What is Crippling Us?

In the article I read by John Taylor Gatto, he argues that organized school is not necessary for children to learn. " Do we really need school? I don't mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary? And if so, for what? Don't hide behind reading, writing, and arithmetic as a rationale, because 2 million happy homeschoolers have surely put that banal justification to rest." (Gatto). I disagree with this statement, because in my case, my parents work full time. I don't have a way to learn at home, so school is a way to gain knowledge. While I agree it is not the most entertaining part of my day, I still need to go learn things that I will need to know for college, and my future. Gatto also argues that schools should divide kids into different groups, for different criteria. " Modern, industrialized, compulsory schooling was to make a sort of surgical incision into the prospective unity of these underclasses. Divide children by subject, by age-grading, by constant rankings on tests, and by many other more subtle means, and it was unlikely that the ignorant mass of mankind, separated in childhood, would ever reintegrate into a dangerous whole." ( Gatto). I believe that schools in our area divide kids into the best extent possible. With regents, honors, and AP options for each class, the children in schools are divided into groups where everyone is close academically. Dividing the school system to a great extent would force school to become much more stressful for students, and it would just make life worse for students. Gatto wants to improve society, but his plan is going to lead to more stress, and a less active society. In the Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451, he shows how he believes society is moving toward a world where written word is forbidden. " All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters." (Bradbury, 57). This line is saying that all minorities must be kept happy, and the only way to do that, and make sure nothing bad is said about them, is to stop authors' messages in books from getting out to the public. Bradbury also makes a comment, like Gatto, on the direction that school is moving. " ' School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work." ( Bradbury, 55). Bradbury also thinks that school is becoming more relaxed, and that discipline is no longer important in present society. I also disagree with Bradbury, because I think it is important for stress in life to be controlled. School is very competitive as it is, because you need good grades to get into a respected college and get a well paying job. While it makes for an entertaining story, I don't think many of the points in Fahrenheit 451 are relevant to today's society.