Publics Schools Hidden Orgin

Publics Schools Hidden Orgin

  • Submitted By: Patreeds88
  • Date Submitted: 12/03/2008 1:43 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 931
  • Page: 4
  • Views: 1

Patrick Reeds
Eng 101
09/29/08

John Gatto New York state’s 1991 teacher of the year knows that public schools suck. He has taught, for two decades in some of the worst and best schools in Manhattan. During his teaching career Gatto believes he has become an expert in boredom. He believes that public schools were not created to help students learn their full potential and succeed in our society, but to keep children, children. Gatto believes that schools were created to establish six basic functions. The adjustive or adaptive function,, the integrating function, the diagnostic and directive function, the differentiating function, the selective function, and the propaedeutic function. On top of this he believes the real purpose of public school is to produce a harmless electorate, a servile labor force and a virtual herd of mindless consumers. In “Against School” by John Gatto, the author tries to convey to the audience that the purpose of school is to produce endless consumers and to control the workforce.
In “Against School” by John Gatto, he is trying to prove to the audience that the purpose of school is to teach students to become endless consumers and mindless employees. It is safe to say that school trains us to be consumers and employees, as it trains us to obey reflectively. School in some aspects trains us to stay children. “Now, you needn't have studied marketing to know that there are two groups of people who can always be convinced to consume more than they need to: addicts and children. School has done a pretty good job of turning our children into addicts, but it has done a spectacular job of turning our children into children. Again, this is no accident. Theorists from Plato to Rousseau to our own Dr. Inglis knew that if children could be cloistered with other children, stripped of responsibility and independence, encouraged to develop only the trivializing emotions of greed, envy, jealousy, and fear, they would grow older but never truly...

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