Education
John Gatto is one of the few teachers who are speaking out against the current educational culture who knows what he is talking about. After teaching the state of New York, which has one of the highest per student budgets in the nation, uses many progressive teaching theories, and still produces some of the lowest test scores in the nation, his frustration comes from a wealth of experience. Teachers who start their careers with a sincere desire to educate students have their hands are tied by multi-cultural disconnectedness and a socialist teaching culture which discourages individual accomplishment. The frustration expressed by Mr. Gatto (Berlau, 2003) is likely only the tip of the iceberg representing the depth of the nationwide problem. From Atlanta to Minneapolis, news papers are filled with stories of failing students, failing schools, and school systems which are confused as to the source of the problem. Maybe it is time that the teachers and principles admit that the source of much of the problem is current educational policy which has settled into the comfortable hammock of teaching kids 'how' to think, rather than insisting that they master a specific body of knowledge as part of their educational career. The goal of education is to produce high academic achievement, which comes from obtaining specific knowledge and building critical thinking skills, not one or the other. For at least 3 decades, public education has been subtly changing the definition of education, and the result has been a dumbing down of curriculum (Haines, 2002), and accepting the mediocre results they produce.
Out of this disconnect has emerged a quiet grassroots rebellion aimed at reinventing both the form and the function of American education, and as a result, charter schools have boomed. In 1992, there was one charter...
Today, there are more than 2,000. (Pink, 2000) Today's public schools, Gatto says, are irremediably broken. A framework which was constructed to supply a mass- production economy with a docile workforce, schools ask too little of children, and thereby drain youngsters of curiosity and autonomy. Tougher discipline, more standardized tests, longer days, and most other conventional solutions are the tools by which the education culture can begin to be changed. Gatto says that even these efforts may fall laughably short of the mark. "We need to kill the poison plant we created," Gatto wrote. (Pink, 2000) In his book, "The Underground History of American Education," Gatto says: "The destructive myth of the 20th century was... that forced schooling was the principal agency of socialization for children." (Smith, 2001)
Socialization research has identified that these skills are not a function of education, but are built from relational accountability, family relationships, and high levels of expectation together with a consistent moral foundation which gives children meaning, purpose, and value for their activities. The schools play only a small part in the overall process.
The method to return high expectation of educational excellence to the classroom includes reintroduction memorization (called over-mastery by come educators). The reasons for this lie in the physiological benefits of memorization for young students rather than the forced retention of every detail. Memorization expands the brains ability to think, accept, and retain knowledge at…
School education should go above and beyond its general tendencies to attempt to produce good grades. A proper school should contain fine educators, ones who find that nurturing and nourishing the students are the top priority. While this may be different from climbing the higher statistics -- an inevitable goal due to the sole purpose of budgets -- one can still argue that the statistics will follow if the basis
Much of the time spent in school focuses on following arbitrary rules and not theories of importance. This understanding places much pressure on the teacher. Directives often come from higher, demanding certain test scores be met and curriculum be tailored to more collective ideas. As a result, the very thing that empowers students is ignored. We are individuals with individual gifts and talents all worthwhile and important in way or
Against School by John Taylor Gatto The article is written by a former teacher who retired and hence recounts his experiences and tribulations in the teaching profession. He also airs his observations of the system and the shortcomings that he feels are in the system. He also suggests various ways through which the education system in America can be adjusted to fit the needs of the nation and of the children
While his loss of accent brought himself and his teachers a sense of pride, it brought sorrow to his parents, who saw the change, however gradual, in their child. The author furthermore admits that for children like him, from a non-white American background, the home and school environment are at cultural extremes. This creates conflict that the young Rodriguez handled by conforming to his school environment. In effect he
Mann v. Gatto The early public school reformer Horace Mann celebrated the institution of the public school as a profoundly democratizing force in American life. Mann believed that without public schooling, America could not become a true democracy. Public schooling enabled even the children of paupers to work hard and to gain a foothold in the middle class (Badolato 2011). Schools could provide students with technical expertise which would also make
Education in the East and West The difference between education in the East and the West is primarily a difference in culture. Today, cultural differences are less pronounced than they were a century ago. Globalized society has seen cultures meld and melt into one another, so that in many senses the East resembles the West in more ways than one (Igarashi). However, deeply rooted cultural cues still represent a fundamental
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