Tyler Long

English 250
Section PA/SH
Assignment 4
Samantha Futhey
10/15/14
Gattos Issues with Modern Schooling

John Gatto is in a sense, a master of the school system and a scholar of scholastics.
Through his 30 years of teaching he has faced many of hardships which have showed him the
corruption and the flaws that are in the modern day schooling system. Gatto makes the case for
the inability of the modern day schooling system to correctly and effectively teach the children
of today. He looks towards the origin of the educational system and the influential aspects during
the crucial developmental phase of our educational system. The majority of his argument is
based around the idea that the Prussian educational system is what oar system was based around
which caused a lack of interest and care in the needs of kids in school. This essay is full of
appeals that deal with Gattos character and the character of those from who he quotes their
writings.
Right off the bat we get a taste of him building his credibility with him stating that he has
been teaching for 30 years and his experiences in the field of teaching. Throughout the essay we
see multiple accounts of him building credibility for himself or the authors of the essays he reads
to help support his claim. When Gatto mentions the time he read Conants The Child, The
Parent, and the State he references all of Conants accomplishments such as, being president of
Harvard University for twenty years, World War 1 poison-gas specialist, World War 2 executive
on the atomic-bomb project, high commissioner of the American zone in Germany after World
War 2 (Gatto 145). All this leads to Gatto really bringing the credibility home by called Conant

one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century(Gatto 145) which brings to light the
high regard that Conant is labeled with in todays society. The essay has a great amount of
internal and external sources that help Gatto explain the things that are wrong with the system by
which we are taught.
Credibility is the main aspect of Gattos appeals but even Gatto knows that that can only
get you so far when trying to persuade people to see the world through your eyes. Gatto tugs at
his audiences heart strings when he brings up a story of when he had to take medical leave from
the classroom in the 90s. While gone o medical leave, the documents officially stating his leave
were destroyed which led to him being fired from his job. When his family is brought into the
story is when his emotional appeal really is felt. By stating that his family suffered more than I
care to remember he shows that the hardships that he had to go through at this time were so
severe that he cannot bring himself to mention them in fear that he would re-live them in his own
mind. A little less effective version of this appeal is in the beginning when he discusses how
bored the students and the teachers are of school. This brings forth the direct effects of the
educational system and the emotions of those that are affected by it.
Through the use of his emotional appeals and the credibility of the facts he presents,
Gatto brings up the question on if schooling is even needed with the current state of the system in
which it is conducted. This is not to be confused with not needing an education however, those
living in this world need to be educated, intelligent people. By bringing up colossal figures such
like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, Gatto
shows how it does not take a mandatory schooling system in order to be intelligent people. The
key thing he is missing in this argument would be that not everyone is a dedicated to education
and the pursuit of knowledge of these historic juggernauts. The average inner-city student is far

less motivated to learn about things than those of the past that needed to learn in order to achieve
what they wanted out of their lives. By neglecting to mention this fact however, he shows how
not being formally schooled can essentially lead you to a better life and allow you to achieve the
things you want most. Unfortunately for Gatto however, the general audience of this kind of
essay would hopefully see that not everyone can be a Thomas Edison or a Carnegie.
Those that would need to be persuaded by this essay would be the general public that
would be potentially be trying to flip the current system on its head and strive for change. This
essay also has to persuade those that would be at the head of the system in order for this problem
to be noticed and corrected. Bringing up people such as Conant and Inglis would help persuade
those that are higher up on the board of education ladder. The average person would not know
who these pioneers in the educational field are and bringing them up could throw that part of the
argument over the head of some that may read it. By making this argument to the audience,
Gatto is helping to hopefully change the policies and the style that teach our children. This could
interest the entirety of the children that are in the schooling system. By changing the way school
is approached, children might be more apt to enjoy school when things are helping them want to
learn instead of generalizing what they are learning. When the system is changed, the children
would benefit the most from following the ideals that Gatto would like to enforce in todays
schools by having the higher chance to enjoy what they are learning and possibly sparking
inventive thoughts and critical questions or ideas that could help society improve. Gatto doesnt
mention any negative effects in his essay to possibly help out his argument in winning over those
he is persuading. Although the negatives are far outweighed by the positives, they are still
present. In the wake of the change to the system, a lot more money would most likely be spent in
order to provide for the students that require more attention than others to learn and be inspired

by education. Also teachers could even be against this change because it means more work for
them. Not every teacher is as devoted to the teaching of children like Gatto is as unfortunate as
that is.
The main criticism of Gatto from this essay could be how he dodges the negatives and the
facts that could possibly overturn his argument. As much as doing this would help his argument,
it also could reduce his credibility to certain audiences that are concerned for the negative side of
changing our schools from the laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for
the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands. If he were to present these negative side
effects and then give evidence towards how to fix them, or at the very least rationalize them, this
essay would be a very well put together piece that could make a lot of good change in the current
schooling system.
The argument that Gatto presents is accented by his almost overwhelming use of credible
first person or external experiences and his emotional roller coaster in the 90s when he was
essentially fighting the system. Throughout the essay, he gives source after source of information
and evidence that the schooling system is flawed in its current state. After all the evidence he
presents, he then challenges us as a culture to wake up (Gatto 149) and see what the schools
are. It only sees fit that even as the essay is ending, Gatto gives the audience one last reminder
that he is credible in this subject that he is presenting. Then with the final sentence he offers us a
solution to the argument that he presents with the simple answer of letting educated men and
woman go out into the world and instead of being told what to do and why to do it, society just
allows the men and women of today to Let them manage themselves. (Gatto 149). Whether
this solution were to work or not is not the point of the essay, rather, the point in this essay is to

raise the argument on how things are set up and to bring to light the problems that lie in our
generations schooling system.

Works Cited
Gatto, John Taylor. "Against School." Rereading America. Ninth ed. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin's, 2013. 141-49. Print.