John Taylor Gatto Against School Summary

Some of the most successful and influential people in our history have been considered very educated but usually have not obtained any higher schooling than a high school diploma, if that. Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates are just a few examples of educated but, not necessarily schooled people. In John Taylor Gatto’s 2003 article, “Against School”, Gatto makes his position very clear that he is personally against America’s public school system. Personally, I agree with Gatto’s key points in his article. The robust and strict environments that public schools have put into place are the problem of America’s education system today, along with overcrowding and over-all boredom are a few of Gatto’s key topics he highlights. As an educator for thirty years in the public schools of Manhattan, John Gatto has grown to find many
He even states, “…I had more than enough reason to think of our schools – with their long-term, cell-block-styles, forced confinement of both students and teachers – as virtual factories of childishness.” (pg. 115). I happen to agree with Gatto. The way most of America’s public schools are even architecturally built, look like prisons! I believe that if schools are built to be perceived as confining, that they pre-establish in students minds that they are meant to think and do exactly as they are told. This diminishes students’ imagination and creative side, conforming our society. Gatto says mass schooling only has three purposes, to make good people, citizens, and each person their personal best to what the school and government seem fit. I strongly agree with Gatto when he professes, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight – simply by being more flexible…” (pg.