The Boring Of School John Gatto Analysis
Most Youths have a different perspective than adults do about schooling. Most adults view schooling as an opportunity to become what you want in the career world. Visa-versa, the view students share towards schooling is that schooling is boring and a waste of time; some may even call it imprisonment. Adults tend to blame students for student’s lack of interest which discourages students and make schooling more boring and feel like more of a waste of time for themselves. The fact that adults have different views than students do on education shows us that we are teaching our kids that education isn’t important. Therefore, we need to address this issue by teaching our kids to value education.
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). …show more content…
Gatto wondered why the schooling educational system isn’t nearly effective as it could be.
He says “ We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight – simply by being more flexible about time, text, and test, by introducing kids to truly competent adults, and by giving each students what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then.” “What is the problem with education” (Gatto). Gatto was correct. School isn’t just designed to help us in the career world, but also teaches students how to have better personalities and learn how to be self-manageable and independent
adult.
Gatto claims that the purpose of the system being built is to not make students reach their potential or help students critically think for themselves, but to teach them how to obey the government and become mass consumers. He tries to supports his conspiracy by questioning why there is forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, and nine months a year, for twelve’s years. Another argument he uses to support his conspiracy is claiming that our educational culture was adopted from Prussia which denies are students intellectual knowledge and instead makes them easier to be manageable. Though he is arguing about schooling, he is not necessarily arguing with education but just the objective modern schooling has which he thinks is to convert our children into employees and consumers to increase mass consumption (Gatto).
Overall Gatto concludes that the purpose of schooling is not to teach students interesting things but to play a specific role in the labor force for companies and the government and ultimately following authority by dumbing the youth down rather than help them critically think for themselves. Gatto himself writes, “School trains children to be employees and consumers and to obey reflexively.” The solution he proposes is that we teach our kids ourselves how to think critically and independently and urge them to learn serious material such as economics, philosophy, music, history, literature, etc. Ultimately we must teach them how to manage themselves rather than being managed by the government. (Gatto) At the same time I believe Gatto’s words when explains what students need to learn these important subjects, I still believe that Gatto makes an extreme accusation when accuses schools purposely training students to become employees and consumers.
Dave Eggers is the author of “The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries” and throughout his article he discusses the lack of salary and the lack of respect that teachers earn. Egger begins by using similarities with the military for education. He does this by saying when a military plan doesn’t work out we don’t blame the soldiers fighting in the trenches, but the planners and generals, the people who are actually plotting the steps. He claims that we don’t do the same for our schools, but instead blame the teachers rather than a particular school (Eggers).
Eggers believes that it’s critical to find a solution for improving our education now because many teachers are near retirement and if we don’t do anything now we won’t have any teachers. According to Egger, the problem regarding teacher’s salary is that they make 14 percent less than other occupations that require similar education. In addition, he also says that teacher’s salary has been declining for the last 30 years which he emphasizes that it makes it difficult to raise a family if not impossible with an average of 39,000$ starting salary (Eggers). This shows us how much the United States values and appreciates education for youths.
Eggers continues to emphasize the poor treatment and lack of respect teachers receive. He explains the responsibilities a teacher has is not reasonable for a college graduate earning such a low salary. According the Egger, 46 percent of teachers quit before their 5th year of teaching causing a turnover for the United States at 7.34$ billion yearly (Eggers).
Eggers compares other countries educational plans with ours and concludes that what we may be missing is that we don’t do. He says the solution is to pay the teachers significantly more, have the schools pay for the teachers training, and recruit top graduates for a teaching profession. While he doesn’t pose a solution on how to afford these expenses, he clearly states what must be done to prevent a higher turnover in the United States Schools (Eggers). He is correct, addressing this issue will not only help prevent our teachers from leaving but will encourage college graduates to consider a teaching occupation.
Gatto and Egger don’t have much in common with their perspective on schooling. Egger is convinced that the problem with schooling is the lack of respect and lack of salary teachers receive and can be solved with finances. Whereas Gatto neither believes that it’s the teacher’s fault nor the schools fault but the government's fault that students aren’t learning effectively and his solution to this phenomena is for us to teach kids how to independently think for themselves. However, both authors fail to propose a strategic solution by simply stating we will find a way.
My whole life I have heard it said that success is linked with education. After reading Gatto’s and Egger’s article, I still believe this is to be true. This is because education is what prepares us for the future. School isn’t just designed to teach us skills for a career, but also how to critically think for ourselves. It’s not just the teacher’s responsibility for the boredom of students but the students’ parents and the students themselves whom are also responsible for being bored in class. Students have got to teach themselves, with the support of their parents, how to be interested in what they learn. I am not saying that teacher’s performance doesn’t affect students learning but I am saying that it’s both the teachers and students responsibility to find interest in school. When I was a child, I used to think that teachers played such a vital role in the community and therefore believed that they were well compensated for it. However, Egger explains that this is not the case as he used facts to support his claim. You would think that education is the most critical department in the United States and should be a priority to fix its flaws. Unfortunately it’s not, therefor I agree Eggers’s argument when he addresses the issues with the educational system.
I agree with Gatto’s belief that school is boring for the students and teachers. However, I disagree with Gatto’s conspiracy that the government purposely designed schools to unconsciously teach us to obey the authority of the government and also convert us to a labor force and become large consumers. At the same time that I believe forced schooling isn’t the most appropriate method to help students learn effectively, I also believe the purpose and design of our schools is to help us achieve success by equipping us with the knowledge to help us prepare for life. Gatto was correct when he said students need to learn adventure and curiosity because these are vital traits that help us become ambitious to participate effectively in school.
On the other hand, I agree with Eggers article for the most part. He was correct when we need to address teacher’s salary and give them more respect because not only will it increase the demand for the job, like I described earlier, but also encourage the teachers to interact more effectively with the students. Though Egger didn’t say directly, it is assumed that he thought that the teachers were bored as much as the students just as Gatto explained.
In conclusion, addressing educational flaws should be a priority in the United States. Eggers said President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan understand the centrality of teachers and have said that improving our education system begins and ends with great teachers. But world-class education cost money”. However, we don’t need money for the most part but instead we need to teach our kids to value education and use with whatever money we have available for the education department on compensating teachers to encourage them to do his or her job effectively.
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). …show more content…
Gatto wondered why the schooling educational system isn’t nearly effective as it could be.
He says “ We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight – simply by being more flexible about time, text, and test, by introducing kids to truly competent adults, and by giving each students what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then.” “What is the problem with education” (Gatto). Gatto was correct. School isn’t just designed to help us in the career world, but also teaches students how to have better personalities and learn how to be self-manageable and independent
adult.
Gatto claims that the purpose of the system being built is to not make students reach their potential or help students critically think for themselves, but to teach them how to obey the government and become mass consumers. He tries to supports his conspiracy by questioning why there is forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, and nine months a year, for twelve’s years. Another argument he uses to support his conspiracy is claiming that our educational culture was adopted from Prussia which denies are students intellectual knowledge and instead makes them easier to be manageable. Though he is arguing about schooling, he is not necessarily arguing with education but just the objective modern schooling has which he thinks is to convert our children into employees and consumers to increase mass consumption (Gatto).
Overall Gatto concludes that the purpose of schooling is not to teach students interesting things but to play a specific role in the labor force for companies and the government and ultimately following authority by dumbing the youth down rather than help them critically think for themselves. Gatto himself writes, “School trains children to be employees and consumers and to obey reflexively.” The solution he proposes is that we teach our kids ourselves how to think critically and independently and urge them to learn serious material such as economics, philosophy, music, history, literature, etc. Ultimately we must teach them how to manage themselves rather than being managed by the government. (Gatto) At the same time I believe Gatto’s words when explains what students need to learn these important subjects, I still believe that Gatto makes an extreme accusation when accuses schools purposely training students to become employees and consumers.
Dave Eggers is the author of “The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries” and throughout his article he discusses the lack of salary and the lack of respect that teachers earn. Egger begins by using similarities with the military for education. He does this by saying when a military plan doesn’t work out we don’t blame the soldiers fighting in the trenches, but the planners and generals, the people who are actually plotting the steps. He claims that we don’t do the same for our schools, but instead blame the teachers rather than a particular school (Eggers).
Eggers believes that it’s critical to find a solution for improving our education now because many teachers are near retirement and if we don’t do anything now we won’t have any teachers. According to Egger, the problem regarding teacher’s salary is that they make 14 percent less than other occupations that require similar education. In addition, he also says that teacher’s salary has been declining for the last 30 years which he emphasizes that it makes it difficult to raise a family if not impossible with an average of 39,000$ starting salary (Eggers). This shows us how much the United States values and appreciates education for youths.
Eggers continues to emphasize the poor treatment and lack of respect teachers receive. He explains the responsibilities a teacher has is not reasonable for a college graduate earning such a low salary. According the Egger, 46 percent of teachers quit before their 5th year of teaching causing a turnover for the United States at 7.34$ billion yearly (Eggers).
Eggers compares other countries educational plans with ours and concludes that what we may be missing is that we don’t do. He says the solution is to pay the teachers significantly more, have the schools pay for the teachers training, and recruit top graduates for a teaching profession. While he doesn’t pose a solution on how to afford these expenses, he clearly states what must be done to prevent a higher turnover in the United States Schools (Eggers). He is correct, addressing this issue will not only help prevent our teachers from leaving but will encourage college graduates to consider a teaching occupation.
Gatto and Egger don’t have much in common with their perspective on schooling. Egger is convinced that the problem with schooling is the lack of respect and lack of salary teachers receive and can be solved with finances. Whereas Gatto neither believes that it’s the teacher’s fault nor the schools fault but the government's fault that students aren’t learning effectively and his solution to this phenomena is for us to teach kids how to independently think for themselves. However, both authors fail to propose a strategic solution by simply stating we will find a way.
My whole life I have heard it said that success is linked with education. After reading Gatto’s and Egger’s article, I still believe this is to be true. This is because education is what prepares us for the future. School isn’t just designed to teach us skills for a career, but also how to critically think for ourselves. It’s not just the teacher’s responsibility for the boredom of students but the students’ parents and the students themselves whom are also responsible for being bored in class. Students have got to teach themselves, with the support of their parents, how to be interested in what they learn. I am not saying that teacher’s performance doesn’t affect students learning but I am saying that it’s both the teachers and students responsibility to find interest in school. When I was a child, I used to think that teachers played such a vital role in the community and therefore believed that they were well compensated for it. However, Egger explains that this is not the case as he used facts to support his claim. You would think that education is the most critical department in the United States and should be a priority to fix its flaws. Unfortunately it’s not, therefor I agree Eggers’s argument when he addresses the issues with the educational system.
I agree with Gatto’s belief that school is boring for the students and teachers. However, I disagree with Gatto’s conspiracy that the government purposely designed schools to unconsciously teach us to obey the authority of the government and also convert us to a labor force and become large consumers. At the same time that I believe forced schooling isn’t the most appropriate method to help students learn effectively, I also believe the purpose and design of our schools is to help us achieve success by equipping us with the knowledge to help us prepare for life. Gatto was correct when he said students need to learn adventure and curiosity because these are vital traits that help us become ambitious to participate effectively in school.
On the other hand, I agree with Eggers article for the most part. He was correct when we need to address teacher’s salary and give them more respect because not only will it increase the demand for the job, like I described earlier, but also encourage the teachers to interact more effectively with the students. Though Egger didn’t say directly, it is assumed that he thought that the teachers were bored as much as the students just as Gatto explained.
In conclusion, addressing educational flaws should be a priority in the United States. Eggers said President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan understand the centrality of teachers and have said that improving our education system begins and ends with great teachers. But world-class education cost money”. However, we don’t need money for the most part but instead we need to teach our kids to value education and use with whatever money we have available for the education department on compensating teachers to encourage them to do his or her job effectively.