In America, people talk amongst themselves about wealthy and successful people and during the discussion many think of people who have been educated in a traditional schooling system. John Gatto argues in his article “Against School” that this traditional schooling is indeed not necessary to end up educated and successful. Through the use of rhetorical strategies, such as his personal experiences, expert testimony, and anecdotes, Gatto backs up and argues in points. Gatto begins his article by talking about his personal experiences as a teacher and how the education system let him down. Gatto states “The obligations to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people.” With this Gatto experienced …show more content…
Furthering his argument that school isn't needed for success , Gatto states “ George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson were not products of a school system, and none of these men graduated from a secondary school.” Gatto wants the readers to understand that these are well known Americans who are still highly talked about till this day but have succeeded without a 12 year schooling method that we use in this modern day. Gatto brings up an eye opener with these six functions of modern schooling stating “The adjustive or adaptive function. Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority. It also pretty much destroys the idea that useful or interesting material should be taught, because you can't test for reflexive obedience until you know whether you can make kids learn, and do, foolish and boring things.The integrating function. This might well be called "the conformity function," because its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor force. The diagnostic and directive function. School is meant to determine each student's proper social role. This is done by logging evidence mathematically and anecdotally on cumulative records. The differentiating function. Once their
Gatton believes that The point Gatto argument begin to emerge is that students are getting borned in school easily and also are the teachers. He talks about how Then he started to question “Do we really need school”? On page 684.Then he goes on to talk about how school is five days a week and nine months and twelve years. He talks about how students are not really learning they are just inputting information and then outputting it back to the teaches which is not learning. Gatto even goes on to mention a few famous people that did not go through the schooling system such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln,Thomas Jefferson.
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,
Many people think that most American schools are satisfactory. That is far from what is actually happening. The harsh reality is that schools that are unsatisfactory do exist. In Jonathan Kozol’s “Fremont High School”, he points out the flaws of a high school located somewhere in Los Angeles. This helps shine light on differences in the quality of education in various areas of the country.
The author’s purpose is to wake up the policymakers of the educational system in order to raise the standard of the quality of education each child receives regardless of income. Ravitch writes to an audience that are invested in the construction of the educational system and the parents along with other interested readers. Ravitch establishes a formal and professional tone for her audience. In this essay I will be focusing on a particular element Ravitch
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.
The essay, The Seven Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto addresses educational curriculum with a cynical truth that transpires around the United States. His brutal honesty grasps the reader by using common sense and a hint of sarcasm to appeal to humor. The main point of his argument in my perception, states that we must develop children to be critical thinkers and not always agree with authority. By allowing the schooling in a child’s development expecting them to not question an adult’s words does lead to a population that has accepted being dumbed down. Following what has been indicated, a direct quote positions people deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius (Gatto, part III, pars 3).
Mike Rose shares his personal story to the public in “I just wanna be average”, as he reveals the many flaws within the educational system of a high school in an economically depressed neighborhood in Los Angeles. He effectively directs his arguments towards both educators and parents by utilizing emotional and logical appeals. By convincing the audience to fear that children placed on remedial tracks are being hindered rather than assisted, the author causes both awareness and a feeling of duty to change the way we handle teaching children. Rose presents his argument by aiding the reader through the eyes of his younger self as he retells the story of his years in high school.
The essay intends to persuade and provoke the reader. By using non-statistical based evidence Gatto manages to build a solid case for their being problems with the education system, however, his solution to these problems is incredibly lackluster. The solution Gatto presents is simply for the reader to teach their own children, rather than have them schooled. The problem with this is that this solution will only ever apply to people who read Gatto’s essay, it fixes none of the problems with the education system. The lackluster solution is even more sad since Gatto presents good evidence that the issues are systemic, and by ignoring a potential solution the essay reads more like a consumer warning than a serious treatise on the education
The book Schooled, by Gordan Korman is about a hippie named Capricorn Anderson, or “Cap” who gets thrown into a situation where he is out of his element and that he is not prepared to handle. Cap goes through middle school with no clue on what to do. Cap lived on a secluded farm with only his grandmother because Cap’s parents had died in the Peace Corp in New Guinea. One day, his grandmother fell out of a plum tree where she was picking plums, and broke her hip and had to be in rehab for eight weeks.
Going to college for many students is just a normal part of life. It is what will enable them to get an education that eventually will lead to get a well-paid job and the resources and the status to live a comfortable life. But for college professor, Andrew Delbanco, the American college has a higher purpose. In the article “College at Risk”, Delbanco states that colleges should be promoting critical thinking among students, through knowledge of the past and the interaction with each other; as well as, help them discover their talents and passions and figure out what they want to do in life. This type of education is called liberal arts and for Delbanco, it represents the ideal education.
“On average, college graduates make significantly more money over their lifetime than those without a degree… What gets less attention is the fact that not all college degrees or college graduates are equal. ”(pg.208 para. 1) Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill are senior researchers at Brookings’ Center on Children and Families, Sawhill is also a senior fellow in economics study at Brookings’. Owen and Sawhill authored the essay, “Should everyone go to College?” The authors use a wide variety of rhetorical devices in the essay, including ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade their audience to take another look at whether college is the right choice for them.
The very controversial and widely known article “What College Can Mean to the Other America” under the authority of Mike Rose – for the sake of clarity and objectivity – touches upon three main points regarding formal education in America, which are: well-round education as whether a private or public good, governmental intervention in helping the less fortunate, and lastly, poverty in America is regarded, especially by the upper classes, as a prerequisite for social hierarchy and economic progression. Allow me to further elaborate and support these three main points, in my perspective anyway, throughout the paragraphs to follow. Rose under some instances in his article strongly advocated for government intervention in preventing or at least
“Teachers of English and literature have either submitted, or are expected to submit, along with teachers of the more "practical" disciplines, to the doctrine that the purpose of education is the mass production of producers and consumers” (Berry). Berry uses the word practical to describe the way in which we produce students as though they were massed produced. School systems today demonstrate specialization, and with that follows oversimplification. “In our society, which exists in an atmosphere of prepared, public language-language that is either written or being read illiteracy is both a personal and a public danger” (Berry). While schools relax their education standards and primarily focus on profitability, we become vulnerable to loss of literacy through
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.
Gerald Graff’s argument on how educational systems are missing a great opportunity to tap into “street smarts” and focus them into a path of academic work is indeed convincing (Graff, 198). After all, anyone who’s been through the American educational system knows odds are often stacked against the “street smarts.” This is especially true in english classes, where one is often required to read boring and somewhat heartless books like, 1984, Beowulf, and the majority of Shakespeare’s classics. This is not to say these books are bad or shouldn’t be read during one’s schooling years, instead, the problem is one of apathy. For instance, in my high school years I never even remotely liked to read books Othello, but I loved to read magazines and