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Jacelyn Thomas

Professor Rieman

English 1101X

5 April 2010

Unschooled but Not Uneducated

When you think of school and education, how would you describe them and what

words come to mind? You may think of terms like inspire, insightful, or success, since

that’s what schools do, right? They inspire their students to learn, become educated, and

prepare them to live a successful life. But according to John Gatto, schools actually do

the exact opposite. He would describe the United States’ twelve-year school programs to

be boring, childish, and even deadly. In his essay, “Against School”, he attempts to

explain where our country’s traditional school system originated from, how it has a

negative effect on students, and its surprising and supposedly true intentions. Although

Gatto makes good points and displays a strong argument throughout his essay, his beliefs

about the true purpose for America’s schooling comes off a little too harsh and

exaggerated for most to believe.

Being a student myself, I can undeniably agree with Gatto when he describes our

modern school system to be a boring and deadly routine. “Six classes a day, five days a

week, nine months a year, for twelve years” (34 Gatto) - as he breaks it down- is not only

unhealthy but its unnecessary as well. Throughout the many years kids spend in forced

schooling, they are experiencing sleep deprivation from constantly staying up late doing

homework and waking up early to endure the same long hours each day. In addition to

bad sleeping habits from this routine, students are also losing contact with the real world
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due to spending a great deal of their lives in school. Gatto explains that kids in his

classroom were constantly experiencing boredom and said they wanted to be doing

something real (Gatto 33). In his other articles, “Take Back Your Education”, and “12

Things You Might Not Have Learned in a Classroom”, Gatto explains the importance of

experience and self-discovery, showing how he also believes the students should be

doing something “real.” He believes school acts as an obstacle to getting that experience

that cannot be found in a classroom. A quote from “Take Back Your Education”

describes this concern:

“But school often acts as an obstacle to success. To go from the confinement

of early childhood, to the confinement of the classroom, to the confinement

of homework, working to amass a record entitling you to a “good” college,

where the radical reduction of your spirit will continue, isn’t likely to build

character or prepare you for a good life.”

Gatto makes a good point; So much time is spent in school learning things that may or

may not help you in the real world, while more of that time should be spent actually

exploring new places and possibilities, being around other competent adults, and letting

the real world educate you, as opposed to history and English books. I know this to be

true because some of the most significant times in my life were spent traveling, doing

community service, and job shadowing in hospitals and health clinics. It was these events

where I learned the most through hands on experiences and real life situations. Of course

my medical science books taught me a great deal, but it was my educational trips to the

hospitals that gave me the personal experience and made me realize that’s where I wanted

to be. Given his judgment, Gatto’s idea that forced schooling can be completely negative
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and unhelpful for students is an understandable thought, but a little to the extreme.

Despite the fact that kids should spend more time in the real world, some background

education would be necessary for them as well. However, Gatto’s assumptions are spot

on in regards to U.S students spending entirely too much of their lives in a classroom.

Surprisingly, something else Gatto wants to bring to our attention is this: the idea that our

country’s schooling has a harmful effect on students is no secret; our country had

intentionally adopted this system for a reason (Gatto 34).

If it is possible that this system of schooling in our country is actually crippling

students instead of helping them, who designed the system and where did it come from?

Why would a country adopt or create a system of schooling that was created purposely to

hinder the minds of their population? One would think any country, specifically America,

would want their citizens to have the potential to be the best they could be. Well,

according to Gatto, mass schooling originated in the nineteenth century from Prussia. He

uses evidence from the work of H.L Mencken, who traces our educational system back to

this state. Gatto also informs us that people actually spoke out against the

“Prussianization” of American schools at that time (Gatto 35), meaning some aspect

about Prussian schools was not favorable. The first time I read Gatto’s claims about

where our country’s schooling originated from, I pondered the thought and couldn’t

realize why that was such a bad thing that the U.S adopted our system from this other

state. Gatto later makes it clear of why this should be such a cause of concern. The state

of Prussia, who has close ties with Germany, was known for basically wanting to dumb-

down the people of their own countries. They wanted to prevent peasants and other

underclass’s from gaining power and leadership that could allow them to “integrate into a
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dangerous whole” (Gatto 36). If you think about it, Gatto’s theory does make since.

There have been many instances in history when a country’s government or leader has

created systems, whether it is camps or schools, or taking away certain rights of the

people that prevents them from gaining any kind of power what so ever. The idea that

nation-wide school systems were designed to keep the population at the same level,

physically and mentally, is not an unrealistic notion. But in today’s terms, this particular

theory of Gatto’s could be declared exaggerated as well. One must consider the point in

history during Prussian times. There were constant struggles within countries over who

had power, and not to mention the series of events that occurred before WWI. It’s safe to

say I could agree that this was the purpose for school systems at that point in history,

because maybe there was more of a focus on managing the population under their

circumstances. Perhaps America’s school systems did originate from Prussian ideals, but

in today’s times, it would be a bit of an overstatement to say that the U.S.’s main

intentions for mass schooling is still to control and create obedience in the population.

Especially considering all the special programs and honors students can receive in school

from rising above their class, as well as promotions and wealth one can obtain in their

jobs from rising above and beyond the population. With rewards like that, it would be

hard to believe our country was still striving to dumb its citizens down.

Gatto’s essays make good points. Certain aspects of our country’s educational

system do not work well for most students. Through his examples, he tries to make it

evident that people can be educated without necessarily receiving an education from

these compulsory school systems. But it would be a little much to believe the United
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States is intentionally still striving to keep a hold on our people by keeping them on the

same level so they will not rise up to something greater than our own government.

Gatto, John Taylor. “Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids and
Why.” Harper’s Magazine. Sept. 2001: 33-38. Print.

My biggest concern about this essay is that I didn’t fully get my point across like I
had intended in my outline. I wanted to get more into all the functions Gatto
brought up in his essay about the real purposes for modern schooling, but I started
on that part too late and ran out of time. So my biggest concern is hoping my paper
as a whole still backs up my thesis statement, even though I didn’t quite finish. One
of my friends read my paper also, and she kept making comments about run on
sentences, & laughing at how long some of my sentences were. So I wanted to
make sure my paper doesn’t sound like I start rambling too much. I also tried to
work more on my transitions this time, so hopefully they sound better than they did
in my previous papers.

Jacelyn,

Here’s what I get as the main idea of your paper: Gatto has some valid
points, but you think overall his ideas are too extreme to be believed today. You
kind of pick and choose what you see as valid and show why.
Your transitions are fine—I moved through the paper easily. And no, your
sentences are not too long or run-on. It’s perfectly wonderful to write complex
sentences. (You do have one fragment (highlighted). )
I like that you see parallels between Gatto’s point about school being
controlling the populace and other such efforts throughout history. It’s fair that you
question this stance.
Sometimes I felt bogged down more in a summarization of Gatto’s ideas
than I did convinced of your ideas, but not in a horrible way.
I’d encourage you to return to this paper and see if you can touch on those
ideas you felt too rushed to include in this draft. And if this is a paper you want to
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include in your portfolio, it would be helpful to for us to sit down with it together
and talk more about what else you might do here.