A Lack of Emotion: The Persuasive Strategies of John Taylor Gatto Human beings are controlled by their emotions. How people make decisions and how people feel towards someone or something are based on emotion. This is the one device that author John Taylor Gatto fails to practice effectively in his essay, Against School. Gatto uses historical figures and quotes to persuade the audience that public schooling has corrupted the children that are put through its system. The essay, appearing to be informative, is actually persuasive, mainly since Gatto is purely stating his opinion, that there is no need for forced schooling, using facts to make an assumption, that because the historical greats didn’t go to school, why should today’s children?
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He tells his audience that he took medical leave, but found that we he returned, “all evidence of my having been granted the leave had been purposely destroyed, that my job had been terminated, and that I no longer possessed even a teaching license.” This unfortunate event could be the thing that led Gatto to be so against school. Gatto went on to make an assumption saying that the purpose of schools is to make sure no children actually grow up. He then presented the question that the whole essay addresses, “Do we really need school?” Many of the historical greats were listed in Gatto’s essay of people who did not attend the normal twelve years of school, people like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. He used all former president to make a point, that if past presidents didn’t receive a formal education, why do children today need it? What Gatto fails to realize is, state compulsory laws were not even enacted in the times of these presidents (later on in the essay, Gatto himself states that compulsory laws really became a popular notion between 1905-1915). If twelve years of free schooling was offered to the aforementioned men, surely they would take that offer. By insulting today’s education by comparing it to the past, Gatto ultimately loses audience sympathy that he tries to attain at the beginning of …show more content…
For those who work in the school system, all respect for Gatto is lost. When referring to public education, Gatto uses the word “unfortunately” to describe mandatory schooling. He continues to state that kids never grow up because they are always with other children. Responsibility and independence is also something that he believes has been stripped from children simply because they are with other children Instead, selfish emotions are what takes place. At this point in the essay, Gatto has offended a lot of people. The use of pathos at this point is
He tells his audience that he took medical leave, but found that we he returned, “all evidence of my having been granted the leave had been purposely destroyed, that my job had been terminated, and that I no longer possessed even a teaching license.” This unfortunate event could be the thing that led Gatto to be so against school. Gatto went on to make an assumption saying that the purpose of schools is to make sure no children actually grow up. He then presented the question that the whole essay addresses, “Do we really need school?” Many of the historical greats were listed in Gatto’s essay of people who did not attend the normal twelve years of school, people like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. He used all former president to make a point, that if past presidents didn’t receive a formal education, why do children today need it? What Gatto fails to realize is, state compulsory laws were not even enacted in the times of these presidents (later on in the essay, Gatto himself states that compulsory laws really became a popular notion between 1905-1915). If twelve years of free schooling was offered to the aforementioned men, surely they would take that offer. By insulting today’s education by comparing it to the past, Gatto ultimately loses audience sympathy that he tries to attain at the beginning of …show more content…
For those who work in the school system, all respect for Gatto is lost. When referring to public education, Gatto uses the word “unfortunately” to describe mandatory schooling. He continues to state that kids never grow up because they are always with other children. Responsibility and independence is also something that he believes has been stripped from children simply because they are with other children Instead, selfish emotions are what takes place. At this point in the essay, Gatto has offended a lot of people. The use of pathos at this point is