Tools of an Argument of John Taylor Gatto

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Analysis of Tools used in Arguments John Gatto uses a number of tools to express his points in the argument over school education in his excerpt “Against School”. Some of these tools include expert opinion and exemplification. In Gatto’s explanation of how the school system we have today might not necessarily be needed, he supports his points by using exemplification. This is done by giving an example that “George Washington, Benjamin franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln….were not products of a school system, and not one of them was ever ‘graduated’ from a secondary school”. Gatto uses this example of knowledge to prove his point that not every successful child went to school. A second time Gatto uses exemplification is when he is explaining his own experience in the school system as a teacher. He remembers that “my own experience had revealed to me what many other teachers must learn along the way, too, yet keep to themselves for fear of reprisal: if we wanted to we could easily and inexpensively jettison the old, stupid structures and help kids take an education rather than merely receive a schooling”. He uses this personal lesson from life to convey that children are only obeying what they are being told, only learning what they need to in order to escape the prison called school. In an example from his childhood, Gatto remembers talking with his grandfather and he “complained to him of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head. He told me that I was never to use that term in his presence again, that if I was bored it was my fault and no one else’s. The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible”. Through this lesson Gatto shared the same message his grandfather gave him, trying to show that boredom was your own fault. Another tool Gatto uses to prove

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