Cookies cutters are used in dough to make lots of cookies with the same shape and size. It is a template by which we fit the dough to make the cookie batch standard. And similarly, schooling in this country takes the form of a cookie cutter. It molds every individual into a specific form the state wants to assume a role after getting an “education”.
John Gatto’s point is not about the need for an education but rather the compelling need for people to receive instructions in a rigid classroom where both teacher and student are confined to the ways of the institution. There is a persistent ideology in the American society which already equates schooling with education. The educated is the one who underwent the prescribed years of schooling or even finished it earlier.
Perhaps, this can be testified by the number of people who prefer to send their kids to school rather than to teach them at home. Most colleges prefer students who have undergone the usual school system, despite school being boring or repetitive at times. In fact, “[t]he only coherent argument … to justify the way in which schools treat children is that it prepares them for the world of work.”(Lewis, 2002)
Gatto has every reason to believe that the school system was conceptualized as a means of rearing individuals to become controllable citizens. He mentioned about people the plot of dividing the society into different classes—with the help of educational measure sticks such as exam scores and sections—to dissuade them from coming together and becoming a threat to the ruling class.
The Essay on School Management System Information Education-related Processes
Education system forms the backbone of every nation. As a matter of fact, a sound education system is a must to nurture young talents who in future will become global citizens and take their nation to new heights. In recent times, advanced technology is extensively being used to revolutionize school management by streamlining education-related processes. We have designed a Next Generation School ...
Alexander Inglis was right in the 6 basic functions of modern education; it was established to promote conformity, to measure your social worth, to “wash the dirt down drain”, and to train a handful of students to continue this process for the years to come.
If the government sees that dumbing down the society is the only way to manage them effortlessly, then it is going against the overt purpose of education as they pronounce it to be.
Bibliography
Lewis, G. (2002).
What’s Wrong With School Anyway? Retrieved March 26, 2010, from Freedom-in-Education: http://www.freedom-in-education.co.uk/school/school.htm
