Against School, or Against Childhood?

In the article Against School, The Rhetorical Triangle, Gatto being the communicator, me being the audience and the message he's sending, was that school is not needed and that it's boring for the kids and also teachers. First Gatto asks, "Do we really need school?, I don't mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day five days a week"? It was sad to hear that here's a guy that has been teaching thirty years of his life, and hated it! So Why did he stay? We need good teachers who love what they do. I truly believe that you can tell when a teacher really loves what they are teaching, creating a more fun and interesting environment for their students and themselves as a teacher to want to be at school. He also talks about the unschooled rose to be admirals. Are schools just there to train children to be employees and consumers? Do kids need to learn how to become more independent limiting their childhood? Do we need to become inventors, writers or even scholars at such a young age?! D. Cubberly said childhood was extended by two to six years by going to school. He says we are cable to be something big by age 13, and schooling is just in the way. But Man why would we want to? Let kids be kids, those are the best days of our lives! Righhhht? I loved school, living carefree being around your friends everyday not paying for anything! I would've hated being home schooled! But after disagreeing with everything Gatto was saying, he came out with something that was really interesting, On page 156 Inglis tells the purpose of schooling in six functions. 1. The adjective 2. The intergrating 3. The differentiating 5. The selective and 6. The propaedeutic Functions. I can see where he's coming from now, here I am 22 and still going to "unnecessary" schooling not getting far. All these functions broke down what our role is, what were supposed to be, do, and how to act, even what groups we need to fit in. Although I still disagree with him that schools are a negative outcome in ones life, I'm finding myself to agree that maybe we can be something more, if we start young..... get away from all the socialites, same routine bull crap? Are our schools really laboratories of experimentation on young minds? Maybe letting our children manage themselves is a good idea.........





I didn't see all the elements of Rhetorical used as much in the story, I just wanna be Average. To me this situation was THE communicator? Mike Rose talks about his life growing up sharing his experiences growing up with us.(being the audience) Rose shares stories about kids and teachers while going through school. Whether it was getting through school being fearful to get beat by a teacher, stoned, frustrated or just plain bored. He talks about his classmates, classified in some group. You've got your geeks, jocks, the stupids, smarties and the average Joe. Two that stuck in mind there was Ted, a chunky, loud baseball player that wasn't getting good grades, and Ken the good looking one who he looked up to that said, "I just wanna be Average". Is this what we want, to be just an Averge Joe? He brought up a few teachers that hated their jobs as much as the students hated being there. School for Rose was a tremendously distorting place to get caught up day dreaming, until he had a teacher, McFarland who got him interested in reading. McFarland gave Ros hope to be more than the Average Joe, to go somewhere in life. He helped this C average boy get into college. The message was his strong point, Do we want to be just Average ? Or find our strengths and make it a goal to succeed! This kind of reminded me of the movie Freedom Writers in a way.... Their teacher was an inspiration, she made them want to be at school and inspire them to want to learn and graduate. That's what we need... teachers who actually love what they do, care about their students and maybe school would have a whole new out look?