Gatto sucks.

I didn’t really like Gatto’s article Against School. When I was reading it, it all seemed very pessimistic and one-sided. It reminded me of when my brother starts to spout off about conspiracy theories. I’ve had some teachers like the one’s Gatto describes, they seem bored with their jobs, bored with the kids, and they don’t really seem to care but I’ve also had the kind of teachers that Gatto doesn’t seem to think exist; teachers that have said ‘forget memorizing textbooks, you’re here to learn’, the kinds of teachers that students can connect with and feel encouraged by. One of them sticks out to me particularly, the late great Quinn. When I was reading this article I was reminded of him a lot because we once spent a whole class period talking about the flaws of the public education system. I think that when Gatto was writing this article he left out the fact that there are teachers like Quinn that don’t try to act superior and teach everyone to be sheeple following the herd. I think that by the time Gatto wrote this article he had become jaded by his own battles working for public schools. In the beginning of the article he said that he got to know boredom well as a teacher and it sounds to me that if he knew boredom so well he was one of the teachers that he complains about throughout the article. Apparently he needs to learn from Gandhi and be the change he wants to see in the world, rather than just conforming and complaining about it once your retirement is safe.
-Jenny S.