Should mandatory school, really be mandatory?

Most people would say mandatory school helps greatly to prepare students for the future beyond school, but John Taylor Gatto makes it quite clear that instead of helping our students, mandatory schools are limiting student’s futures rather than expanding them. I agree with Gatto and believe mandatory school is quite boring and somewhat corrupt. Students are being held back from conquering great obstacles and surpassing low expectations. Every student has a bright mind that can potentially brighten their future and society’s future as well.

A majority of students and even some teachers agree that school is boring. They argue that the courses are dull and serve no actual help in the adult world. In elementary school I was told to do a report on an anaconda. An anaconda is a large python like snake who rules the jungle biome. How is a large snake and its environment going to help anybody prepare for a career outside of being a zoologist. Sure, I was young and snakes were pretty cool, but I learned nothing important that I can use today. That same year I did research on a California Mission. I guess learning about the Missions would be useful when studying California and it’s history, but I found it to be boring and useless. Never have I gone back to the mission we visited, nor do I even remember where it is. It really didn’t catch my attention at all. My teacher shared my enthusiasm as she would assign plain writing assignments on the lifestyle of the people who lived at the Missions. Being ministries and farmers seemed like more fun than learning about them. My teachers would assign work that takes very little thinking and creativity. It seems they get their lessons straight out of the book and recite what the book says. Seems to me they are choosing what they do and don’t want their students to learn. They’re teaching useless materials limiting the mind and creativity of students.

Teachers have to the power to hold back students without them having to repeat the grade. What does that mean? In other words, teachers are letting students continue through school thinking they know what it takes to succeed, when really they are just as weak as the day they first started kindergarten. I learned the alphabet in kindergarten and was instructed how to read in first grade, but didn’t actually learn to read until I reached the third grade. I would get assessed on my reading skills and my teachers would blame English being my second tongue, and proceed to letting me advance to the next grade assuming I knew how to read, but not pronounce the words. It wasn’t until I was in my ESL courses (English as a Second Language) that I began to learn to read. As Gatto puts it, “schools actually fall [short] in achieving,” to help student reach success. Some teachers push students forward to the next grade instead of into the books. I believe that by the teachers not helping them or even giving them a second chance and just scurrying them away towards failure is a huge sign of holding students back. I also believe teachers should be more supportive of their students and more available for those who struggle in their class.

One way to help students reverse the effects their teachers are having on them is to let them independently choose the subjects they want to learn. Of course teachers and faculty should still provide a guide to keep them on track and prevent them from taking only electives. I feel the liberty to choose their own schedules would give students more of an adult-like aspect on making important decisions in life. I remember senior year I had two slots available for class but couldn’t take the home study classes because I was short on credits. My counselor gave me a couple options of electives and educational classes to take and I ended up choosing to be a teacher aid for both open slots. I was a student aid for my culinary teacher twice in a day. It was two electives, but electives where I got to do teacher things and even the opportunity to teach the class. Being her teacher aid also helped me open my eye more towards what I wanted to do after I graduated and helped my kitchen skills improve. In that same day I would also be in her Cooking II class, so I was in the kitchen all school-day. The liberty to choose my courses and actually enjoying them made it a little easier to go to school and encouraged me to get the rest of my work done. It helped me advance towards graduating and achieving my goals, rather than holding me back from gaining usable knowledge and finding school a bore.

John Taylor Gatto argues that mandatory school prevents students from learning the important things we should know entering the adult world and finding out what they want to do or be in the future. He comments that mandatory school is boring and that teachers teach useless classes which serve no true education. Students are limited to actual knowledge and suffer more than we think. I believe that in order for mandatory schools to be a successful source of knowledge and education, we should let them decide what they think is best for them. Who know’s, maybe by doing so the future Einstein will be a student from mandatory school.