Against School Gatto Analysis

1009 Words5 Pages
Jeremy Reed English 1101 Section 104 Jack Ehn October 29, 2014 Against School I can relate to John Taylor Gatto. "Against School" As I look at my kids as they do their homework it seems challenging at times, or I find them being bored with it and wanting to either do more work or not wanting to do any work at all. They seem to understand it’s just not challenging enough, or they may just be bored. Gatto says “I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom. Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as I often did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid,…show more content…
I still excelled the best I could do at all academic studies which made me rather excited about the prospect of going to college I thought focusing on academic challenges, should provide the extra stimulation and opportunity to let me soar. I have come to understand the harsher conformity of lower level courses. Gatto says “after that episode with his grandpa set him straight cured him of boredom forever, and here and there over the years I was able to pass on the lesson to some remarkable student. For the most part, however, I found it futile to challenge the official notion that boredom and childishness were the natural state of affairs in the classroom. Often I had to defy custom, and even bend the law, to help kids break out of this trap”. (667) The kids strike back, of course; childish adults regularly conflate opposition with disloyalty. I once had a teacher in the third grade who taught the way she wanted to teach not by what the school system wanted her to teach. Now that I look back on it she was probably the most respected teacher by teaching the way she did and I think I learned the most that year…show more content…
But as of today it’s still the same cell block schools in the confined rooms with the teachers teaching what the state wants the teachers to teach the kids so they pass all these tests. And now I hear they want to hold back third graders if they can’t read at a third grade level. So yes I think times have changed in the past centuries on what Gatto says. I feel more and sorrier for the teachers now than I did as I was growing up. I guess I was blind to see how teachers have to teach and how they teach. Back in my day when I went to school teachers cared and tried to keep the students from not being bored and keep us engaged. Now that both my girls are in school. I think it’s bad for the teachers and the students cause all they have is test after test that last for weeks just to prove where our kids stand with the rest of the nation or in the county. Work Sited John Taylor Gatto. “Against School.” The Writer’s Presence: A Pool Of Readings. Donald Mcquade and Robert Atwan. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford. 2012 pages 665 – 672

More about Against School Gatto Analysis

Open Document