No More School

John Taylor Gatto writes an impassioned article questioning the need for schools in America. He quotes H.L. Mencken, alludes to the Prussian education system, and sections the six areas Ingle’s writes about in the Principles of Secondary Education. Gatto’s article was well researched and definitely appealing to a high school student such as myself. However, I don’t completely agree with Gatto in his belief that The United States should completely eliminate the public education system.
I have attended a public high school for two years and worked at a public elementary school. I am in complete agreement with Gatto in his argument that there needs to be a change. I believe we need to change the curriculum, change teacher’s wages, change what is being taught, change everything. I do not believe we should completely eradicate schools. When Gatto references the six steps created by Ingles, examples of every step popped into my head. The function I found most interesting was the selective function. This function covers the education system’s ability to catalogue certain children. This happens in both extracurricular and academic circumstances, in elementary and high school levels. In elementary schools the ‘gifted’ students’ desks were put into a pod separate from the rest of the class. The ‘disruptive’ students’ desks were pushed literally to the outskirts of the classroom, completely isolated from every other students. Every single one of these children had a D in math. High schools allow a group of students to make up special courts at dances to set apart only the most popular students. These are only a few examples to just one of the six functions the Gatto refers to in his article. Does this mean I there should be no more organized education. I personally feel that in more primal times a lot more would get done if everyone were left to their own selfmanagement. But this is an era where many mathematical, scientific, and artistic advances have been made. I believe there is so much information to be taught to future generations, there must be some form of organized education.