Against Gatto: Modern Schooling is Flawed, but Necessary

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While I agree with many of Gatto’s points, I believe that parts of this article are far-fetched. He starts out by addressing how both students and teachers alike operate within institutions where “boredom and childishness were the natural state of affairs,” and I agree that this is a widespread problem that plagues our nation’s school system today. I personally have had teachers that have been fired over departing from standard curriculums and instead imposing more intellectual discussions, class debates, and life lessons, and I have grown up in a metro area where many of the schools are struggling to find students and teachers alike that express a passion for education.

However, I view these widespread problems as flaws within our education system that we need to work to change, and not valid reason to throw schooling out the window. While Gatto’s argument that formal schooling is unnecessary to achieve success is certainly valid, most of the people whom he references – Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, and Margaret Mead are examples – he fails to account for the vast changes our society has undergone since they were alive. Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century, our country has undergone rapid digitalization, and with that a skill biased technological change that greatly increased the demand for skilled workers and decreased the demand for unskilled workers. While our education system is far from perfect, it is still the best way to ensure success and stability for millions of Americans.

Lastly, many of the “purposes” of modern schooling that Gatto draws upon from Principles of Secondary Education are, quite frankly, ridiculous. Most notably, the “selective function” that Gatto elaborates on, and while it is disturbing I completely reject the idea that a purpose of modern schooling is to “help things along by consciously attempting to improve breeding stock.” While I fully acknowledge the fact that students who do well in school are more likely to attend more selective colleges and universities, claiming that schools serve as a way of enforcing natural selection is nearly comical and, as can be seen throughout our country, is not even remotely true. While I agree with Gatto entirely that our school system is flawed, I believe that there are ways to combat the problem at hand and create a more inclusive, intellectual education system, rather than plainly advocating against the need for school as a whole.

24 thoughts on “Against Gatto: Modern Schooling is Flawed, but Necessary”

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  24. While aspects of Gatto’s claims may be far-fetched, I believe that they have basis in reality. Because of the digitalization in the workforce you describe, we may have less demand for “unskilled workers” (I assume this refers to, for example, workers in factories whose jobs are now performed either by machines or workers in other countries). However, the technology industry in some ways makes modern-day examples of figures such as the cited Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, and Margaret Mead possible – think Bill Gates, who dropped out of Harvard to pursue a path independent of traditional education – because of the new emphasis on the creativity and entrepreneurship of young minds.

    The claim about natural selection also seems somewhat realistic when considering the breeding pools of people who end up interacting with each other. I am always struck by the fact that at any college (especially high-level institutions such as Williams), I know multiple people in common with almost any student I meet. It’s only such a “small world” because the top 1% (or whatever it may be) of society tends to interact exclusively with themselves. This absolutely has an impact on who ends up having kids together, serving a “selective” function maintained by issues with college access, etc.

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