“Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, may have been one of the most enlightening things i’ve ever read. For the reason that it has really brought light to things I never had seen or though of before. At first the article was pretty boring to me and I found myself zoning in and out of the reading from time to time up until I finally found myself confused at where he asked the question of, “Could it be that are schools are designed to make sure not one of them ever really grows up?” This was due to me not knowing the grave severity of what was to come, but as I advanced in the text I also started to see and make sense of what Gatto was getting at. He had been asking a question that I myself have asked myself for nearly my entire life. “What is the point of school?” This question has always been followed by another question of “why can’t we just be taught the basics of reading, writing, and math then proceed to college, where we can learn what we WANT to learn?” Little did I know I wasn’t alone in pondering this. He then goes on to explain what the true purpose of school is, which to me is the part that really has made me feel as though I’d just been saved. He talks about how the school system is designed to make mindless and submissive workers of people. At first I found the statement to be outrageous, but it slowly made sense as he further listed out how exactly its executed in a series of steps that are of Prussian origin. This article overall has brought me to many questions like, “why isn’t this article well renowned?”, “could we possibly change the system?”
Gatto Difficulty Paper
John Taylor Gatto’s piece of writing “Against School” was difficult for me to read due to the ironic boredom that I faced while trying to get through it. I say that the boredom is ironic because of his statement that ” …during that time I became an expert in boredom” (1). Gatto at first talks about how the school system is boring for both the students and teachers. Afterwards he throws around an abundance of history while trying to prove his point. I felt like I had just put down an opinionated article and picked up a history textbook. I feel that there is way too much information to take in. Sometimes Gatto even states this information without even explaining how it works such as “…an educational system deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens…” (3). He states that Prussian education brings all of these flaws, but doesn’t explain how. Besides all of the boring history and not being in depth at times, I do not fully agree with Gatto’s stance on the school system. He believes that “We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think of ‘success’ as synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, ‘schooling’…” (2) and goes on to say that education being linked to success isn’t true. I believe that today’s world is very technologically advanced and is changing rapidly. In order for people to have a successful career in many jobs we have to prepare with school. We have to be educated and certified in certain fields in order to succeed in them. Maybe before, it was easier to be successful without an education, but now it takes a lot of knowledge to pursue most dream jobs.
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.
“Against School” by John Gatto
When I read “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, I was ultimately not very interested.  I was drawn in by the first sentence, where Gatto says that he taught “in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best…”.(1) He then goes on about boredom, a feeling that just about every single one of us can relate to. I feel like a lot of people felt the same way in the beginning of this article, because everyone can relate to having a teacher who seems just as bored as the rest of the class. John Gatto  does make a strong point regarding the way the school system is set up, though. “…how to watch over and control a population deliberately dumbed down…in order that government might proceed unchallenged.”(4) What I got from this quote is that “mandatory” public education simply gives the general population the lowest possible level of info that they could get away with, so that the government technically isn’t doing anything illegal. Ethically speaking, that wouldn’t be the case. Even though there were several strong points made by John Gatto, the delivery to me felt very inorganic, like a bunch of big words and facts were just constantly being spewed. He goes into several other topics within his ‘Main’ topic, such as Karl Marx and WW2 and gas-bombs, as well as the study of marketing. There was so much information bring thrown at me, that I really did not know what to do with all of it. In all, even though this is an article that “tackles” a topic as big as the Public Education system in modern America, Gatto goes off into several tangents that keep it hard for the reader to keep their head wrapped around the main topic at hand.
Gatto
“Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, was boring to me because the article didn’t grab my attention as the reader. The article started off interesting with his teaching experience with boredom and how it is a common condition of school teachers that show they are trapped inside structures.” We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight – simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids to truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then”(1), I  agree that learning on our own would give us a risk that would make us push ourselves and be more successful independently. The author started to lose me when he brought up old history facts rather then keep the flow going with his experiences and knowledge of learning don’t get me wrong I love hearing history facts about Prussian, World War 1, World War 2, Karl Marx’s conception, etc. But when I started to read all those old history facts it made me wander off to my ninth-grade global world class where they would just throw facts at you and bore you to death which is the authors point “boredom”. I would be more interested in the author’s beliefs of how we can enhance children’s abilities to acquire knowledge and how we could improve our school system to help the future generations. For the most part, I agree with Gatto argument that schools make children to be employees and consumers and contents that is limited which shouldn’t be.
Gatto
Reading “Against School” was somewhat confusing and eventually made me lose interest in reading further. First, I loved how the author was open-minded and discussed if being schooled really was necessary. He justified his statement by providing evidence with famous homeschooled Americans that succeeded although they were not a part of the school system. He then argued further that people tend to correlate being schooled as a guarantor of success but that isn’t the case, which leaves the question “why then do Americans confuse education with just such a system? What exactly is the purpose of our public schools?”(2)
Now here is where I get confused or more likely start losing interest, as I continue reading along the passage the author starts talking about the history of schooling in the United States and the purpose of the school, which was very obvious, “To make good people, to make good citizens and to make each person his or her personal best”.(2) He continued to talk further in depth about H.L. Mencken the Prussianization of American schools which honestly, made me confused and forget what the main idea or question was, which was “What is the purpose of our public schools?”. He then finally got to the point where a Harvard lecturer named Ingles broke down the real purpose of schooling. I felt that he could have gone to the point by mentioning Ingles sooner than wasting time writing about history.
I understand if his purpose was to probably show where the school system derived from and how it came about but when the author mentioned about James Bryant Conant – “president of Harvard for twenty years, WW I poison-gas specialist, W WII executive on the atomic -bomb project, etc..”(3) I honestly started to get even more confused like who is this guy and is he really important or am I just not reading carefully? There was too much information for me to absorb that I couldn’t narrow down which were the key points and which were not. Personally, it wasn’t that I did not understand the context but more like not being able to grasp every detailed information the author provided thus, making me feel confused.
Your First Job
In the article “Learning” (Your First Job) by Robert Leamnson, he gives his honest opinion on the traditional method of students copying down information created or prepared by their teachers. On page 5, Leamnson states ” I would like to see the expression “taking notes” removed from the vocabulary and replaced with one often used in Great Britain, that is “making notes.” “Taking” implies a passive reception of something someone else has made.” What Leamnson is implying is that information cannot be truly processed by copying notes. Students are accustomed to taking notes in school, but this way of learning is not beneficial because it doesn’t involve actively learning and full understanding of the work.
For Thursday, February 7
- Read and annotate “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, which I passed out in class. You can also find it HERE
- Write (and post on OpenLab) a 250 word “Difficulty Paper” on the Gatto reading. The category is “Gatto.”
What do I mean by a Difficulty Paper? Â In this text low-key assignment, you will write about what you found difficult, confusing, boring, annoying, or painfully obvious in this reading. The most important thing about it, though, is that you BE SPECIFIC. If your mind wandered– tell us where your mind wandered– and start to explore WHY you think this happened to you, and, even more importantly , what you think Gatto may have been trying to say there (and, perhaps what makes you think he failed.) If you find a passage particularly confusing, cite the passage, and explain what specifically confused you about it– not just “the vocabulary was confusing” but point to confusing words, try to figure out what he might have said instead.
Why do we do this? This is not to get you to see what’s wrong with you as a reader. Quite the opposite! In fact, the places where you are most confused or frustrated (or even bored, believe it or not) are often the places you are doing your best thinking. You’re grappling with difficult questions. The difficulty paper can help you get deep into the heart of those questions. Believe me– I’ve seen it work wonders.
What if I don’t find it difficult? I would be a little surprised if you didn’t find anything difficult in this text at all– but it’s possible. Remember, difficulty can also take the forms of being boring or too obvious. Also, look for places you can dig in and look for something a bit deeper– look for clues you may want to know more.
Your First Job
The author of “Learning (Your First Job)”, Robert Leamnson, informs readers on the necessary skills and habits that can be taken in order for one to succeed in college. One of these being, knowing the difference between knowledge and information, where he states, “The principal reason, however, goes back to the fundamental difference between information and knowledge. Knowledge is what has the potential for improving the individual and society. But websites are completely devoid of knowledge; all they have is information (and not all of that is reliable)” Leamnson comes to conclude that unless sense can be made of what is on the website, knowledge will not be gained and therefore neither will the actual learning happen. Leamnson’s point makes sense to me seeing that we more or less define learning the same, being that information is everywhere but knowledge will be found in what you can take from said information. This is important because growth can’t be found happening anywhere if one is ignorant on the principles of comparison between knowledge and information.
Your First Job.
“Your first job”
Quote: “In these though courses the first idea you must abandon is that you can sit, “take notes, and worry about it later.” Here’s another key idea to bring with you in every lecture period. Worry about it now. ”
From this quote, Leamnson means that during class period, students should not just sit and take notes without paying attention and understanding those notes. He means that student should not just write down notes and try to understand them later. This statement makes sense to me because the class session is really the right time to learn. As the teacher explains, students paying attention will ask questions if they have some and this is helpful to other students. Class sessions are the most important part of learning. I think that students should be more attentive during class rather than trying to understand after class because lessons do stack up and it gets harder to study. The author’s quote is important because it give students a vital advice for succeeding in college and students who apply good rules and take advices succeed.
