Wesley Huang Period 2 Why Schools Dont Educate John Taylor Gatto

Summary: In Why Schools Dont Educate, author John Taylor Gatto points out the problem with todays societys education, Two institutions at present control our childrens lives television and schooling, in that order. Both of these reduce the real world of wisdom, fortitude, temperance, and justice to a never-ending, nonstop abstraction. (par. 1) Gatto talks about how centuries in the past, that learning was a whole different aspect than today. It was more by the person learning himself, making an individual of him. Now, there is barely any time for children to devote themselves to themselves. Gatto states that children watch over 55 hours of TV a week, attend school 30 hours a week and in the end, only 9 hours of private time for the kid. All these schooling, TV watching, Gatto believes makes the kids dependent human beings, thus degrading their critical thinking, individuality. He also supposes that the addictions of the nation: drugs, gambling, materialistic desires, etc. are what results from our current teaching methods. Gatto names 8 problems in todays current students. First, they dont seem they want to work up, they believe that the adult world is unpopular and not important. Second, the kids dont think, they have no interests, they just move like zombies from one class to another. Third, they dont care about their future, and fourth, they also dont care about the past. Fifth, students lack empathy for themselves and each other. Sixth, they all have faades. Due to the fact of the media portraying how to be popular or cool, kids pretend to be those kinds of people, instead of being who they really are. They lack intimacy and openness and are uncomfortable with it. Seventh, the kids are money-oriented which directly correlates to the grading methods of teachers. Because teachers value everything, from homework to tests, kids take these views and apply into their own lives. Eighth, they are scared to try new things, they are so dependent on (in this context) the teacher, that they wont try to learn anything else on their own. Gatto concludes that these factors are what are destroying the intimacy of the people of America and they are caused by our media and schooling. Tone: Accusatory, critical, Discourse: Cause and Effect, Division or Analysis

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Rhetorical Strategies: dash Two institutions at present control our childrens lives television and

schooling, in that order. (par. 1) Dash parenthesis - I think schooling and television and lessons the entire Chatauqua idea have a lot to do with it.(par. 7 ) Rhetorical question Its not enough is it? (par. 6) Parallelism They lack compassion for misfortune, they laugh at weakness, they have contempt for people who need help (par. 14) Either Or Reasoning/fallacy Either schools, television or both have caused these pathologies. Its a simple matter of arithmetic. Questions: 1. Context #3 - Gatto states that schoolchildren are cruel and passive Can one be both cruel and passive? Yes, it is not necessary for one to be aggressive to be considered cruel. An example of a person being passive AND cruel is when a child is being bullied and everybody just stands around and pretends not to notice it. The surrounding students are being passive, they arent participating or saying anything, BUT they are causing pain and distress in the bullied child because they are not helping him. 2. Strategy #3 What risk does a writer run in criticizing children? How might parents respond? It is a pretty high risk because parents would then blame the teachers. Gatto states that it is a schooling problem and when he lists the problems of kids today, he only mentions one instance of the teacher being at fault. It is as much as the teachers responsibilit y to prepare the kids for the world, they lead the kid into thinking and intellect. Gatto only blames the children, parents would just counter blaming the teachers. 3. Language #2 Gatto calls being devoted to buying things the worst pornography of all Is pornography an effective word choice? Yes because there are similar aspects in materialism and actual pornography. The

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dictionary definition of pornography refers to sexually explicit material that are intended to excite the reader/watcher. This same excitement (while not sexual) occurs when we see images of worldly things, we are enticed to buy things. Gatto calls materialism the worst pornography because it tempts kids the need for material objects, causing a desire that makes it a standard. 4. If fixing our societys education require us to increase the amount time kids have to themselves, (and kids wont just think in that spare time), what other option could occupy those kids to allow them to critically think and become individuals? Quote: The children I teach are materialistic, following the lead of schoolteachers who materialistically grade everything and television mentors who offer everything in the world for sale (par. 16) Response: Learning in school has changed from learning for ones benefit to just trying to get the best grade. Due to the materialistic ideals that are portrayed from the media and grading by teachers, students have altered their views. They only learn because there is a reward behind it. In my English class, Mrs. Chertock will sometimes offer stars as extra credit to students who talk in discussions in class. As the semester moved on, I noticed some kids will only raise their hands when the teacher was offering stars. I participate in the class because I want to learn, I love discussing aspects in novels or stories. I wonder why somebody would just take an AP English class if they dont even want to truly participate but it is the fact that it is an AP class proves the materialistic point. Because AP classes have the benefits of a higher GPA and offer college credit, many students take it, not because they want to learn the class. While Gatto points out important problems in our education in America, he does not propose any solutions. At first, that annoyed me but I realized he left solutions out of his speech to make me think about possible answers to this challenge, thus proving his point that kids like me need to learn how to think.