Category: Gatto”

Steps I decided to take when reading included: 1) If I needed a break, I would take one 2) If I didn’t understand something, I would have reread it slowly. 3) If I found words that I didn’t understand, I would simply use the internet to define them.  4) If Gatto was repeating the same idea but just phrasing it differently, that I could take note of the differences between each of them. 5) Finally, I would listen to music as I worked.

So the first time I read Gatto’s “Against School” I found myself initially getting lazily by through the read, although finding it to be a pretty interesting one in the end. I found myself lost and not really invested in the read however, especially at the sight of vocabulary words in sentences. Because of this I made myself a list of steps that I would take to approach the reading to help better my understanding of the text overall. Those list of steps lead me to realize and learn a lot of things after I approached the reading again. This time I found the read to be a pretty easy one to grasp. The ideas were clear and fairly simple to comprehend this time around. The vocabulary words found themselves to have been defined on sight  considering I had the power of a dictionary and the internet on my side. Focus wasn’t as big an issue in the beginning as it was the first time around when I first read the text, since I already had background on what the overarching point that Gatto was trying to get across I just had to figure out how he was going about it in that specific paragraph. Overall listening to music of course made this that little bit easier since I had something keeping me aware and active enough to keep reading. To be frank, I wish I had already known to take these steps prior to even having made them in the first place. Now for what I learned? I learned that Gatto is a man who is a veteran of 30 years in the education system, who once pondered why it was that schools were the way they were (students were bored, as for teachers) that because they’re designed to keep impudence, unity, and riots out of the nature of civilians. That they were to subtly train everyone to be subconsciously servile and submissive. He also spoke of ways that we could possibly get around the system although never explicitly stating whether we could actually “beat” it or not.

 

 

The first time that I read “Against School”, by John Taylor Gatto, I found myself very bored, due to the amount of tangents and extra information thrown into the article.  But, I came up with a plan that would help me to maintain focus and therefore abstain from boredom when re-reading this article. One of the things that I will do is to make a mental analysis of the main idea of every few paragraphs. The purpose of this is to ensure that I am being constantly reminded of the main idea of Gatto’s words, instead of getting lost in the text. The next step that I will take, that will ultimately help me with getting a better grasp of the article, is making sure that I am not tired when re-reading. If I am awake and alert when reading, it is only natural that I will better understand what I am reading. This is opposed to rushing through the article, simply to get it over with.

One of the new things that I learned when re-reading this article, and applying the methods listed above; is the point Gatto makes about kids and boredom. “Well-schooled kids have a threshold for boredom…dread being alone…seek constant companionship through th TV, Computer…”(5). This quote speaks volumes for me due to the reason that it is something just about everyone can relate to. Gatto goes on to talk about a method that could be considered controversial. Gatto stresses that kids should be “challenged with solitude”, so as to learn to “enjoy their own company”(5). What this means to me is that if a kid, or a student learns to naturally function while being by themselves, they are way less likely to get bored. This method, if proven true could change the lives of countless of people, unaware that the simple solution to preventing boredom was right under our noses.

While I am rereading “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto I will take a break from reading every time my mind wanders. I will take a break from reading after every page. If I haven’t lost interest after reading a page I will continue reading until I do lose interest. During my first reading I started to lose interest by page 3 and regained my focus on page 5. I will pay closer attention to pages 3 to 4.

I learned a lot from rereading “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto. I even gained more interest in what was written and agreed with the article the second time around. The first time that I read the article I was tired after a long day of classes. I didn’t really want to read all of the historical evidence given throughout the article. I couldn’t process all of the information at the time. Now after reading it again I noticed that all of the historical information being thrown at me was supporting Gatto’s claim and shows the many ways the school system was either rigged or is not working how it was intended. For example, in the article Gatto states the intended reasons for mass schooling which are “1) To make good people. 2) To make good citizens. 3) To make each person his or her personal best” (2). These reasons are not working as intended according to Gatto who also states that “…it is in the interest of complex management, economic or political, to dumb people down, to demoralize them, to divide them from one another, and to discard them if they don’t conform” (4). I believe that he is saying that although the US wants to make each person his or her personal best, the educational system is not a personal experience at all. Some people learn differently that others, but everyone is still taught the same. This effects grades and knowledge which leads to the separation of people into either less or more successful categories. The school system wants everyone to succeed yet when they fail they are given up on. Our experience in the same classes as different people lead to different and unequal opportunities in some cases.

The first time I read “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, I kept getting distracted from the article because it wasn’t grabbing my attention. I understand all of John Gatto main points for writing “Against School”, but he kept losing me with the old history facts. So, I had to change and find a new way to read the article by Gatto. When I chose another path for re-reading I found myself more interested and locked in with the article by doing so, I found a whole new way of reading.

The new and improved path I choose for re-reading the article was putting my phone on silent, made sure I ate a filling meal, and made sure I was full of energy to comprehend. When I first read the article I was feeling boredom but I annotated the facts and made them more appealing with a positive mindset. If you have a positive mindset going into reading you would finish in no time but if you start reading with things you rather do on your mind you would never finish. When we read passages we see the negatives in it like how long it is and what’s it about. Rather than  getting lost in what we are reading and letting it flow on its own. The next time I read a article or passage I would improve my reading skills by avoiding the challenges of boredom. Having a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset would show a major difference in our readings.

Gatto

To reread the text in order to get a better understanding, I will make sure I’m in a peaceful environment because I can easily be distracted if there is too much noise (for example the TV). Furthermore, I will get rid of anything that can interfere with my reading such as my phone that I always pick up when I hear a notification. In addition of creating a better reading environment, it’s also important to really read the article. I mean actual reading not skimming or words skipping. As I read an article for the first time, usually I don’t pay enough attention to every single details especially when it’s a long text. However I aleays read more than once so I have a better understanding of the article. The second time reading is basically making sure to figure out words meaning as I read, put a dictionnary aside in case I need to check a definition. If I’m reading alone, usually I read out loud. This helps me stay more focused on the text and also improves pronounciation. Also, if i’m allowed to write on the text, I usually find myself underlining important passages, keys words and citations. This will help later on with explaining the text or answering questions related to the text. The overall “reread” for me is always the most effective way of understanding an article. As long as there is nothing bothering, a peacefull environment will help with a better understanding of the topic.

To re-read this, I plan to do a lot of things differently. For starters, I am not going to be babysitting so I won’t have to stop reading every five minutes to check on anybody. This made it harder to read the text because it felt like I was taking hours to read 5 pages. Also, I will keep my phone away from me, that way I don’t have the urge to pick my phone up and scroll through instagram and facebook.

 

When giving this article another read, I made sure to pay more attention to details. I admit that when I read it the first time, I did a lot of skimming and a lot of the information went over my head. Upon reading for this second time, I learned that our educational system is Prussian in origin, specifically when he states, “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, to deny students appreciable learnership skills, and to endure docile and incomplete citizens.” When I read the article the first time, I skipped most of this part of the text where he brings up historical facts. Although I still believe he saids a mouthful in this article, he actually makes interesting points and it’s good to come across someone who has an unpopular opinion about education. I also learned that well-known successful people like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson weren’t products of a school system. And we honestly do hear that a lot where a lot of successful people didn’t attend college or even dropped out of school. But, I wouldn’t use this argument to prove his point. Readers can misinterpret this and think that education is unnecessary. Also, I learned that sometimes it’s good to take a step back and reread something that didn’t stick to you the first time. Maybe change the setting, your habits, attack the article in a different way and you’ll find you understand it way better.

When I first read “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto I found myself skipping numerous paragraphs which was the reason why I was not able to comprehend everything. After trying a different approach, I found myself engaged in reading more and finally understood the previous paragraphs I struggled with.

The approach I tried, which brings shock to me because it actually worked, was to tell myself that I wanted to read the text. The very first time I read the passage, I got discouraged quickly due to the many paragraphs and pages but surprisingly, after trying this method I found myself reading non-stop. There was a quote I found relatable but did not pay much attention until I started rereading. Gatto mentioned “The selective function. This refers not to human choice at all but to Darwin’s theory of natural selection as applied to what he called “the favored races.”(4)

Back when I was in high school, I was in an international accelerated program where students were divided into 2 groups, the upper-class and the lower-class. Even though we all paid the same tuition rate, wore the same uniforms, studied in the same class, we never really were the same. It wasn’t only the teachers but most of the students had this “selective” mindset implemented too where the rich kids would only hang out with each other and us lower/middle-class are just species at the bottom of the food chain.

Another method I tried was taking breaks when my eyes started feeling heavy, I pushed through the texts I found boring and also drank a lot of water as it was proven it may help improve focus. Overall, the paragraphs that were previously vague now makes sense to me and rereading gave me a better understanding of what Gatto was trying to say.

Hi guys! Remember we have no class on Tuesday, so I won’t see you until Valentine’s Day!

Your homework is to reread the Gatto article using the plan for rereading we wrote in class. Then, please post a response about what you learned from rereading (approx 250 words) on OpenLab by 10 am on Thursday, Feb 14.

Category is “Gatto” again.

Please also post a photograph of your plan for rereading on that same post (if you prefer, you can type it up and post it.)  Instructions for posting an image are HERE

 

In John Taylor Gatto’s “Against School”  he speaks about how public school is hurting students more than helping. He first starts off by speaking about how teachers are just as bored as students which is part of the problem as to why students are uninterested and don’t see the value of their education. He then goes on the speak about how people like Abraham Lincoln and George Washington were all homeschooled and that they seem to all turn out pretty well, as he describes it  “they were not products of the system”. Gatto making this point makes it out to be that the best possible way for students to learn is through homeschooling, he also speaks about how success isn’t just something that comes with schooling. People are fully capable of educating themselves and this can push away that double standard of needing to be in school. Now at this point it seemed to make sense, but after continuing to read the rest of the article It felt like Gatto was going on tangent with his writing and I was getting a bit lost. I appreciate the detail he decided to get into about his extensive research he did for this article, but it was overly saturated with to much background that his main point was becoming lost. His point of view started to regain itself towards the end of the article when he said this “ 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.” I highly agree that school system is like one big experiment and all the students are like lab rats. Gatto came to the ultimate conclusion that people should just manage themselves, which can be a success or can possibly fail. We never know.