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Jacelyn Thomas

Professor Rieman

English 1101X

5 April 2010

Unschooled but Not Uneducated

When you think of school and education, how would you describe them and what

words come to mind? You may think of terms like inspire, insightful, or success, since

that’s what schools do, right? They inspire their students to learn, become educated, and

prepare them to live a successful life. But according to John Gatto, schools actually do

the exact opposite. He would describe the United States’ twelve-year school programs to

be boring, childish, and even deadly. In his essay, “Against School,” he attempts to

explain where our country’s traditional school system originated from, how it has a

negative effect on students, and its surprising and supposedly true intentions. Although

Gatto makes good points and displays a strong argument throughout his essay, his beliefs

about the true purpose for America’s schooling comes off a little too harsh and

exaggerated for most to believe.

Being a student myself, I can undeniably agree with Gatto when he describes our

modern school system to be a boring and deadly routine. “Six classes a day, five days a

week, nine months a year, for twelve years”- as he breaks it down- is not only unhealthy

but its unnecessary as well (34). Throughout the many years kids spend in forced

schooling, they are experiencing sleep deprivation from constantly staying up late doing

homework and waking up early to endure the same long hours each day. In addition to

bad sleeping habits from this routine, students are also losing contact with the real world
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due to spending a great deal of their lives in school. Gatto explains that kids in his

classroom were constantly experiencing boredom and said they wanted to be doing

something real (33). In his other articles, “Take Back Your Education”, and “12 Things

You Might Not Have Learned in a Classroom,” Gatto explains the importance of

experience and self-discovery, showing how he also believes that students should be

doing something “real.” He believes school acts as an obstacle to getting that experience

that cannot be found in a classroom. A quote from “Take Back Your Education”

describes this concern:

“But school often acts as an obstacle to success. To go from the confinement

of early childhood, to the confinement of the classroom, to the confinement

of homework, working to amass a record entitling you to a “good” college,

where the radical reduction of your spirit will continue, isn’t likely to build

character or prepare you for a good life.” (Gatto 3)

Gatto makes a good point; So much time is spent in school learning things that may or

may not help you in the real world, while more of that time should be spent actually

exploring new places and possibilities, being around other competent adults, and letting

the real world educate you, as opposed to history and English books. I know this to be

true because some of the most significant times in my life were spent traveling, doing

community service, and job shadowing in hospitals and health clinics. It was these events

where I learned the most through hands on experiences and real life situations. Of course

my medical science books taught me a great deal, but it was my educational trips to the

hospitals that gave me the personal experience and made me realize that’s where I wanted

to be.
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Given his judgment, Gatto’s idea that forced schooling can be completely

negative and unhelpful for students is an understandable thought, but a little to the

extreme. Despite the fact that kids should spend more time in the real world, some

background education would be necessary for them as well. However, Gatto’s

assumptions are spot on in regards to U.S students spending entirely too much of their

lives in a classroom. Surprisingly, something else Gatto wants to bring to our attention is

this: the idea that our country’s schooling has a harmful effect on students is no secret;

our country had intentionally adopted this system for a reason (34).

If it is possible that this system of schooling in our country is actually crippling

students instead of helping them, who designed the system and where did it come from?

Why would a country adopt or create a system of schooling that was created purposely to

hinder the minds of their population? One would think any country, specifically America,

would want their citizens to have the potential to be the best they could be. Well,

according to Gatto, mass schooling originated in the nineteenth century from Prussia. He

uses evidence from the work of H.L Mencken, who traces our educational system back to

this state. Gatto also informs us that people actually spoke out against the

“Prussianization” of American schools at that time, meaning some aspect about Prussian

schools was not favorable (35). The first time I read Gatto’s claims about where our

country’s schooling originated from, I pondered the thought and couldn’t realize why that

was such a bad thing that the U.S adopted our system from this other state. Gatto later

makes it clear of why this should be such a cause of concern. The state of Prussia, who

had close ties with Germany, was known for basically wanting to dumb-down the people

of their own countries. They wanted to prevent peasants and other under classes from
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gaining power and leadership that could allow them to “integrate into a dangerous whole”

(36). If you think about it, Gatto’s theory does make sense. There have been many

instances in history when a country’s government or leader has created systems, whether

it is camps or schools, or taking away certain rights of the people that prevents them from

gaining any kind of power what so ever. The idea that nation-wide school systems were

designed to keep the population at the same level, physically and mentally, is not an

unrealistic notion. But in today’s terms, this particular theory of Gatto’s could be

declared exaggerated as well. One must consider the point in history during Prussian

times. There were constant struggles within countries over who had power, not to

mention the series of events that occurred before WWI. It’s safe to say I could agree that

this was the purpose for school systems at that point in history, because maybe there was

more of a focus on managing the population under their circumstances. Perhaps

America’s school systems did originate from Prussian ideals, but in today’s times, it

would be a bit of an overstatement to say that the U.S.’s main intentions for mass

schooling is still to control and create obedience in the population.

To further his opinion, Gatto goes on to present the author, Alexander Inglis’s

conception on the actual purpose of modern schooling. Inglis broke down the purpose

into different functions, each describing a main, basic intention of mass schooling.

Considering these functions and taking into account of how our modern schools operate,

it’s easy to see the relationships Gatto is trying to suggest in some of the functions, but

it’s also obvious that most of these functions are terribly exaggerated misconceptions. For

instance, the diagnostic and directive, differentiating, selective, and propaedeutic

functions are supposedly responsible for determining each student’s proper social role in
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society by sorting children basically into categories where they’re trained to a certain

extent based on the category. The inferior ones are recognized by poor grades and lower

placements and they are deemed as inferior, and separated from the smaller, more “elite”

population who will then go on to learn how to manage the overall weakened, obedient

society. The ideas of these functions presented are so much to the extreme that the overall

thought of it seems like a big conspiracy.

It is evident that the school system our country has now aims to help students

succeed academically, rather than push them into a social function. The functions, as well

as Gatto, suggest that school systems intentionally use separation of the students to help

the society form a manageable structure. While historic purposes of mass schooling may

have focused on benefiting the society, it’s obvious that our modern schools’ aims are to

help the individual. The use of separation in schools now is constructive. Placing students

in appropriate categories/classes gives them something they can handle and achieve in.

For example, numerous times throughout my education I’ve been placed in remedial

math courses. Never did the class aim to keep me at that remedial level, but it gave me

the opportunity to learn at my own pace and prepare me for more advanced courses,

which it eventually did. Therefore, the functions listed in “Against School,” are only

misinterpretations of the actual purposes of our schools (36).

Overall, while segments of Gatto’s essays do display good points, the majority of

his views are extremely exaggerated. Yes, certain aspects of our country’s educational

system do not work well for most students. Through his examples, he tries to make it

evident that people can be educated without necessarily receiving an education from

compulsory school systems. But it would be illogical to say the United States is still
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intentionally striving to keep a hold on our society by keeping the people on the same

level so they will not rise up to something greater than our own government. It is a bit of

an overstatement when Gatto calls our schools “drill centers” and “laboratories of

experimentation on young minds,” in hopes to turn our society’s people into conforming

servants (38).

Gatto, John Taylor. “Against School: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids and
Why.” Harper’s Magazine. Sept. 2001: 33-38. Print.