In the odd anecdote about boredom that he uses to preface his argument, Gatto seems to hint that he believes in the capacity of children to take matters into their own hands and spend their time autonomously self-educating. This same concept re-emerges when he discusses the ways in which public schools, as opposed to homeschooling options, guide children away from their individuality. While public schools may not always encourage children to be fully unique, it is a dangerous assumption that children would be better off on their own.

I have never attended a traditional public school. In fact, I’ve only been to very small, unconventional schools, a private middle school and charter high school. One of the main things that I appreciated about middle school was the individual support that I received. I was encouraged to be myself, and at the same was given the materials and guidance to productively discover who I wanted to be. To this extent, I agree with Gatto in that public schools are faulty in regards to their lack of adequate individual attention. However, I don’t know that I would be at Williams today if my parents had decided that I should take matters into my own hands, or even that they should homeschool me. I feel that I am not just a productive of the encouragement that I was given as a middle schooler, but of the social and academic challenges that I would not have attempted had they not been presented to me in high school. Therefore, it seems to me that adult guidance and intellectual engagement are essential, in some capacity, to productive development, and, though they aren’t perfect, public schools provide a version of these things for many children who don’t have another option.