John Gatto Against School Analysis

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America’s educational system is flawed, for individuals in America are being taught to be schooled rather than educated. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, school is defined as “an organization that provides instruction.” Furthermore, individuals should realize that being schooled is not acceptable, for being schooled is simply knowing how something works instead of knowing why. Moreover, Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines education as, “the knowledge, skill, and understanding that you get from attending a school, college, or university.” Education is something that all individuals should strive for, but schools simply will not allow students to become educated because an educated student is too ingenious for most teachers to handle,…show more content…
Gatto then begins to question who is to blame for schools being boring. With the teachers blaming the students and the students blaming the teachers, Gatto decides that both students and teachers are guilty. Gatto believes that the teacher should be more involved with the student rather than being a tour guide. Moreover, clearly Gatto believes that America’s educational system is extremely flawed and everyone is to blame. However, individuals must realize that in order to stop the process from recurring year after year students, teachers, and parents must take a stance. Students will inevitably go to school for at least 12 years in America, and throughout all these years teachers and parents will barely have any face to face meetings at all causing the student, teacher, and parent to all be on different pages concerning education. Moreover, Gatto says, “Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, and nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary” (143). In that quotation, Gatto presents a valid statement concerning the educational system in America, for students are simply trapped in a classroom learning nothing but how to read and talk about what happen in a book. Students have no clue what critical thinking, yet most students will go straight to the…show more content…
The former is a process of instruction that prepares the mind with knowledge and understanding, and also prepares the will with wisdom so that people can be primed for life and work. The latter is rooted in a place of leisure separated from work. Individuals should not be forced into a room with 4 walls and expect to learn, for one can be educated from anywhere America, not just a classroom. Students should not let school stand in the way of education. Moreover, individuals should even to question if 12 years of education is even necessary, for Malcolm X stop attending school at an early age and learned most of his education on his own in jail. Malcolm X later on in his life became one of the most iconic figures in American history due to his articulate speech and strong character. In “Learning to Read” Malcolm X says, “ Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I’ve said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies” (). In that quotation, Malcolm X states how he learned most of his education through reading books in prison, yet many Americans today believe that in order to be educated one must go to school, but if Malcolm X can become educated through prison then individuals should be able to educate themselves without sitting in a classroom for 8 hours a day. Furthermore, being schooled is

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