society and how we live.

 

       In another article by Dr. Robert Leamnson “Learning (Your First Job)” were he describes the components of the learning process and the several methods on how to process. Theses several methods in and out of the classroom. Leamnson writes, “You cannot be ‘given’ learning, nor can you be forced to do it. The most brilliant and inspired teacher cannot ‘cause’ you to learn. ” (Leamnson 1) No teacher can force you to learn. Even best teachers can’t force you to learn.  It’s you as a person that has to force themselves to learn. This is if you really care about your education. No teacher should force you to learn even your favorite teach can’t force you to learn. You have to force yourself to want to learn and succeed.

 

Works Cited

Gatto, John T. “Against School.” Against School – John Taylor Gatto, wesjones.com/gatto1.htm.

Leamnson, Robert. “Learning (Your First Job).” MA, Dartmouth, Dec. 2002.

 

My plans to reread the article is to read for 10 minutes then take a break from reading then go bake to reading. The break will give me time to get a snack and to check my phone. when also reading will try not to touch my phone so i will put it on the other side of the room. also when reading i will take more notes

When reading the article for a second time, i may sure to pay attention to details of the article. To admit for the first time i just read the article just to read it not actually reading for details or information. while reading for the second time i learned the educational system originated form Prussian origin. When states , ” Our educational system really is Prussian in origin, and that really is cause for concern. The odd fact of a Prussian provenance for our schools pops up again and again once you know to look for it.” (3) He also states , ” But what shocks is that we should so eagerly have adopted one of the very worst aspects of Prussian culture: an educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life,…”(3) When reading the article the first time i skipped over the paragraph when he talks about the history although that was a lot for me to read with out falling asleep. But when reading he makes some good points. Also learned that some big people had a part in the educational system like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and some other people. i didn’t know that they a had a part in the educational system. So safe to say it was a good thing to read for a second time. Maybe the first time you don’t get all the information but giving it a second chance will help you see what you missed.

Reading “Against School’ by John Taylor Gatto was confusing at one point and became boring. I was losing my interest in the reading as I moved further along. At first i like how he would talk about kids being bored in class. And i agreed with that because when i was in high school classes were boring to me. When asking kids why class was boring Gatto answers were, “They said they wanted to do something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more”(1). This is something i agree with i always wanted to do something real in class. Something connected to my life something that i  would use later on. But my teachers seemed not to know how and didn’t even feel interested in the subject that they were teaching.

Something that i was confused about was the history apart that came about in the reading that’s were Gatto lost me and things became boring and losing the interest to read anymore. Gatto starts talking about the history of schooling in the United States and the purpose of school. Gatto states, “We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think of “success” as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, ” schooling”, but historically that isn’t true in either an intellectual or a financial sense”. (2) After that is went on to talk about H.L Mencken more and everything when down hill there for me. I try to push throw the reading but because my interest was lost i started to do other things.