Ways Of Seeing Summary

In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto satirically poses several questions concerning the purpose, structure, function, and need of the current educational system in the United States. Utilizing anecdotes from his thirty years of teaching experience and extensive research on the historical origins of many modern school customs to justify his tantalizing arguments, Gatto rhetorically inquires about the true motives and rationale behind an outdated institution system which continually steals more than a dozen years of precious life from millions of Americans in the pursuit of furthering a prejudicial class-separation bound together by conformity.

Carl Kaestle’s Pillars of the Republic focuses on the history of schooling. Kaestle writes about the common school movement in England, the Midwest, the South, and the American Northwest. Kaestle argues that common school systems, the tuition-based elementary school that served all children in the area, were continued and accepted due to the Americans’ commitment to the republican government, the assertiveness of native Protestant culture, and through the development of capitalism (1983, p. X).

In his speech, “Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren,” Obama effectively argues his claim, that kids should go to school and try very hard to succeed to schoolchildren around the U.S. He effectively argues his claim because he uses supporting details and stories of students that have undergone tough situations, but still overcame those obstacles to succeed and school. Also, he is trying to tell kids that they should do well in school to get a good job and make a difference. He also uses rhetorical appeals to help with the supporting details. One of supporting evidence that he brought up was that if someone wants to become something such as a doctor, or lawyer you will need a good education to do

In 1983, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform was released. Regarded as a landmark event in American educational history, the report was scathing in its critique of America’s public education system. For many, it was proof of an already growing sentiment – America’s public education system was failing its people. In the aftermath of the report, a movement emerged. The concept of school choice, of returning the decision as to how and where a child was to be educated to the parent, burst onto the national scene. While school choice had a number of vocal supporters, a sizeable contingent arose in opposition. Over time, the topic became contentious and the battle moved to the courtroom. As lawyer Clint Bolick, a veteran of school

America had never taken the topic of education as seriously as before, showing its want and need for education more than ever. In the 1850’s many immigrants from Europe had migrated to America to begin a new life. Moving because of famines or revolutions in the 1840’s, America was home to around three-million immigrants in total between 1850 and 1860. This massive wave of immigration caused a nativist feeling to spread over America. Americans began viewing immigrants as inferior to them and required them to go to school to “Americanize” them.

Educational policies researcher Joel Spring (1996) discussed many arguments and historical background about various education topics found in the United States. For example, Spring tells us about the historical development of the Common Schools movement and the underlying groups—such as workingmen and political parties—that influenced the movement. In addition, Spring points out some of the implications the movement had on religious, ethnic, and multicultural groups. One particular idea that caught my attention was from the chapter entitled, “The Ideology and Politics of the Common School.” Indeed, my entire conceptual understanding of K-12 education had been predicated on the idea that high schools were part of the original conception of public

According to Latinos Rebel, undocumented students must stay enrolled in schools to remain in the United States and to contribute as gainfully employed adults, but the schools are not necessarily invested in their success as they are forced to comply with mandates of NCLB and ESSA. The fact is that school attendance and graduation rates occur in the contexts of undocumented young people’s lives, which are fraught with multiple difficulties. Undocumented students may need additional school rates are used against schools and undocumented students lives are full of many difficulties that impact their performance. These difficulties include negotiating the world in a language other than their own, lack of support for ESL, trauma, interrupted formal schooling, legal challenges and poverty. Only 54 percent of undocumented students who arrived at age 14 or older complete high school. For those who arrived before age 14, 72 percent complete. Compare these statistics to authorized

In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto submits his conspiratorial beliefs apropos the suggested chicanery and skulduggery present in American school systems to a wide range of audience members, ranging from concerned parents to the worldwide educational community. Throughout his article, Gatto calls into question several aspects of the modern education present in the United States, his scathing and unnervingly well reasoned timbre astonishing readers into reassessing their own experience in the education system. These appalling points, which one may at first believe only exist to steal the attention of any reader, are a key strategy in Gatto’s article which allow readers to set aside prior notions of skepticism towards educational

While times changed in America, the effects of government policies on public education only became stronger. Robert N. Gross discusses the rising of parochial schools in the progressive era due to the effects governmental influences in public schools in his article “Public Regulation and the Origins of Modern School-Choice Policies in the Progressive Era”. Gross says:

The majority of all first generation Latinos don’t have the adequate resources needed to comprehend how the system of education works. Immigrant parent have different customs and do nott understand the educational customs here in the United States. Because of the different customs, education is not a priority. Their socioeconomic status can affect their perspective on education, most of them just want to provide for their family and think pursuing a career is optional. Because of their culture their parents are usually aware of, some parents do not realize education is a necessity in life.

In his essay, “So That Nobody Has To Go To School If They Don’t Want To” (1977), Roger Sipher suggests that public schools should get rid of compulsory attendance laws. He states that such rules have almost never improved school attendance, and have in fact, lowered the quality of education. He then proceeds to list several reasons illustrating the advantages of giving students the choice to be present at school, and believes that children who are not interested in learning shouldn’t be forced to do so. Sipher is fairly certain that his suggestion is the solution to many of the problems public education is facing. However, his argument is weak, one-sided, full of logical fallacies, and isn’t supported with facts.

The public schooling system in America edifies the paramount of individualism. However, we do conform to a certain degree with rigid school timetables (as visually perceived in Source B) and compulsory classes. Although, America makes it indispensable for students to take compulsory classes as a way of conformity it still sanctions the students to express their individualism with our dressing, our cull of electives and extra Co-curricular activities. Students express their individualism with the habiliments they wear and the classes and the extra Co

Immigration has been a part of American history ever since the United States was founded. American schools were built on the foundation of European traditions that have come to be problematic due to the increased number of immigrants from different regions of the world. There have been recent arguments over the quality of education migrants, legal and illegal, are receiving in secondary education. There are various differences amongst legal and illegal immigrants’ education in the United States that are controlled by environmental situations that alter achievement in the classroom. In this decade, what are school administrators doing in secondary education to prepare immigrants students to go to college, when these students are

In his article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto criticizes America’s system of schooling children, arguing that the whole system is bad and unfixable. In the majority of the essay Gatto relies on personal anecdotes, historical examples that do not correspond with modern day society, and bold unsubstantiated claims. Due to this, instead of convincing parents to take their children out of school and rethink our societies schooling structure, he just leaves the reader confused over what the problems he’s criticizing truly are.

There is a great debate on whether illegal immigrants should have access to public education. This issue is one that stretches nationwide. Policies and procedures also differ from school district to district, however, it is not always compliant with the law. This is sometimes due in part to the school districts’ bureaucracies. It is unfortunate that the promise of equal access to education is one that is sometimes, more often than not, denied to many immigrant children. Often times illegal immigrant children in states, that have laws that grant everyone under 21 years of age the right to public education, are often encountering barriers in enrolling and entering their local schools. Not allowing illegal immigrants to have access to public education is a form of discrimination. Illegal immigrants who have access to public education serves to be beneficial in the long run in that it will assist the economy, are able to offer a richer culture and a more biodiversity.