November 2, 2006

Against School

From Discussion Date: 11- 1-06

In John Gatto’s article “Against School” he slams the big school verses the little school. I really enjoyed this article, mainly because he talks about some things that my family was worried about, therefore choosing to homeschool me. Even though homeschooling is different than a little school, it still has similar characteristics.
I thought it was really interesting when he mentioned that, “what if there is no ‘problem’ with our schools? What if they are the way they are, so expensively flying in the face of common sense and long experience in how children learn things,l not because they are doing something wrong but because they are doing something right?” He goes on to question whether the schools purpose is to make sure kids never “grow up.” I think this is a very scary concept. Think about it. You have a big institute designed in educating the young, easily persuaded minds. They are clumped together by age group and are shuffled through the system. Gatto does point out that historically big schools were designed to manage the masses. At a time when our country was taking in people of different cultures and ethnic groups, people were worried of revolts and uprisings. This is Gatto’s claim.
The real controversy and discourse was held more around the subject of the benefits of a giant school verses a small school/homeschool. There are pros and cons to both, but for me, smaller makes more sense. That can mean either a small school or homschool.
Some of the cons to a big school is the fact that it would be easy to hide, to brood bitterness over rejection. I just wonder if the kids at Columbine were rejected, but because it was such a big school, nobody noticed until after the incident. What I mean by noticed, because people can be very oblivious to hurting people, is that the teachers didn’t pick up on the attitudes or the grades of the boys. When you have so many students to watch, who almost all have some emotional drama with them, it’s easy to miss the kid who needs attention the most.
Another con is that students in the big schools lose their individuality. If you aren’t the most outgoing, most athletic, smartest kid in school, the likelihood of you feeling worth something is very small. Plus in a large school you can easily feel like just a number.
i personally value the low ratio of teacher to student. The fact that the teachers know you by name and not just face, and also know you’re learning style and what you’re capable of. How are teachers able to do that in big schools??? Yeah, they have a lot of teachers, but each teacher teaches a lot of students. There’s just a lot of people!
Some of the cons with small schools, or for my sake, homeschooling, is the fact that they can be very seclusive and unsocial. Also the amenities are not always available. But the shelteredness is a minority. Homeschooling is growing rapidly. And there are so many small groups within the homeschooling community. My biggest problem in homeschooling was being too social because so many things were made available to me.
when I think about what we need to prepare our future generation for, being surrounded only by a ton of people your own age does not come to mind. We need to prepare them for more one on one interaction, the ability to communicate within relationships. We all know that in big groups people act very differently. There is no one on one communicating. I’m not saying that public speaking is bad, because that is very different that being involved in a big group. Because of the fact that you are stuck with same people throughout the schooling years in a small school, you learn to deal with relationship and communication problems with them. You can’t just move on to another social group like you could in a big school. You need to learn to face your problems. I think small schools can help teach that.

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