Gatto On Education Summary

According Gatto, a man who speaks from both the perspective of a student and a teacher, the education system in America is truly a marvel of modern social engineering. He argues the problems commonly associated with American education are just the opposite because, in his view, what some view as issues, are what society has created as the fundamental pillars of schooling. It is his belief that school simply exists not to educate, but to instill the qualities necessary to produce a compliant work force. Thus, the twelve years of schooling millions of kids experience all across the United States only plans to ‘dumb [them] down’ (Gatto, 2003). All the time, money, and effort these kids impart unto their studies in the hopes of learning is only

Gatto himself references many others who have published the same satirical pieces, and even admits the criticized education system in question is not even original in its own right. Taken from great American ally Prussia, a country known for its military dominance yet since dissolved, our current school system resolves to ensure each new generation is easily manipulated, docile in the face of authority, and resolutely obedient. The focal point of all society is education, for an individual’s education determines their social role and their ability to change that role. The current program of social engineering undertaken by the United States aims to ensure a small group of liberally educated elite can remain untouched by the hard taxing labor of manual work, which is specially reserved for the gargantuan second class forced into conformity and blind acceptance. This second class is essentially brainwashed, as they are plucked from their age of curious questions and rebellious inquiries before it even begins, and are not released by the suffocating grip until an age at which these interrogative tendencies become unreasonable and dangerous to develop. Gatto details this whole process, and directly showcases its versatility as a social weapon wielded voraciously by governments. From its inception as a Prussian military device, to its use as a subtle and subvert sociopolitical control switch here in the United States, Gatto argues the American educational system is simply another case of a dystopian abuse of power masked by a utopian