Both Anyon and Gatto agreed that curriculum teaching did not place enough emphasis on inclusive education and equality
Both Anyon and Gatto agreed that curriculum teaching did not place enough emphasis on inclusive education and equality
Read Gatto, “Against School,” pp. 141-149 in Rereading America. Turn in a summary of the reading (Journal #1)…
The article I will be discussing about in this this analysis is one from John Taylor Gatto titled “Against School”. In this analysis, I will be talking about many of the different aspects seen in this piece of writing. I will be mentioning how Mr. Gatto has experienced the “modern day” school system, how he views the system and finally how he comes to thought with what he has experienced. John T. Gatto had an occupation of working as a school teacher. He mentions how he worked, he described it as working in “some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and some of the best”.…
Fake and gay. Most people would have the same sentiment about the primary and secondary school systems in America. While the argument against the public school system is often presented to the masses in segmented bits and pieces, John Taylor Gatto attacks the meat of the issue in his essay, “Against School.” A retired teacher of thirty years, he engages readers in a conversational dialogue and outlines the ways the educational system fails to address the age-old question: how do I reach these kids? It turns out that the solution is not to try to reach these kids, but to make these kids reach for the knowledge themselves. By differentiating between the definitions of…
In “Against School,” John Gato explains that there’s something wrong with the education system along with the process of schooling. In my response, I understand where he’s coming from. I’ve been contemplating myself as to how my twelve years of education had been. I personally agree to his arguments against the education system and public education. I believe what Gato is saying that the educational system and schooling has an issue involving the control and predictability of children.…
In the essay, Against School, John Taylor Gatto, expresses his strong belief in middle diction of how students in the typical public schooling system are conformed to low-standard education in order to benefit the society much more than the student themselves; causing schooling to be unnecessary as opposed to education . He believes that children and teachers are caught in extreme boredom as a result of repeated material. This boredom also causes a lack of maturity and independence in the students. Gatto wrote this essay in 2003 which appeared in Harper’s magazine. He gathered these observations during his 30 years of teaching in the best and worst schools of New York City. In 1991, he was named the New York City Teacher of the Year and later on New York State Teacher of the Year. He has written many publications on his experience with being an educator including Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992) and The Underground History of American Education (2001). This essay was most likely written to inform any American reader (student, parent, and teacher) of the reality of our modern schooling, based on Gatto’s use of modes of development and formal diction.…
In the essay “Against School” the author John Taylor, Gatto claims boredom has made a big impact in schooling systems all around the United States not only in Manhattan, New York. Gatto believes that boredom affects the capability of ones education and also states that boredom is a common condition not only in students but also in schoolteachers. Gatto is against schools all together, saying that our school system is to blame, a school system not designed by the United States but adapted from the Prussian culture.…
John Gatto is the last one would expect to be a retired school teacher, as he preaches the flawed ways of the public school system to anyone who will listen. In his 2003 essay, Against School, Gatto interprets six ideas from Alexander Inglis’s Principles of Secondary Education. These concepts were founded on the basis that with a large Prussian influence in American culture, an educational system was founded with the goal of rendering citizens less capable. Gatto witnesses this in the first of Ingis's purposes, titled “the adjustive/adaptive function.” The adjustive function describes how schools are designed to teach students to properly…
As a teacher of 30 years, John Gatto had a first hand experience with the cruelty of standardized testing and the curriculum derived around it. What Gatto found was that teachers and students agreed on being bored, but blamed one another for the boredom. Students claimed the teachers were not interested in the subject nor knew much about the subject. Teachers claimed the students to be rude and uninterested. Both sides are a products of the 12 year school program’s conditioning creating an endless factory of childishness. Gatto states instead of creating a prison-like environment for students and teachers alike, we should encourage the best qualities of being young by being more [flexible] with time and tests. Thus creating more competent adults.…
In her essay, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Jean Anyon(1980) writes about how social student education levels are not equal. She studied 5 different schools, in 5 different social classes, and wrote about how they differed and what was wrong with them. She went from school to school for a year, sitting in the classes of 5th graders and observing how every social class was different from the others.…
Teachers should not favour one group or individual over another either positively or negatively discriminating ensuring all students are not only treated equally but their feedback reinforces this to Teachers where appropriate.…
He wrote an article called "Still Separate, Still Unequal" about poverty schools compared to wealthy schools. This article also included a story about a student teacher wanted to bring in a pumpkin for her students because it was around Halloween. The only way that the teacher would be able to bring in something like that would to try to apply it to some curriculum to help educate the children while they carve the pumpkin. So she created a curriculum that would contain science, arithmetic and some language of arts. Even though she created a lesson for them, it still did not apply to California's standardized test that the children would have to take but it did give the children a new insight on objects such as pumpkins. This lesson even though it would not help them would stick with them for a while. They are always the strongest topics when a teacher actually takes their time to develop a lesson that would help a child learn the curriculum rather than the curriculum just handed to them right away like in Mike Rose article on "I Just Want to Be Average." Mike Rose, a professor of education from UCLA, wrote this article about the segregation in schools and how differently classes can be taught. He said in this article that one of his teacher as a kid was not very educated in English that the students would have to "read the district's required text Julius Caesar aloud for the whole semester and once they were done, the students would continue to read the book over and switch parts." Does this really educate a student? To just give a children a book and say "here, you read this and find the meaning out for yourself." I find that doing activities and at least talking about the book gives you different…
Equal opportunity does not mean treating pupils the same, but ensuring that the curriculum meets the individual needs of all pupils.…
Equality and Diversity are main areas found within teaching, you have to remember that not everyone comes from the same background or has the same beliefs; things like language barriers may stop people from learning.…
Educational programs demand effort and dedication to be successful. Barber expresses his concern for the lack of literacy in America. In Barbers essay, he states, “As America’s educational system crumbles, the pundits, instead of looking for solutions, search busily for scapegoats” (Barber, 2014, pp.210). America’s government takes minimal actions toward the educational crisis. The situation resembles a hole in the wall that needs fixed, but instead of fixing it America’s society hangs a picture over the hole. The lack of educational reforms causes the America’s youth to fall behind other countries youth in literacy. The lack of effort from the government, from schools, parents, teachers, and students put a strain on learning. Some American citizens proclaim that they want a change in the school systems, but nothing results from it. Barber states, “With all the goodwill in the world, it is still hard to know how schools can cure the ills that stem from the failure of so many other institutions. Saying we want education to come first won’t put it first” (Barber, 2014, pp.217). Society labels schools as “prisons,” and sadly, some are less safe than actual prisons. The lack of safety forces students to focus on their own safety rather than learning. Not all schools provide safe environments for students; The result of this problem is conflicts and disinterest for learning. The lack of effort put forth by America’s society and government is only one factor in this multitude of…
John Gatto, who is the author of “How public education cripples our kids, and why”, shares his insight and experience about schooling. He talks about his experience as a school teacher and how bored not just the students are during school, but the teachers as well. Throughout the beginning of his article he questions himself why is schooling so boring and who is to blame. He believed that boredom and childishness wasn’t a natural state in classrooms and defied such customs by extents to even bend the law (Gatto).…