John Taylor Gatto: Against Mandatory Public Schools

Many topics concerning education and its institutions are discussed in Amanda Ripley’s book “The Smartest Kids in The World: and how they got that way,” however, one of the most interesting can be found in chapter five “An American in Utopia.” The introduction of Kim, an American exchange student studying at a high school in Pietarsarri, Finland opens the chapter. Using Kim’s experiences in the Finish school system, Ripley continues to make a comparison between the students' in Finland and the United States. This segment highlights Finish teachers and students viewing education as a legitimate pursuit, while the American students more often than now saw it as a forced activity. Incidentally, the students viewpoints in the two countries are then used to look at the different levels of education teachers need to complete in Finland and America in order to become professional educators. This dialogue is eventually transitioned into a history of the sweeping education reforms in Finland and the lack of similar reforms in America.

Throughout his essay, he is consistently trying to convince/persuade us to reject public school as a whole while taking control of our kids education. He states that “school trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers”(Gatto). He wants parents to take the lead in helping their children become as great as they can be, they can work a job that may have not been invented yet. Gatto is trying to prove that school doesn’t do anything for children. He then proceeds to give a list of people who didn’t go to school yet they in time became successful, such as: Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington,

America has come a long way in its education system. It is easier now, more than ever, for people of any race or gender to get an education. However, it is arguable that the educational system does not do its job to prepare students to become successful young adults. There are many flaws in the order of education, which causes students to worry more about satisfying others with test scores and academics rather than actually preparing them for the real world. While the educational system does prepare students for the academic stress of college, it does not qualify students to become young, successful adults and survive in the real world. Most of these students pass through too many years during their high school lives feeling like they don’t measure up, and most kids graduate only knowing if they’re good at school or not. The educational system is flawed and it does not prepare students to become successful adults.

What is school really trying to do with our lives? The article “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto is an article that talks about the problem of schools and how the goals are not what they say they are. First. the author talks about how the school system creates boredom and what could be done to fix it. He then talks about how school is not needed in its required class times, what the schools say the goals are for the students, and where our school system originated from. Next, he talks about who helped create the system we use today, and what the goals are for the schools in 6 functions. Finally, he talked about how the schools teach students to perform certain tasks in the future, how mandatory schooling made students not think about what

Novelist, John Taylor Gatto, in his speech essay, “Why Schools Don’t Education”, conveys schools aren’t as educational as they should be. John’s purpose is to narrate the idea that teachers and school district aren’t putting enough effort to educate children and to also motivate more teachers to help bust up children’s education. He adopts a passionate tone in order to appeal in his that education should be taken serious. In order, to convey his appeal of the subject he uses rhetorical analysis to help drill in the audience.

In the “Against Schools” article, author John Gatto describes the modern day schooling system and its flaws. He uses several rhetorical strategies in trying to prove his point. He successfully uses all three types of rhetoric in writing this article, which includes ethos, pathos, and logos. He establishes these strategies very early, and often throughout the article. He believes one issues with today’s schooling system is boredom, and that there is a distinct difference between what it means to be educated and schooled. He uses his experience as a public school teacher in his effort to exercise this opinion that he has, which establishes his first rhetoric strategy.

Public school is one of the primary sources of education for many children in the United States, therefore it should be the school 's sole purpose to teach them the essential elements they need to succeed in life. This means more than teaching math, science, history, and English. A school, primarily high school, must provide courses that focus on a student 's future career plans, courses that challenge a student academically, and courses that help a student navigate their life as adults.

Hill’s article on “How Homeschooling and the future of Public Education”, he believes homeschooling is one of the forces that will change public education. Paul T. Hill is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a research professor for the Center on Reinventing Public Education, University of Washington. He writes about the pros and cons of homeschooling. At present, he reports there are 1.2 million home schools. Homeschooling is not new; in colonial days children were educated at home by parents, tutors and older children. The one room school house was created by families that got together and hired a teacher. Homeschools are more likely to join the charter movement than get back into the public school system. Most of these parents hope their children will attend college so they must learn how to assess their children’s progress against higher education admission standards (20). These parents must find resources and make effective use of scarce time and money. Critics say this effort is a waste and that all the new human capital developed at such cost can only duplicate what already exist in conventional public and private schools. Homeschoolers are not all recluses living in log cabins. A growing number live in cities and are educated. Large numbers of homeschoolers are Christian fundamentalists and Mormons, as well as other religions. Homeschoolers dread bureaucracy, unions and liberals. They complain about the teachers and

In this day and age of school becoming more and more rigorous and the demand for our children 's education growing each year, an alternative option becomes an enticing thought. Homeschooling is something many people might not associate with modern times. Kids in the American school system are often times overworked and underplayed. Starting from as young as kindergarten, children are expected to sit at a desk and focus for up to eight hours a day with less and less outdoor free-time. Parents have been vocal for some time about their young child coming home with homework after spending a solid eight hours in class. Kids and adults alike are frustrated with the push of academic expectancy and minuscule creativity. The

Against School by John Gatto is an essay that attempts to persuade the reader that public education fails to educate its students. The main way Gatto tries to persuade his audience is by presenting anecdotal evidence and by showing the historical narrative to the education system of the Untied States. Gatto attempts also attempts to reach out to his audience by referring to commonalities in the public education system that have been experienced by many people. Overall the essay is persuasive but lacks any practical authority.

Home schooling is a trending concept that is popular mostly in US and around the world. Home schooling preferred often by the parents that have environmental concerns, religious beliefs, lack of confidence to the education quality of the public and private schools and inadequacy of curriculum. They believe that they can give better education to their children at home.

Many parents believe that homeschooling is the best option for their children. For those people who don’t know what exactly homeschooling is, “A home school is a school in which parents teach their children an academic curriculum at home instead of sending them out to a public or private school. Home schooling is legal throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Hong Kong, and South Africa. Home schooling is most popular in Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Home schooling is legally accepted in all 50 states of the U.S., but each state has its own laws that a family must adhere to. Currently, it is estimated that over one million families school their children at home. Most of these families include a breadwinner and a stay-at-home parent who does most of the teaching, although there are single parent families and dual career families who home school.” according to Teach Target. Personally, I believe that homeschooling isn’t the best option for kids; they rather go to school to help them with their social life, their level of understanding and to help them get inspired by the surroundings.

The current plight of the American education system is partly due to a serious shortage of teachers who can effectively instruct the students on the material and skills expected of their grade level and beyond. One reason may be because the current requirements for all teacher candidates are quite soft, as in many states, candidates are subject to only a number of requirements, including a bachelor’s degree, the completion of teacher training, an exam of school content knowledge, and other certifications (“Teacher Certification and Licensing Guide”). The most likely reason, however, of low-quality instruction in school is due to an inherent lack of intrinsic motivation and discipline in many teachers to do their best for students to excel in school and life, and if the teachers are too lazy and incompetent to do their jobs, students are more likely to follow that example and do so likewise in their own lives. This is shown in a chapter from Theodore R. Sizer’s book Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School called “What High School Is,” where a story is told from the perspective of Mark, a typical high school student in the United States, including

Some people say wrongfully that the test score results prove that homeschooled students are smarter. Although test scores are higher for homeschoolers, this average does not show the intelligence of a singular student. The test scores are easier to keep high due to the small percentage of people who are actually homeschooled. Because of the small number of homeschoolers, the scores compared to public school is not fair and cannot be used to compare to public school with more than half of the population of America. Some people also argue that homeschooling is more beneficial than public school is that there is less bullying that occurs. Although bullying doe primarily happen at school, it does not only occur at school. Bullying can happen anywhere that there are people therefore bullying is not a reasonable argument further proving that public school is more beneficial than homeschool. One last and most common argument made is that there is a one-on-one learning environment for the student. Some believe that this is beneficial for the student but it does not prepare the student for the future. It is a well known fact that parents love their children and they want the best for them but a one-on-one learning environment can actually be detrimental. Giving a student all of the attention does not prepare a student for the future. Not teaching a student

It is time to come to the realization that school, as unadorned as one may call it, is an institution that has formerly been put in a position to fundamentally serve the desires of the ruling class, not the common people. From adolescence, students tend to show astonishing and fierce imagination and without being stopped it could result in a creative revolution. However, this innovation could ultimately undermine the hierarchy’s proverbial convergence. In our society of contributing the least while taking pleasure in the most, means students must be indoctrinated from a very young age to accept the working class as a lifestyle. This lifestyle essentially meaning work until one dies. Therefore, Ontario’s Ministry of Education is bearing no preparation