Author: Hadeel A

Hadeel Abuhamda

February 18, 2019

English 1101

 

Fuck School; It’s Time for a Change

What if your little brother or sister comes home from school one day and tells you that he/she doesn’t want to go to school anymore because they aren’t learning anything. The teachers in their school doesn’t teach. 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 teachers. When I was in high school I was 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 that’s in our educational system honestly and truthfully need to go. In my experience teachers care more about how students were behaving than what they are learning.

When I first read “Against School” I was surprised to find the truth in Gatto’s statements regarding education in school. We are repeatedly told information and expected to memorize which formula or equation to use. We then proceed to have tests and quizzes repeating the same formulas using different numbers. The end result is a chain that gives us A’s and B’s, but at what cost? We are receiving letter grades that are meaningless in life. Life is about understanding and developing thought based on reasoning. It does not revolve around receiving a formula and getting a meaningless number.

Although the K-12 education system in the United States is filled with issues, like boring content, careless educators and a curriculum with useless information, it is a necessary part of our society. Gatto says, “…their teachers were every bit as bored as they (the students) were.” (1) 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 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. 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 and felt stuck.

In college, we have to read the material, and actually understand what the professor 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. I actually have experienced that before; you just had to be friends/cool with the teacher and they pass you. In high school, my US history teacher didn’t really teach good because of the simple fact that he didn’t like what the educational system makes the teachers teach and how they teach it. He said, “the way they want us to teach and how they want us to teach it is wrong, so therefore I will not be teaching like that.” So, he taught his students what he thought was “right” even though the tests we had to take was nothing like what he taught. Passing your classes in my high school consisted of a good friendship with your teacher and thats how I passed all my classes. Gatto states, “…teachers didn’t know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more.” (1) My US history teacher was a living example of this quote.

In conclusion, the educational system is not perfect and, in my opinion, it will never be close to perfect. Although, I believe that our education system is necessary to give children an education to hopefully improve their lives and their future. In the article “Against School” Gatto argues that the American public-school system conditions children to be gullible, mindless consumers and I agree.

 

work cited

“Against School” by John Taylor Gatto

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.

 

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.