Gatto Critical Interpretation Final Draft
Content
Brown1 Breena Brown Jan Rieman English 1101x 26 April 2010 What Does it Mean to be Educated? In John Taylor Gatto s essay, Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids and Why, the issue of education is discussed. He states, plenty of people throughout the world today find a new
way to educate themselves without resorting to a system of compulsory secondary schools that all too often resemble prisons. Why then do Americans confuse education with just a system? (34). Gatto brings up the important issue of education and questions whether schooling is necessary to be considered well educated. He provides several examples of famous people like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, who had little schooling, yet turned out to be incredibly intelligent. I believe that schooling should not define a person s intelligence or their level of education. Nowadays, when a person is asked their level of education, they immediately respond with the highest grade in school they ve reached. However, I do not believe that question can be answered with just the person s school record. To me, education is more than math, language arts, social studies and science. Education is constantly learning new concepts in academics, but also in life. Not all life lessons can be taught in school. In fact, the only life lessons that I ve learned in school were ones like time management, perseverance and discipline, all of which I figured out on my own and not from a teacher. Gatto created a list called, 12 Things You Might Not Have Learned in a Classroom, in which he describes what he thought really educated people knew. For example, he claimed that a really educated person would create new things and find new experiences but that can happen in or
Brown2 outside of a classroom. School is not necessary to be considered somewhat educated. New experiences like those that Gatto is talking about can occur through simply living your life. People like my great grandmother, who stopped attending school after fifth grade, lived their lives and experienced new events and gained more knowledge in everything they did even in their failures. My great grandmother dropped out of school to help her family on their farm and in their store. During harvesting time, she would work to gather and clean the fresh fruits and vegetables and then sell it at the store. Working at the store helped her to develop amazing people skills, which cannot be taught in schools. She learned the meaning of hard work and discipline as well as how to handle money. She always said that the younger generations were lazy and took everything for granted. My great grandmother didn t grow up with much and learned to appreciate everything her parents gave her and everything she had she worked hard to obtain. Appreciation and hard work are not taught in schools these days; those are learned from people s own experiences. Gatto refers to Thomas Edison and several other famous people like Farragut, Twain and Rockefeller as unschooled, perhaps, but not uneducated (34). The constant drive to learn and grow as a person is necessary to succeed and become educated, high school and college degrees are not. Simply because someone does not go to school doesn t mean they aren t smart or aren t qualified for decent jobs, however, degrees do help in attempting to get a job. These days, people without high school degrees are lucky to get jobs at McDonalds or Taco Bell. Typically, they aren t even given a chance at big businesses and corporations. It s the same situation with people without a college degree. I don t think it s fair for a college graduate to be considered smarter or more intelligent than someone who didn t go to college. Businesses prefer employees with college degrees. I don t believe that a degree defines a person or means that they re more qualified for a particular job than some high school graduate yet college means more success. In today s society,
Brown3 people are pushed to go to college so that they can become successful. I don t think college guarantees success nor do I believe that dropping out of high school guarantees failure. I feel like today s society, including my parents, forced me into coming to UNCC. If I believed it was possible to get a really good job without a college degree, then I wouldn t have come to UNCC. I m currently a Middle School Education major. My previous education greatly affected my choice in major because middle school was a useless experience for me. I don t believe that I learned anything and I want to make sure that doesn t happen to anyone else. I want to help the students succeed, not necessarily attend high school or college, but I want them to learn. I believe that teachers should create an environment where students feel comfortable to ask questions, not just about school related subjects, but about issues in their personal lives as well. Middle schools is a difficult time as student start to mature and I think that teachers, as well as their parents, should help to guide and support them in whatever troubles they come across. Middle school is the time for teachers to prepare students for their future experiences and education. Education is different for everyone, but I believe that school and college aren t necessary for a person to be considered educated. There is a significant difference between being unschooled and uneducated. I don t always agree with Gatto, but I think for the most part he s correct when he talks about the famous people being uneducated, yet still being incredibly smart. I know several elderly people, including my great grandmother, who dropped out of school very early in their childhood, but they are some of the most intelligent people I have ever known. Whether they learn through their work, parental influence or other life experiences, they are far more intelligent than some of my professors here at UNCC. This supports my belief that schooling and degrees do not guarantee brilliance.
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Works Cited Gatto, John Taylor. Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids and Why. Harper s Magazine. Sept. 2001: 33-38. Print. Gatto, John Taylor. Higher Education: 12 Things You Might Not Have Learned in a Classroom. YES! 14 August 2009. Web. 4 April 2010.
way to educate themselves without resorting to a system of compulsory secondary schools that all too often resemble prisons. Why then do Americans confuse education with just a system? (34). Gatto brings up the important issue of education and questions whether schooling is necessary to be considered well educated. He provides several examples of famous people like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, who had little schooling, yet turned out to be incredibly intelligent. I believe that schooling should not define a person s intelligence or their level of education. Nowadays, when a person is asked their level of education, they immediately respond with the highest grade in school they ve reached. However, I do not believe that question can be answered with just the person s school record. To me, education is more than math, language arts, social studies and science. Education is constantly learning new concepts in academics, but also in life. Not all life lessons can be taught in school. In fact, the only life lessons that I ve learned in school were ones like time management, perseverance and discipline, all of which I figured out on my own and not from a teacher. Gatto created a list called, 12 Things You Might Not Have Learned in a Classroom, in which he describes what he thought really educated people knew. For example, he claimed that a really educated person would create new things and find new experiences but that can happen in or
Brown2 outside of a classroom. School is not necessary to be considered somewhat educated. New experiences like those that Gatto is talking about can occur through simply living your life. People like my great grandmother, who stopped attending school after fifth grade, lived their lives and experienced new events and gained more knowledge in everything they did even in their failures. My great grandmother dropped out of school to help her family on their farm and in their store. During harvesting time, she would work to gather and clean the fresh fruits and vegetables and then sell it at the store. Working at the store helped her to develop amazing people skills, which cannot be taught in schools. She learned the meaning of hard work and discipline as well as how to handle money. She always said that the younger generations were lazy and took everything for granted. My great grandmother didn t grow up with much and learned to appreciate everything her parents gave her and everything she had she worked hard to obtain. Appreciation and hard work are not taught in schools these days; those are learned from people s own experiences. Gatto refers to Thomas Edison and several other famous people like Farragut, Twain and Rockefeller as unschooled, perhaps, but not uneducated (34). The constant drive to learn and grow as a person is necessary to succeed and become educated, high school and college degrees are not. Simply because someone does not go to school doesn t mean they aren t smart or aren t qualified for decent jobs, however, degrees do help in attempting to get a job. These days, people without high school degrees are lucky to get jobs at McDonalds or Taco Bell. Typically, they aren t even given a chance at big businesses and corporations. It s the same situation with people without a college degree. I don t think it s fair for a college graduate to be considered smarter or more intelligent than someone who didn t go to college. Businesses prefer employees with college degrees. I don t believe that a degree defines a person or means that they re more qualified for a particular job than some high school graduate yet college means more success. In today s society,
Brown3 people are pushed to go to college so that they can become successful. I don t think college guarantees success nor do I believe that dropping out of high school guarantees failure. I feel like today s society, including my parents, forced me into coming to UNCC. If I believed it was possible to get a really good job without a college degree, then I wouldn t have come to UNCC. I m currently a Middle School Education major. My previous education greatly affected my choice in major because middle school was a useless experience for me. I don t believe that I learned anything and I want to make sure that doesn t happen to anyone else. I want to help the students succeed, not necessarily attend high school or college, but I want them to learn. I believe that teachers should create an environment where students feel comfortable to ask questions, not just about school related subjects, but about issues in their personal lives as well. Middle schools is a difficult time as student start to mature and I think that teachers, as well as their parents, should help to guide and support them in whatever troubles they come across. Middle school is the time for teachers to prepare students for their future experiences and education. Education is different for everyone, but I believe that school and college aren t necessary for a person to be considered educated. There is a significant difference between being unschooled and uneducated. I don t always agree with Gatto, but I think for the most part he s correct when he talks about the famous people being uneducated, yet still being incredibly smart. I know several elderly people, including my great grandmother, who dropped out of school very early in their childhood, but they are some of the most intelligent people I have ever known. Whether they learn through their work, parental influence or other life experiences, they are far more intelligent than some of my professors here at UNCC. This supports my belief that schooling and degrees do not guarantee brilliance.
Brown4
Works Cited Gatto, John Taylor. Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids and Why. Harper s Magazine. Sept. 2001: 33-38. Print. Gatto, John Taylor. Higher Education: 12 Things You Might Not Have Learned in a Classroom. YES! 14 August 2009. Web. 4 April 2010.
