John Gatto’s “Against School,” is about how Gatto has spent his last 30 years teaching and realizing that most students and teachers in America’s educational system is bound by boredom. He compares schools to prisons and students to mindless drones who only work for the grades or who fail the system. Gatto explains that teachers become bored because they were once those students and they are also part of the problem. John Gatto questions why we even have schooling, “Is this deadly routine really necessary?” If Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Carnegie, and Rockefeller didn’t need an education to become successful, then what’s the point. Gatto’s brief history lesson on how our educational system is a model of 19th century Prussian system is quite interesting.
A student should never act dumbfounded by how poorly their final grades turned out to be considering the amount of information provided by the instructor in order to help aid the student in time of need. Weisenfeld states, “Many, when pressed about why they think they deserve a better grade, admit they don't deserve one but would like one anyway.” Assuming the students already foresaw the outcome of their grades,
No specific group of people can be blamed for the problems in education. All of them are to blame if the needs for a proper education are not met. “Teaching right from wrong has as much bearing on a culture’s survival as teaching reading, writing, or science.” ~William Kilpatrick Many parents, school-board members, and other members of society today blame teachers solely for the problems in the educational system. They primarily blame teachers because of the simple fact that it is easier to change a teacher than it is to change a student’s family.
Teachers have reported that student morale had deteriorated and none reported that it had improved since high stakes have been implemented in schools. Teachers and administrators focus on testing because the schools and faculty are held accountable, when students perform poorly on the test and this adds even more to students’ level of stress according to
If a W.C student is labelled by a middle-class (M.C) teacher the student often believe that the teacher is right therefore they take that label they have been given and they become a self-fulfilling prophecy which means they accept the label they have been given and stay that standard, this is basically saying if a student is labelled negatively they stay negative because they are ‘fulfilling their own prophecy’ so they are now going to underachieve in education. This is effected by poverty due to W.C generally not being able to afford nice uniforms so the teacher can tell they come from a W.C background because they don’t look as smart as the M.C students. Another reason in the claim that poverty is the main reason for W.C underachievement is because they are generally more fatalistic. If a W.C child is fatalistic in school then it means that they are also culturally deprived, because they are culturally deprived they have attitudes which insist that they are not going to do well in school because for example their parents didn’t then they will not try to get an education as they are fatalistic about being setup to fail in
In High Schools around the United States scores are getting worse and worse and it’s due to unmotivated teachers who don’t care about the integrity of teaching anymore because it all seems pointless in this current time. You could make a lot more points about High School and its flaws but these ones are the biggest ones that need addressing. From High School to College, a lot of things change. In College you pick your classes, your times, basically everything. You have freedom to do what you like and aren’t held back by counselors and certain start times.
I have been incredibly bored by school since day one. We use to read aloud as a class in elementary school and I would get bored and annoyed at the verbal stumbling of my class mates and would read ahead silently. Inevitably, I would get in trouble for not paying attention when it came my time to read. Well of course I wasn't paying attention! I didn't like to listen to these mouth breathers shout at me on the playground and I sure as hell didn't want to hear them struggle over two syllable words in class.
He soon realizes that his diverse group of poor students is embroiled in a careless and aggressive attitude toward any authority figure. Without the positive support of family members and low academic expectations from school administrators and teachers, Mr. Clark tries to teach rules and high social and academic expectations. One of the rules is that the class is a family and no one is quitting on each other as long as they have respect for each other. He tries to show them that learning can be fun when they cooperate with each other. As the students read books and did their homework, they began to recognize the value of school.
Taking the example of student life, I am convinced to say that the students are always underrated by their teachers. They never get the marks as they expect. But this thing proves better for the student. Firstly the student learns how to deal with such situations in everyday life as it is the human nature to underestimate others. Secondly, he or she endeavors to score more in the next examination and ultimately in the final evaluation tests and then, throughout his or her career such students prove to be the best.
Even though socialization of students may be a cause for concern, homeschooling is preferred because an overcrowded classroom leads to poor education and poor outside influences. The goal of American Society should be that every child receives a good education, no matter what the source of it is. American parents have the basic right to choose how they wish to educate their children. There are many pros and cons to each side, and parties for both sides are equally passionate in their feelings. Some people believe that homeschooling is the best way to ensure that their children are learning what they want them to learn.