While I agree with Gatto’s general argument and recognize the deep structural flaws within our current public school system, particularly in its function as a determinant of position/success within the social hierarchy (36-37), my main issue with Gatto’s writing is his demonization of conformity and his proposition that autonomy is the best alternative to our current system. Gatto references conformity as a way for government to control the masses, to make people “as alike as possible” and “predictable” (36), and while it is certainly possible for conformity to be used this way, I do not think that conformity should be seen the enemy. After all, isn’t some level of conformity necessary for a complex society—especially one as large as we have today in America—to function?

At the end of his article, Gatto leaves us with the idea that we should simply “let [educated men and women] manage themselves” (38). This statement raises a couple of questions in my mind: to what extent should these educated men and women be allowed to manage themselves? Is it possible for a society in which everyone is completely self-governing to survive? In general, I do not think that it is possible.

– Emily Peckham

Like machines, students are rolled through schooling as if they were in a manufacturing company being processed to be and think a certain way. John Taylor Gatto questions if we truly need schooling due to education’s failure to meet their standard goals and the happiness of homeschooled children. To Gatto, our education system has failed. And school is no longer a necessary function in order to make good people, make good citizens, and to make each person his or her personal best.

However, our country needs a system. A structure where children can get an education, while having a social interaction, and learn basic life lessons they will use in the future. School is very key to helping someone learn and gain attributes such as responsibility, hard work, learning to work in group settings, how to deal with adversity under pressure, and much more. Yes, there are blockages in the system set forth, and traditional schooling is not for everyone.  Here at Williams, there is a presence of always having the pursuit of an A, however, it is not so much as the robotic and machine like students Gatto describes. People are striving for knowledge. And that should always be the ultimate goal in a progress and fully functioning society.

– Lauren Barry

I agree with John Taylor Gatto when he writes that school is boring. This boredom is the result of an overflow of information that is repetitively and mindlessly drilled into the heads of students across the country. The United States education system needs to be invigorated with what its students want to learn, not what is deemed necessary by education officials. I disagree with the fact that modern schooling “make[s] a sort of surgical incision into the prospective unity of these underclasses”, because school does allow students to collaborate and cooperate, and that environment needs to be sustained as education gets reformed. The students simply need more autonomy in what they engage in when they come into the classroom.