John Tyler Gatto's Against School

People dream of freedom. A freedom that can bestow opportunities, a freedom that can establish equality, and a freedom that can promote success—people dream of the American dream. Many pursue it believing that education is the primary pathway to achieving success, and through education and hard work they can lower barriers; thus, being capable of scaling upward in the social ladder. Sadly, this dream has been tainted by myths that are associated with education. For example, some people claim that education is the grand equalizer of society, so through proper schooling everyone has the same chance of move up the social ladder. In addition, others claim that a school education helps students attain their full potential and helps them acquire

There is some underlying cynicism behind this form of education, which can only be noted once people open their eyes, and see how the schooling system functions. In “Against School”, John Tyler Gatto goes in depth and explains the problems with today’s form of school education. He states that a proper education should prepare students for society by pushing the students to be their best and teach skills needed to succeed; however, that is not the case for the current schooling system in America. Gatto claims the creation of school education in America was heavily influenced by negative aspects of Prussian culture; in result, creating a schooling system that promotes the production of mediocre intellects; thereby, rendering those students to be, to an extent, incompetent and manageable. These students are then sent to the labor force to be compliant workers that meet the demands of

When taking a look into Jean Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, readers are apprised of the hidden agendas many schools have. In this article, Anyon focuses on the curriculum and student-teacher interaction from five New Jersey elementary schools located in different communities with different levels of socioeconomic status. Anyon attempts to find evidence of the differences in student work in schools in wealthy communities versus those in poor communities, in an effort to bolster the argument that public schools in society provide different forms of knowledge. Through her researcher, she was able to determine that working class schools limited students; the students were given steps to follow and they were graded based on how well they followed directions—this level of education was preparing students for the labor force as blue collar workers. In addition, the affluent professional school and the middle-class school focused on attaining the correct answer, but allowed individuals to have a choice of appropriate method and material. As for the executive elite school, it emphasized the development of the students’ analytical intellectual abilities. Students were encouraged to reason through a problem, and to produce work that was of top academic quality. Overall, the “hidden curriculum” of school work causes students to