Gatto And Robinson Compare And Contrast

Great Essays
Compare and Contrast “John Taylor Gatto and Sir Ken Robinson” Essay
In the United States, public education is required for all students from kindergarten through 12th grade. All children in the United States have access to free public school. The funds are generated from tax subsidies for public school funding. Likewise, funding comes from the state, local, and federal government. Generally, the responsibility of public schools is to train all students to excel as educated, responsible, global citizens. There are challenges facing the system of public schools in the United States, and these drew the attention of John Taylor Gatto and Sir Ken Robinson. Both of them valued the importance of education in the life of students especially those who attend public schools. Gatto and Robinson have different opinions about what the problems are in current education system,
…show more content…
In “Against School,” written by John Taylor Gatto, he was subjective to the standard of America 's educational system. When Gatto was concerned with the public school system, he recognized that boredom is a common condition of teachers and students in public schools. Therefore, teachers who do not have incentives and lack understanding to make work interesting to students get bored. Likewise, students get bored in schools because they found the school teachings dull and repetitive. Neither students nor teachers knew how to think for themselves as both teachers and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the United States, the school serves as a primary institution in regards to the education and socialization of any given community’s children. Over the course of the nearly two-hundred-year history of public education in America, the school has come to replace other significant institutions, such as the church and family, in the daily lives of most students. Children between the ages of 7 and 18 spend a majority of their time in school learning content in addition to being socialized to fit within societal norms. Joel Spring’s Goals of Public Schooling, the introductory text to the course, provides historical insight into the development of the school’s role in society. From the era of Thomas Jefferson’s meritocracy ideology where school’s sole purpose was to enable children with basic skills to Edward Ross’ declaration of school being “a form of social control” a sense of societal liability has been bestowed upon schools.…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In John Taylor Gatto’s essay, “Against School,” Gatto writes about his perspective on the American public school system that he believes is not as beneficial as it is expected to be. He begins by explaining that teachers and students are bored inside classrooms simply because students are not taught better qualities such as critical thinking or curiosity. Instead, they are “schooled” rather than “educated” so students only learn how to conform. Gatto goes on to describe the goals of school as, “making good people, making good citizens, and making each person their personal best” (117). He later comments on Inglis’ interpretation of the functions of modern schooling.…

    • 1581 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Taylor Gatto, a former New York city teacher posted an article called “Against school” in 09/2003 Harper's Magazine. Ghatto talks about how education in America was boring for the teachers and for the student’s. In his article he starts talking about his experience when he was a teacher. He explains that the kids were not interested in the subject and they also thought that the teachers didn’t know anything about the material. The teachers’ blamed the students , saying that the students were rude; that they only cared about receiving their grades and that they didn’t care so much about learning.…

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Children from the early 1900s have been taught to learn in several ways. In the article “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto tells us how our school system needs improvement so we don't just go for a schooling but an education. Gatto also refers to the American schooling system as a joke and believes each kid can reach their true potential by taking risks and making their own…

    • 69 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Students that are not performing well academically during elementary and middle school periods can be transfer to vocational courses instead of being dropped out of schools. As a result, parents and students can recognize the importance of academic performance on the students’ future. Moreover,America need a standardized curriculum, and a standardized certification test for teachers instead of giving all public teachers a tenure. Besides, people in America are making works against their interests, which is opposite of what is good for them. This social issue will not be improved because America’s education is leading by the woman who called the traditional public education system in the United States a “dead…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Once in your lifetime, you may have questioned the purpose of everyday schooling; you may have even shown your hate for it. One person in particular took his hate for school to a new level. John Gatto was a school teacher, who absolutely hate the system. Against School is an essay he wrote expressing his hate for it. Against School shows what the school systems of late are about and how, as he says, it “cripples our kids” (Gatto).…

    • 1291 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Taylor Gatto’s “Against School” is his own portrayal on the educational system he perceived throughout his time teaching, observing the “schooling” method, and contrasting the differences between education and the “laboratories of experimentation on young minds” known to Gatto as the Standard educational system. Education is only an acceptable means of “learning” through a “forced schooling” method, which in turn; creates a method of maintaining a controlled society, and developing “role oriented” citizens. The labeling of students in an “assembly line” format provides the country with set statistics based on education profiling, as what Prussia experienced in the 1820’s. The division of children via test rankings, class rankings, and…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System”, Diane Ravitch, the former assistant secretary of education examines her career in education reform. Ravitch’s book will be used to answer the following questions. According to the author what can we do to improve schools and education? The author stresses that there is no silver bullet that will magically fix the United States schools and the education system.…

    • 1719 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The New York City Teacher of the Year, John Gatto, argues in “Against School- How public education cripples our kids today, and why” that the school system is taking advantage of the students mind. Gatto states that not everyone has to go to school in order to be successful, but the school system is enforcing that everyone must go to school. Education can be accomplished anywhere, according to Gatto, but schooling is tearing down peoples ability to think, also “dumbing down” society. John Gatto argues in “Against School-…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The public educational system began in the United States because it was seen as a way to help close the gap between the rich and the poor. Closing the gap between these two factions have become important for many people who are in the low and middle class because that way our country can build a community where everyone has a fair chance to gain income equality and the opportunity to receive quality education. However, privatization is disservice for some students who want to become successful as they are more focused on helping students who have a higher chance to succeed in the American economy. In Beilke and Morrison’s article, they state that within the “[public education] infrastructure of testing, tracking, and ability grouping- and its reliance on local (district) control- it guarantees that “the goods” will be kept in the “right” hands” (212). Putting students into two categories is unfair as it creates a boundary between students who do not do well in school and students who are doing fairly well in school.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Public Education Failure

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The public school system removes individuality from the equation and expects everyone to fit into the parameters established by the federal government. Tomlinson also suggests, “Students flourish when they find a sort of school family—a group that accepts, nurtures, and needs them.” She feels the best way to accomplish this task is to, “. . . ask ourselves what we can do to model, commend, and necessitate mutual…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lyndon B. Johnson once said that “Education is not a problem. Education is an opportunity.” Education has always been a way for children to expand their knowledge, and expand their minds as well. However, it has been brought to the attention of many, that education is now a way to force ideals down the throats of knowledge thirsty children. In trying to fit in standardized tests, teachers and schools have lost sight of the true purpose of education: to teach young people the rights and responsibilities of citizens.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Diane Ravitch and John Gatto both set up their arguments to have a message mirroring each other, in that the current system that schools have in order to teach kids is failing and needs to be refined. Diane Ravitch approaches this view in contrast to Gatto. She builds her argument around the solution that children should be educated in such a way that sets them up for citizenhood during and after high school. Gatto’s approach takes a different view in which children are responsible for their own education and it should be left up to the individual students on whether or not they wish to “take away an education rather than merely receive a schooling,” (Gatto, page 115). Both build up to this belief through their separate experiences within the schooling system.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Schools are very important for students. In school, we can learn a lot of things, but students need the right teachers and the material to be successful in life and for a better education. Jean Anyon in “Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work” shows that in some schools they don’t have the right teachers or material because of the economy or the neighborhood the schools are located. Also low-income people do not get the same education as people with a good economy.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Against School,” John Gatto argues that the main purpose of public schools and the educational system in general is to produce a “manageable” populace. Gatto argues that the current educational system does this by slowly acclimating students into certain habits, confirming students to certain rules, and implementing a certain mindset into students that makes them respond well to authority. All of these things that Gatto argues adds up to make a system for training a complaint workforce. Firstly, schools achieve what Gatto states their purpose is by acclimating students to how factories are organized and what working in a factory is like. Secondary, schools also accomplish Gattos argument by restricting the class choices of students and…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays