Question

What is the theme of Against School by John Taylor Gatto

Answer 1

Gatto: An aura of paranoia seems to pervade Gatto’s angry, impressioned plea for changes to America’s educational system; as part of his argument, he tries to convince us that we are pawns in a gigantic plot. Gatto identifies with the students whose lives, he believes, have been ruined by some monstrous entity-“corporate society”? ----that tries to grind children down until they become docile, robotic creatures. His presentation-particularly toward the end-is facile and ideological; it can be hard to accept his unexplained, unsupported assertions. For example, is the purpose of tracking students necessarily the elimination of the inferior ones, or can one interpret it as one way of maintaining a meritocracy? A good summary should refer to Gatto’s scattershot method of argument. One might also question the accuracy of his paraphrases. Inglis’s list of educational purposes, for example, might be presented quite differently by a more conservative commentator. It is a loaded topic.