Example Of Against School Essay

<Student Name>
<Name and Section # of course>
<Instructor Name>
In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto addresses the issues related to public schools and their methods of teaching. He believes the teachers and their academic techniques of conveying knowledge are futile and unjust the students studying there. Education is never taken in its real nature and students remain robotic individuals who never get to explore the hidden potentials they have. He refutes the goal of public school education that is aimed at making an individual the best out of the lot. Gatto goes back into the past where he talks of men like Lincoln, Edison, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and many others who were great men and inventors and never went to any school neither were they graduates. Gatto himself has taught as a teacher, and that only made him realize that his job was a tedious one. Schools don’t allow people to become practical and use their time constructively.
In my opinion, Gatto seems very optimistic as far as the human potential and capability is concerned. However if he holds the opinion that school is a waste of time and is an unnecessary institution then I would disagree with him because schools are very important in grooming and raising an individual in a way that he or she does not become a liability to society. Schools teach many things like punctuality, discipline, mannerisms and show an individual a way out into the world. Yes, sometimes schools do become boring, and it seems like whatever is being taught is pretty useless, yet that too has a solution. There can be amendments made in the curriculum various other subjects and activities can be held to help a student’s imagination work its best. According to Gatto, humans aren’t machines; humans aren’t animals either that they can be left to live as they desire. Schools provide guidance and regulation in life. Hence they are essential to exist.