Gatto makes the statement “Divide children by subject, by age-grading, by constant rankings on tests…and it was unlikely that the ignorant mass of mankind, separated in childhood, would ever re-integrate into a dangerous whole (36).” I think within all levels of education there are specific divisions put in place to let this disunity exist within the population. In grade school there are programs like GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) that begins in 4th grade. Students that meet the criteria are removed from the classroom for a certain amount of time everyday and given a “higher level” schooling in math and english. This type of system exists in middle and high school educations as well, with Honors and AP tracks that segregate the “smart” students from the average students.
Moreover the abundance of intensive sports programs segregate students even further by taking student-athletes out of the campus culture in the afternoons and on weekends in both high school and college level. Systems like this that seek to benefit students and their specific “talents and gifts” create a discordant population of youth that are unable to connect with one another because their schooling is completely different. The lack of relation leads to the society that Gatto describes, because the real world doesn’t function on the “useless” talents pursued in the education system.
While sports do segregate individuals from the majority, another problem that I have with extracurricular activities is the fact that it is sometimes the only platform for low income students. Because of that, I feel like the system can manipulate those individuals and exploit them. In public schools, the administration would cut music before sports specifically because of the trope of the aspiring athlete in society. The percentage of professional athletes is so small that it is extremely problematic for the school system to push sports so heavily as a path to success.
On the same note of segregation, AP tests and other standardized tests are very expensive and that makes them unaccessible to many low income students as well. And tutors are also very expensive and cause a barrier to students. Both sports and AP/SAT tests act as an obstacle and continue to perpetuate the hierarchy of students in a public school setting.
What is dangerous about a population uninhibited by the suppression of public schooling is not that they are part of a “dangerous whole,” but that they are free thinking. By creating in-groups and out groups one might be able to argue that the education system is doing a better job of instructing those with an aptitude for a certain subject, or a greater will to learn. This grouping of children based upon interest and or achievement can only be seen as negative, in the eyes of an initiative looking to further children’s intellectual development, if you believe that innately all children are bestowed with the same capacity to learn everything and everything though similar routes or you believe what is being taught in school does not contribute to intellectual development in the slightest. In my opinion if the ultimate goal is intellectual advancement for the greatest number the public schooling system is definitely planting the seeds. Its fault is it tells the seeds to stop growing too soon. It teaches children enough to have them feel as if they now know something new when in reality the knowledge and work that could actually influence the thought of a student is left just outside the bounds of the curriculum.