Caitlin Flanagan Cultivating Failure Summary

Caitlin Flanagan's piece “Cultivating Failure” appeared in the Atlantic's January/ February 2010 issue. Caitlin Flanagan talks about The Edible schoolyard program in her article. The Edible schoolyard program teaches students to grow food while in school. Instead, Flanagan is trying to persuade the reader that having school gardens will help increase graduation rates. It also talks about “ A Garden In Every School” (420) she added this quote, because she thinks adding a garden to every school would improve graduation rates. However, this piece talks about how graduations rates would improve in schools; if they added school gardens where colored students go to school.
Flanagan starts by describing how latinos come to the United States for a better life. She explains how many Hispanic men have children in the United States, so now that child “was made a citizen of this great country’ (418). Several Hispanics come to the United States with little or no education, but their children “will lead a life entirely different from yours; he will be educated’ (419). Using the strategies of ethos Flanagan is almost making fun of Latinos and African Americans when describing them. According to
Alice Waters explained in Flanagan's essay “Gardens help students to learn the pleasure of physical work” (420). Building gardens could encourage many students to stay in school. But, it can also be a negative thing for students who do not like agriculture. She uses many Informal fallacies in her article. Hasty Generalization is one informal fallacies; because she is jumping to conclusions and believe the only way students of color can graduate is if they have gardens at their schools. Flanagan needs to understand that putting gardens in every school will not raise graduation