John Taylor Gatto believes that school is not really needed. However, he was not opposed to the idea of education. He was against the idea of forced schooling where a student has to attend six classes or so a day, goes for nine months of the year and for five days a week. School in his opinion, was not there just to educate, but there to have children to conform and be alike. Moreover, the students are really restricted to move ahead because there isn’t much room built in for progressing. Gatto also believes that, “we must wake up to what our schools really are: laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands. Mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its main purpose is to turn them into servants” (159)
Conceptually I agree with him, but our personal responsibilities including work prohibit us from putting the time and effort into necessary education at home. I do not believe that higher education makes children conform and be alike. On the contrary, I think that higher education inspires freethinking and multiple opportunities to succeed in our society.
1 comment:
I think it is interesting that you make the point that work can "prohibit us from putting the time and effort into necessary education at home". If it were already a strong part of our culture to have students home schooled, wouldn't work schedules somehow allow for that? And I also think that if the majority of America were home schooled, the exact opposite of Gatto's argument would be proposed. I agree with you, however, that higher education is not as restrictive, because one can pursue his or her own path without being pushed toward a massively standardized goal.
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