Notes from Gatto reading

How public education cripples our kids, and why

"I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom. Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as I often did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn't seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren't interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were."

 We believe that in John Grotto’s work “Against School”, he is explaining how the current school system we have now is not teaching anything to students. “They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it.” Here he explains that the students feel that they learn nothing, he explains how the students feel about their work which obviously is not good.  “They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn't seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren't interested in learning more.” And here he explains how the students wanted to learn new things but were not able to due to the teachers not knowing their own subject or wanting to learn more about it themselves. “Teachers were every bit as bored as they were.” Lastly here he explains the problem. If the teachers are as bored as the students then the students will not learn anything because there is no instinctive to learn.  

We agree that Gatto is right but wrong, with his opinion. In the writing there are many examples of bias due to his experience in Manhattan.  “I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom.” Here he generalizes all schools with what he learned or experienced in Manhattan. “Boredom is the common condition of school teachers” Again this is bias from what he learns, and this is his personal belief. Yes in school there are good teachers and bad teachers, but to claim all of them to be “Bored” is a pretty big generalization that we felt was not accurate. “Of course, teachers are themselves products of the same twelve-year compulsory school programs that so thoroughly bore their students,” Yes it is true that the teachers come from the same school system as us, but all teachers come from a different era and area of school from us, which makes their school experience different from ours. “Who wouldn't get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades? If even that.” While this is true for the most part in teachers who have the misfortune of having a bad class, some teachers do not find this as an excuse and actually make the students thrive. This idea of teachers taking a “Bad” class as a challenge and then turn around and make the students thrive can be seen in the Escalante case where he turned a class of students who would have dropped out and helped them thrive in school.