I find Gatto’s description of the effect of public schooling strikingly similar to Lisa Wedeen’s assessment of the effects forced complicity has on a population. Public schooling subjects students to perform countless mundane, menial tasks that students have trouble relating to. Students who obey and complete assignments efficiently and on-time are rewarded and those who don’t are punished. As Wedeen sees it “By complying, each soldier demonstrates the regime’s power to dominate him,” and creates a person who “is capable of inventing and avowing dreams that are unbelievable and not, in fact, his own” (Wedeen 516). Gatto’s assessment of American public schooling aligns with Wedeen’s. In a students struggle to reach the top of the class they must give up essential functions of being a human being. Our options for professional careers are very much limited by the subjects offered at our high schools. Any rejection or disinterest of the mandated public schooling is met with punishment. All the while believing in the system results in reward, but seem to cost students’ individuality. The public school system seems to only promote schooling for occupations essential to the the country’s functioning. If you aren’t looking to become a doctor, researcher, lawyer, educator, engineer or business administrator you will be hard pressed to find support from your public school. Overall, I agree with Gatto in the sense that schooling limits childrens’ belief in what they can become by not providing them the support to reach their individual dreams.
Introduction to Comparative Politics: Nationalism, Ideology, and State Power
Professor Shervin Malekzadeh
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I agree with your assessment that schooling now has been turned into a system meant to create a populace comfortable with menial tasks and complicity within the population. The interesting thing I found was that Adam Smith, one of the proponents of factory work as a means of increasing national wealth viewed schooling as the only means of preventing the population from becoming “stupid” and “cowardly”. This seems inherently contradictory from the system we have currently established, especially given that many proponents of Smithian economics are those that support this current school system that seems contrary to those beliefs.
Niko,
I like what you said here. Gatto points out some serious issues with the grueling and sometimes pointless educational system. To build off what you’re saying I think anyone would be hard pressed trying to change the structure and subjects taught in the public school system. However, where change can occur is within the teachers. Public school teachers are paid so little and treated socially with minimal respect. If society were to take another look at the importance of the quality of these teachers students could be exposed to interesting class activities, encaging homework assignments, and individual attention that one might need to flourish. With the right teacher (or leader) one can adventure within the confines of schooling and hopefully find passions that lie inside and outside the subject matter. The educational system lies with its teachers.