Dumbing us down: Weapons of Mass Destruction Essay

In the article Dumbing us down Weapons of pickle Destruction illusion Taylor Gatto explains how todays teaching method system need to be changed to focusing more on childrens interests instead of an send course. He wants to revolutionize the shoal system to manything similar to his schooling in a small townsfolk called Monongahela, Pennsylvania. When he went to school he was taught by dint of classical schooling, which trained him to develop independent phoneing and the appreciation for striking old books before his duration. In his small town of 4500 numerous consequential stack have been brought up in that respect including Joe Montana, the fo infra of the Disney channel and the discoverer of the nerf football. He thinks perhaps the advantage of these people is related to how they were brought up in school ingestting a rafts on experience by cooking there own school meals, handling the daily school maintenance. He questions how college ad bang such as Harvard put such a big furiousness on standardized test. Gatto thinks that the education system was founded by a strict military system in Germany to keep the dishonor and mediate classes grounded so leaders could keep capitalism running.During his time as a teacher he talks ab pop how he wanted his schoolchilds to ingest hands on experiences. For example one of his classmates was interested in comic book art so he displace her to squ ar off a comic book artist for a week. The brave bulge check of the article talks about a agency to stand up to the received education system by using Mellvilles moran record in Bartleby, the scrivener. This is a way to peacefully refuse to go by the current system and simply reject it by getting long groups to non take the tests that schools hand out. Although John Gatto has whatsoever very ambitious information I, strongly disaccord with his article.He neer gives a commonsensible way to fix our curriculum, save can only hope teeming people agree with him to refuse it. The American school curriculum is slap-up because if you work hard and make good grades so many doors testament open through numerous colleges and scholarships. I think standardized examen is crucial to our education system because without it there would be no way to gage where every student should go after last school. John Gatto wrote this article specifically because he has been on two incompatible sides of American education. In his youth, he was taught with more hands on learning that form his view of how children everywhere should be taught.He is biased because of how great of success some people have had coming out of his small town of 4500 people. Then he was thrown into a unfamiliar way of instruct when he taught at a upper Manhattan school. In the Manhattan school a big amount of the focus was on getting kids ready subject field action tests. Although he may be right about how the curriculum was just turning into a achievement prep course, the reality of current schooling is how good you can do grade wise and on achievement tests give care the ACT and SAT. In the article he tells of how it was his mission to teach beyond the boundaries of standardized exam and promote a more hands on type of learning so that his students would be actuate to seek out what they were passionate about. Hands on teaching is great, scarcely what happens when they leave his class and argon thrown out into standardized testing without and experience or practice. The article never really answers how his students did in the incoming but he was awarded the New York teacher of the year, and has written numerous books on our failing education system.John Gatto puts real life examples of how his teaching has unnatural students, which makes his argument a lot more compelling. He tells of how he sent a girl to the state capitol to speak to her local legislature and immediately she is a trial attorney. In the last part of his artic le he digs deep in how are education system require to be reformed, using examples of college swanouts such as bill gate and Steve Jobs who are now running todays economy. The article states how the government is non going to fix this problem, but it is up to the people to be educated enough to solve it themselves. He gives outlets such as home school or keeping your children informed that having bad grades is not the end of the world. The last paragraph goes into detail about how there are many different ways to get around the school system, but he never gives any real way that it could ever be changed. In the oblige John Gatto expresses how achievement test are a waste of time in school, but I think that they are extremely of the essence(predicate) in showing where every student in the country stands. If we did not have standardized test it would be unfair to students who are in a lot more challenging schools.I did not think standardized testing was important either until my time at Baylor. My look were opened when kids with 4.0s in high school were struggling through there first semester. I never realized that some of these kids went to easier high schools thence me, and were not prepared for the rigorous curriculum Baylor has to offer. For me standardized testing helped me get into a good college, because my high school was hard and I was not able to make good grades. If Baylor simply placed all its emphasis on GPA there is no way I would be at this school. Standardized testing is said to be a summer camp of words (Gatto John 593) by Gatto which is so false, because with out it there is no way for students in my touch to be given the opportunity to go to great schools like Baylor. I am thankful for my tough high school education because now at Baylor it is easy for me to stay unionised and make good grades. Achievement tests also help kids who are in schools that are not as academically demanding.Colleges now have achievement tests like the SAT so they can gage where a students intelligence level is on providing admission into their school. John Gatto talks about how he was educated in a classical fashion with more hands on teaching, and when he was younger college was much to get into. I have talked to my dad and his friends and they say the SAT was almost optional in their time, and you could almost pick any school back then to attend. Today if students want to be taught a classical learning room they would have to be home schooled, because of how expensive it is already to fund the macrocosm school system the United States. He is right that hands on learning is critical for children, but a good basic education is needed for kids to be successful out of college. I think that in present times the SAT is critical for students in any situation to rise above and get into a college that is right for them regardless where they uprise up. In the article Gatto does not like the role capitalism plays in our school system, ev en though it is actually what makes it possible for the individual to come no matter what background they came from.He thinks that capitalism in our schools is a way of keeping lower and middle classes in line when in reality it is there to help people willing to put in the work to get out of there respected social class. capitalist economy is why people immigrate to America everyday knowing that are country promotes the freedom to succeed economically and socially regardless of where you are from. Public schools may not all be on the similar playing field academically, but that does not have to stop some one who is smart and motivated. Unlike some other countries, we give everybody a chance to succeed to the best of their abilities. It is impossible to give everyone the same education, but a strict curriculum and government regulations is the best attempt.Capitalism goes hand in hand with another prime example about how college drop outs such as Bill Gates are now some of the ric hest men in the world. Only in America is this possible, in places like china if you do not have a high education you are given limited opportunity. Gatto does a lot of complaining in his article, but has no real solutions except keeping your child aware that doing well in school will not define your future. I think Gatto is so corrupted by his small town facts of life that he does not understand that his type of education cannot be afforded by every body.Capitalism is what America and education are based of off, and with out it there would be no way for lower or middle class people to display their full potential. I completely disagree with John Gattos article, and think it could be hazardous for some people to read. If this article is read wrong children, even young adults will be under the impression that school is not that important and be under the impression that it is, better to rebel against our school system then to elaborate in it. Achievement tests are how capitalism is integrated into our schooling system, and with out it I fear where we would be as a country.Works CitedWood, Nancy, and milling machine James. Perspectives On Argument. 7th ed. New Jersey Pearson Education, 2012. Print