Group Two The Complaint

In " Against School" by John Taylor Gatto, Mr.Gatto complains of an inefficient school system. He says he has worked at several schools, good and bad, and has become "an expert on boredom." He goes on to explain that we are being schooled, not educated. This schooling is turning us into consumers, and leading us to never question authority, or to think for ourselves in extension. He also touches the idea that the rigid schedule placed on education is necessary to the development of children. But when compared with home schooled children, the outcome is almost the same. Mr. Gatto also mentions a few brilliant minds from history that never went through the traditional school system, "A considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve-year wringer our kids currently go through, and they turned out all right. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln? Someone taught them, to be sure, but they were not products of a school system, and not one of them was ever "graduated" from a secondary school." Beyond that, Gatto talks about social Darwinism and how children in public school often get swallowed by it because it is not only tolerated, but encouraged because it is easier to keep order if everyone has a place. This label can stick with you all through out your schooling and is harmful in developing socially. It seems Gatto feels we are being schooled to obey blindly, never question authority, accept our social role and also to the idea that school is the only path to success, and that none of these are good things.