HallSpring19_1101

Testing!

The Idea that schooling can make children gullible and mindless doesn’t surprise me. Almost my entire life of being in school, being constantly told  to sit at a desk all day. Being told what to do and what not to by all your teachers every second of the day, than they go home to do more work that they’ve probably already forgotten all the material they learned that day can be really stressful. I know as a child who has grown up like this, this has put a lot of stress on me and my fellow classmates. I’ve never been an A student and sometimes i wasn’t a B student either, i struggled in some areas more than others but i tried about as hard as a child usually does. Which is trying hard once- I fail- and i give up. Meaning that i put effort into once and once i fail i have no motivation to want to try again. And when i did fail most of my teachers growing up never really noticed or some just didn’t care to help. Now i’m not saying every teacher out there is like this, i’ve had many teachers that i looked up too and will forever remember them. But i’ve also had many teachers who just seem like they absolutely hate their job. In Gattos “Against School” he explains it perfectly. “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers’ lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there. When asked why they feel bored, the teachers tend to blame the kid”. In this quote Gatto is saying that some teachers just seem bored almost like they just don’t want to be there. I believe this so strongly because of seen this first hand from teachers, i’ve had many teachers say “ I’ve already graduated, I don’t care” or “ I don’t care if you don’t want to learn i already got paid”. Again i’m not saying all teachers are like this but hearing this come from a teacher multiples times a day doesn’t motivate a student to want to learn. I mean if the teacher doesn’t even want to be there than why would the students want to.

The idea that going to school five days a week for 8 hours a day for 12 years+ straight doesn’t always guarantee success. What i mean by this is that all our lives we are taught that education is the most important thing which yes essentially it is important, But it always isn’t the case with some people. There are many people in this world that are living proof of that, people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg succeeded beyond reach and barely had their foot in the door. Again disclaimer i also don’t believe the same rules apply for everyone obviously, if you want to be a doctor you have to go to school for it there’s no exception. But higher education isn’t for everyone, back in the day around segregation going to university was considered a luxury because the only the rich white people could afford it because there was rarely any colleges accessible for people of color. It’s a beautiful thing that it is accessible in America now as it wasn’t back then, but standards for success is to overwhelming. In 2019 seeking higher education is a necessity to get any job, even Mcdonalds requires some college experience. In Gattos article “Against School” he speaks about how a lot of people have made a name for themselves without being fully educated.  “Throughout most of American history, kids generally didn’t go to high school, yet the unschooled rose to be admirals, like Farragut; inventors, like Edison; captains of industry, like Carnegie and Rockefeller; writers, like Melville and Twain and Conrad; and even scholars, like Margaret Mead”. Gatto is saying that all the people he mentioned became successful without having to go to school, that it even was common for most people to not even go to highschool and that was the norm. Gatto even points out that he isn’t fully saying he agrees with no schooling, he just thinks that some people are fully capable of teaching themselves which he explains here “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. And plenty of people throughout the world today find a way to educate themselves” I fully agree with this statement because yes while education is important not everyone needs to be in school to learn, children being home-schooling is just as affected.

The current public school system was created with the main intention to give children a head start in life, with a vast understanding and knowledge of the world through innovation. However, with a burst of big products, comes higher need of consumption, and school has become the catalyst of bloom for big companies to take advantage on the gullible and mindless consumers created through the system.

In John Taylor Gatto’s article “Against school”, he raises the argument that “schools are meant to tag the unfit – with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments”.  in my personal experience, school has been a competitive environment made to weed out students based on how fast they can grasp information. Instead of an environment of free thinking and understanding, schools breed competitive cut throat needs of memorization for tests and exams, where those who pass are either the lucky few who can grasp concepts faster than others, those who cram empty information to then regurgitate onto papers for their teachers, or in most cases that I’ve experienced, used unethical needs to pass a class that refuses to take its time to create an understanding of the subject.

According to Robert leamnson’s article “Learning”, the key to true education comes from a balance of both understanding and memorization. Through most of my time in school, teachers were graded on how well their students can succeed in tests and exams, regardless of whether or not they actually understand the concepts. With redundant measures on how the subject must be taught, the primary focus of education came from constant memorization. with many classes crammed within long hours with little time to soak in the information, students were expected to cram hours and pages of information into minutes, not for the purpose of actually knowing the subject, but to know enough for a decent grade. For the few, understanding the subject and memorization was a simple task taught with time and effort. However for the rest, who were not shown the proper way of utilizing information, were thrashed into humiliation and inferiority, branding us as mere grades rather than lost students in need of understanding. If a student wasn’t able to memorize historic dates, which are seen useless to them to their outside understanding, then they are deemed inefficient. This leads to rash and unethical methods of passing, as previously stated. Where most will stuff information down without grasping the key reasoning behind it, or in some cases, use disapproved methods such as cheat notes and copying when memorization is seen too far to achieve.

Gatto states that one of the actual basic functions of schools is to create conformity, “because its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable, and this is of great use to harness and manipulate a large labor force”. If you don’t solve a problem the way you were taught, regardless if you achieved the answer through your way, then you fail. This was a concept rooted into our brain, and although it seems necessary at younger ages to fully grasp simple concepts, it becomes redundant further on where free thinking and individual growth and understanding should prosper. When a math problem was taught in a way that wasn’t clear or too complicated to understand,  I would take time to figure out patterns in the problem, see how the outcome is created, and use the understanding plus my own thought process to make an easier and clear way to solve a problem. However, in most cases, the problems are made with predetermined methods of solution, where knowing the answer is only half the problem, memorizing the steps to take it is the main problem. This method of teaching leads to an inefficient method of learning, instead of a custom and critical method of education, students are taught to think uniformly, cutting out free thought, while those attempting to think critically were told their methods were inefficient.

Learning is a time consuming process, that requires unique methods of understanding to each person. Public schools have systematically made this process into a filtration system that, as Gatto stated, “…produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens, all in order to render the populace ‘manageable’ “. In my 12 years of school, learning and passing were two completely different concepts, and the time needed to learn was jammed with cramming and white noise knowledge. To pass was to put myself through unnecessary anxiety, leading to habits that still haunt me through my college years. To learn was to take what precious time outside of school there was to break down the vast information given into a fine and simple concept. With no change to the current system, an increase in school time, and an increase in the want for standardized testing, this method of learning will start to become an unreachable goal set aside for more competitive and uniform learning systems. Without a passion for learning, future leaders become gullible and mindless consumers, made to follow their trends instead of creating one themselves.

Open Letter to the secretary of education.

Dear Betsy DeVos, I am reaching out to you about your thoughts regarding education and schooling. “Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years?”
There is a controversy when it comes to schooling and from the article “Against Scholl”, John Taylor Gatto explains in details how public education cripple our kids and why. According to him as someone who taught for thirty years, schooling is not what many people think. His first concern was boredom, not only for the kids but also for the teacher. Boredom according to the kids is that activities done during class do not make sense or they already knew it. Students’ whining and dispirited behaviors also make the teachers feel bored. This is already a sad position that school in general put both teachers and students.
Gato also stated that he often bent the law to help kids break out of this trap. I also remember that one of my teachers used to prepare many activities and have students choose one. Kids need education for sure, but is schooling just necessary? Many people who did not go through that deadly routine. From those people we can cite American presidents George Washington , Benjamin Franklyn, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. None of these cited people graduated from secondary school. Furthermore, people like Farragut (admiral), Edison (inventor), Carnegie and Rockefeller (captains of industry), Melville and Twain (writers), have not either been through the stressful school program. So the whole point we have been taught is that school is the most related to success which is not the truth since there are many successful people that have not graduated from school.
In addition, the “Principles of secondary education” from Inglis’ 1918 book clearly breaks down the true purposes of modern schooling. Firstly, the adjustive or adaptive function, which teaches rules and habits. The main purpose of that being to establish a mentality that make kids more likely to just obey even when they don’t like it. Secondly, the integrating function or conformity function, which purpose, is to make children alike because that way they will be more predictable and more manageable in case they plan to mobilize a large labor force. Thirdly, the diagnostic and directive function, which determines the kid’s skills (“proper social role”) by saving his background. Fourthly, the differentiating function that comes after the diagnostic function. On this step, kids are “sorted” depending on what they have been taught and their role. On fifth position, we have the selective function, the most frightening in my opinion is what Gatto states: “Schools are meant to tag the unfit – with poor grades, remedial placement and other punishments – clearly enough that their peers will accept them as inferior and effectively bar them from the reproductive sweepstakes.” In sixth position, the propaedeutic function which is a sort of preliminary to further studies. In fact, kids will later then, “be taught how to manage this continuing project, how to watch over and control a population deliberately dumbed down and declawed in order that government might proceed unchallenged and corporations might never want for obedient labor”.
From what I have learned so far from Gatto and my personal experiences, I think that school is different from what many people think. It at first glance looks like a necessity, a place to inquire knowledge and discipline in order to get ready to face future obstacles. But in reality, that’s just a portion of what schooling means. That program is intensive, boring and basically takes forever. Most important, after all suffering for years, one can still end up being what he did not what to be, that is to just “I went to school does not mean I will succeed. Since there are plenty of successful people who did not graduate from school, my main question is: are all those intensive class sessions taken on the row for years a necessity? Do we really need them?

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.

Most of us probably grew up knowing the struggles of waking up early in the morning to go through our same routines day by day for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 10 months a year, for 12 years. This system is known as K-12 or compulsory education/school. In his article “Against School,” John Taylor Gatto argues that the American schooling system is designed to have people grow into mindless, unindependent, and submissive consumers, which to an extent I agree.  He first begins talking about boredom and how students when asked are always claiming that they are “bored”. Somewhere further in the article, his claim on people becoming mindless, submissive consumers can be found stated in the article. Whether this is true or not can be found to be debatable.

In his article he begins with the topic of boredom which is something that I can vouch for when talking about the school system considering all the times that I found myself impulsive and distracted frequently. Gatto being a teacher of 34 years has always occasionally asked his students on why they were “bored” where they replied, “They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around.” In other words, the students willing to put up with the pointless work that they do but still make it clear that they are most aware to the fact that they could be doing something that would make them feel productive. Being that I am one who has partaken and had experience in the k-12 system, like the students I can agree with my disdain for spending so much time learning things that I know will not help prepare me for the future.

Advancing further in the text leads you to where Gatto starts elaborating on the idea that the school system have similar pre-designed experiences for every enrolled student, in which the outcome of their journey will have them be mindless, unindependent consumers. My experience however isn’t all as Gatto makes it out to be where in his article he makes the claim that, “We have become a nation of children, happy to surrender our judgements and our wills to political exhortations and commercial blandishment that would insult actual adults.” What this essentially means is that Gatto believes that we are a nation grown on children who are willing to leave out the credibility on everything that deems questionable and are also willing to submissively take on political orders upon receiving them. I can not agree with this completely being that I am one who has seen a considerable amount of skepticism on the internet that poke holes in the credibility in nearly everything, and moreover that I can not simply come to agree that I have shared an experience such as the one depicted by Gatto.

In conclusion, most of the ideas that are brought up, along with the claims that Gatto makes are heavily supported in his article with different forms of evidence and texts, however the idea of making claims based on the outcomes of what people’s experience are to be is completely different being that it can go one of two ways. It can either support his claims or hurt them, due to the fact that one is most likely not going to agree with the idea that they are unindependent, mindless and submissive. Overall, perspective plays a huge role in the credibility of claims made like that of Gatto, due to the topic actually being based on the experiences of people which can yes, be similar but are overall going to differ from person to person.

The ideas and principles of schooling have been around almost as long as civilized humans have been walking the earth. The majority of people would most likely tell you that schooling-education in general is a must if you are looking to live and lead a “normal” productive life. In the article, “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, he deviates from this way of thinking, and argues that school is ultimately a waste of time. Gatto even goes as far to say that school turns children into “gullible, mindless consumers.” I do not agree with this idea for several reasons. Let me explain why.

The first reason why I don’t think that school conditions students and children to be “mindless, gullible consumers”, is the fact that just about everyone who has made it out of high school knows how much hard work, and dedication it takes to get through it all-with passing grades at that. In the second paragraph, on the very first page, Gatto makes a claim about how the school system has affected not only the quality of life for students, but teachers as well. “Teacher are themselves products…trapped inside structures even more rigid than those imposed on the children.”(1) A lot of students could probably tell you how true this quote may seem. But, what many fail to realize is that teachers are thee for a reason-they enjoy teaching! It is true that not all teachers are built the same. Of course there are teachers who could care less what, or who, or how they’re teaching. But, for Gatto to make such a broad assumption that all teachers are “bored” and “trapped” would be insulting to a large majority of teachers, who take pride in knowing that what they are teaching can change peoples lives. In my senior year of high school, my AP English teacher was a prime example of that. We studied the work of Shakespeare, as well as classic books, such as “The Great Gatsby”, and “Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. We learned about structuring essays, and the different types of essays that could be written. She showed us countless methods and ways to strengthen our reading, writing, and comprehension skills. My AP English teacher was a living example of one reason why John Gatto’s claim about the school system is false.

Another reason why I disagree with Gatto’s claim about public education “crippling” children is that the school system is not at total fault. For every “bored” or “trapped” teacher, there are countless more students that feel the exact same way. In the article, “Learning (Your First Job)” by Robert Leamnson, he makes a very important point about learning. “…Learning is not something that just happens…You cannot be ‘given’ learning, nor can you be forced to do it.”(1) This quote may just be the most obvious quote in existence, but it is also the most overlooked. The reason the public school system does not work for everyone, is that not everyone has the want, or will to succeed. Therefore, not everyone will succeed. CUNY is a public school system, for graduates of high school. I find the biggest difference in “types” of people is noticed when you go to college, from high school. In high school, a lot of people are there because they legally need to, its mandatory. This reflects in their attitudes, and obviously their grades. In college, however, there is a substantial increase in the number of students who actually want to learn. They are there to benefit themselves. That desire, is the driving factor that pushes most to their limits, and to ultimately accomplish their goals.

The last reason why I disagree with Gatto about the public education system is the fact that Gatto’s word should not be taken at face value. We have already seen the broad generalizations made by Gatto about teachers, how products of the public education system are “gullible, mindless consumers”. Gatto makes yet another generalizing statement regarding school, and its overall purpose. “…School is meant to determine each students proper social role…As in ‘your permanent record'”.(4) Now here is where we really get to see the immense claims Gatto is making. Gatto seems to have created a conspiracy theory, conspiring against the public education system. Though a “gutsy” move, once you realize that what Gatto is essentially saying is that schooling determines where you will be in life, socially. Not the individual. He also is saying that your permanent record somehow has a huge help in this decision, I think most would agree that that is not a very sound statement to make.

In conclusion, Gatto’s various outlandish claims about school turning kids into zombies, are in fact unjustly found. It involves conspiracies, and statements made to seem like facts, based on a total bias. A  bias that goes against the public education system of today, and everything that it stands for. Like I mentioned in the introduction, schooling and its principles have been around for a very long time. It has produced some of the greatest, and influential minds ever to have lived. If the school system was as detrimentally corrupt and broken as Gattos claims it to be, then we literally would all be zombies. School, like life, is whatever you make it out to be.

In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto argues that the American public school system conditions children to be gullible, mindless consumers. This was not my personal experience with school from kindergarten through high school. While attending school I did not see the school system doing anything to make the students gullible or waving the next hot product in our faces in order to turn us into mindless consumers. Instead, students brought items into school that they saw influencers such as artists and entertainers advertise while out of school. Gatto argues that the school system turns  students into “addicts” and “children”. I believe that the American school system is not as bad or corrupt as Gatto claims based on personal experience.

In the article Gatto states that “School has done a pretty good job of turning our children into addicts, but it has done a spectacular job of turning our children into children” (5). I believe that the school system has not created immature human beings, but instead has matured many students through teaching them about the importance of responsibility. While in school I learned that I was responsible for my own tasks and assignments. Not being responsible for my school work would lead to my failure so in order to succeed I had to take care of my own work. This taught me not only responsibility, but independence as well. Independence, which is doing things for yourself, would lead to students maturing and not having to depend on anyone. The school system has helped me by teaching me how to be responsible and independent.

Gatto does not agree that the school system teaches responsibility, independence and maturity. He even states that “Theorists from Plato to Rousseau to our own Dr. Inglis knew that if children could be cloistered with other children, stripped of responsibility and independence, encouraged to develop only the trivializing emotions of greed, envy, jealousy, and fear, they would grow older but never truly grow up” (5). Although children are put together in school, they still have to be independently responsible for tasks inside and outside of the classroom. Kids being put together leads to learning teamwork, leadership and communication. It prepares them to connect and work with others outside of a school environment. This practice of communication defeats fear rather than producing it by getting rid of problems such as social anxiety. School doesn’t make students greedy. It fuels their hunger for success by showing them that with responsibility and hard work you will be rewarded with success.

Without someone going through the school system, what they learn may vary. They may not learn to be mature at all due to the lack of responsibility without school at young ages. There is the rare case however, when people are very successful without an education or any guidance. I believe that this is not guaranteed at all. Gatto believes that it is very likely and says “Even if they hadn’t, a considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve- year wringer our kids currently go through, and they turn out all right. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln?” (2). Not everyone is cut out to be or can be president, but some can be successful without a school education. School is less of a risk than wandering without guidance. Also, many of the people who make it big without school presently are the ones who endorse products and turn children into mindless consumers whether or not they go to school.

I believe that school isn’t the mindless consumer factory that Gatto thinks it is. School isn’t as bad as he describes. Through personal experience the school system has helped me more than hurt me. It has guided me as far as I am now. I have successfully completed the K-12 American school system and have knowledge and experience to take with me past it. School does teach responsibility and independence through hard work which leads to maturity.

In the article “Against School,” John Taylor Gatto argues that the American public school system conditions children to be gullible, mindless consumers. In other words, he believed that due to the system students with the possibility of excelling were not nurtured properly to reach their full potential. In comparison to what Gatto describes, the teachers in my school were the opposite and motivated us that we were able to do great things if we set our mind to it.

Like any typical schools, I too experienced the deadly routine, “six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years.”(Gatto 2) I agree that at first I never understood why I had to go through this system, it seemed like I had to go to school just to fit in with the other Indonesian students. According to Gatto, “we have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think of “success” as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, “schooling.”(2) I strongly agree that being schooled does not guarantee any form of success towards students. On the other hand, this does not serve as an excuse to throw away your chance of getting the education you deserve.

As my school adopted Singapore’s education system, we also followed the Cambridge examinations curriculum. In this system, we were taught solely based on textbooks and worksheets, although, I do not entirely agree with this method of teaching as it creates a closed discussion on other possible answers and theories. Nevertheless, the school was still known to excel students in academics and human skills. We were taught advanced mathematics, chemistry, biology, and physics during the eighth grade. Later on, during the ninth grade, we were split into two majors: business and science.

The reason why our school had to split the students into two majors was to give them the opportunity to focus on which majors they felt could be advantageous for their future major in college. Regardless, both majors had exams almost every three weeks and would usually be six to seven pages thick. None of our teachers made it easy. They made sure we experienced “deep learning, the kind that demands both understanding and remembering of relationships, causes, effects and implications for new or different situations.”(Leamnson 4) Thus, our exams contained only essays and short answers.

As stressful as this sounds, and I have even shed some tears due to the stress, I cannot deny that my school was what helped me survive my current challenge which is college. Not only did they help students excel in academics, but they also promoted fund-raising events to help the less fortunate. We would visit orphanages and hold talent shows where the students themselves would put on small shows like singing or acting. We would also come to school earlier to make packaged meals for the kids and staff. It was also the school’s idea to chip in a few extra changes from our pocket money to donate for families living in the villages that needed assistance for giving their children the education they deserved.

I was lucky enough to encounter teachers that were willing to spend their time to tutor me without a fee and recommended me to programs and competitions that might be beneficial for my personal experience. Gatto states that “your children should have a more meaningful life, and they can.”(5) Although I did not receive this from a public school and indeed private schools are not on the affordable side, I am living proof that going through the “deadly routine” benefited me, in a way, in the long run. I matured sooner than most people my age, learned to appreciate more for what I have than what I do not and apply what I learned in high school into college and the real world.

Granted that I was only able to tell my side of the story from my experience at a private high school outside the United States, I am not able to justify if what Gatto describes the American public school system as “laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands.”(5) to be true. According to Leamnson, “learning is not something that just happens to you, it is something that you do to yourself.”(1) This rings true to me as I encountered multiple students from my school blaming the teachers for giving too many tests and homework when they did not put in the time and effort to get the work done. Overall, it depends on the students if they are willing to learn and use their education as an investment for their future.