In the selection Against School by John Taylor Gatto, the author aims to convince readers that the public school system has major flaws caused by a conspiracy to keep children obedient and subservient. He shares the idea that the school system dulls down creativity, genius, and creates boredom and conformity. Gatto effectively uses pathos, logos, and ethos to deliver his message clearly and persuasively.
The essay begins by Gatto using ethos by describing his background and authority on the issue. Teaching for 30 years he claims to have become an “expert in boredom” as he watched students and teachers drudge through their days at school. Teachers would sit in the break rooms “whining” with “dispirited attitudes”.
Using historical characters like, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln, Gatto shows how the lack of formal education has little, or nothing, to do with the ability to create amazing results in the real world. How much more powerful of logos can you use than introducing the reader to the educational backgrounds of men like that.
Gatto uses pathos several times as well throughout his work. Comments and statements like “boredom”, “trapped inside structures” and “childish adults regularly conflate opposition with disloyalty” can dig at the reader and produce images of our own past experience in the “mandatory public education system”. Some readers may be able to relate to a grandfather similar to the authors. One day in front of his grandfather he mentioned the word “bored”. His grandfather quickly “battered [him] hard on the head” and told him never to say that again.
The motivation in this selection is to convince readers to “teach your own to think critically and independently”. He also says, “…urge them to take on the serious material, the grown-up material”.
I like your post. You picked up on the rich rhetorical relevance of the use of historical references to make a point about our modern system. I completely missed what you found. I think that the historical characters that are mentioned here had many other factors which are just not available in our more modern society. For one thing the dates of the compulsory school system to which Gatto was referring to was after Lincoln, Washington, Franklin, and Edison. There wasn't an either or situation for any of these rare human beings as this rhetoric implies. They didn't have the laws or customs that we have. Also they were anomalies of their education systems respectively as well. But then again, Gatto is not the first to introduce me to this style of rhetoric, I homeschooled my own children for 5 years.
ReplyDeleteNicely analyzed. I think you did a great jobs analyzing this piece.I agree with the different appeals of ethos, logos, and pathos assessment. gato also does a nice job delivering his argument convincingly. He does illustrate some bias toward his administrators, what could also be taken into account. GOOD JOB :)
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