RR #1

            In John Taylor Gatto’s article Against Schools, Gatto attempts to have the reader realize the harmful effects generated by the current state of schooling.  Gatto himself was a teacher in various schools throughout Manhattan for over 30 years, and uses his experience to justify his views on today’s schooling. He provides examples of accomplished Americans that never completed the twelve years of schooling, such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, to show how you can turn out just fine without it. Gatto also compares our current schooling system to the Prussian military state, saying it is useful in  “creating not only a harmless electorate and a servile labor force but also a virtual herd of mindless consumers” (157).

            During his days of teaching, Gatto returned from a medical leave of absence to find out that his job had been terminated and he had no longer possessed a teaching license. He was able to regain his license back after nine months of hard and unnecessary work, but this episode only added to his growing frustration with today’s schools. When he finally retired, Gatto had “more than enough reason to think of our schools - with their long-term, cell-block-style, forced confinement of both students and teachers - as virtual factories of childishness” (153).  All these events and experiences Gatto endured pushed him to finally writing this article in September of 2001, expressing his frustrations with the corruptness of schooling and persuading the reader to join him in rallying to reform the education system.

            Since I am indeed a product of the twelve-year compulsory school system that Gatto argues against, I would have to say I am definitely on his side in terms of pushing for some type of large-scale reformation of schooling in America. I greatly believe that there is ample room for change, as our present structure is based on an early 1900’s industrial society, in which citizens are treated like cogs in a factory and not like the unique individual they really are. We must allow the students the opportunity to take control of their own learning and rediscover the natural curiosity and excitement that comes from gaining new knowledge. Without this type of learning experience, the future citizens will continue to become conformists to the norms of society, which Gatto states, “is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor force,” (156) loosely translating into the corporations wishing to run this country. If one were to deeply analyze the educational system as Gatto has done here, one can understand that schooling was not necessarily created to "educate" the people. Rather, it was created in order to make good people and good citizens out of us all, and to properly oppress society so were all kept at a "safe and manageable" level. While change towards the educational system can be next to impossible to achieve, movements like this take baby steps to initiate, and I believe that reading an article like this would greatly motivate an individual to begin taking those first steps towards change.