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Last Book Club

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My group and I had an interesting discussion in our final book club meeting. Gatto wanted us to all know what actually happens in the school system and how corrupt it can be. The discussion leader brought up a quote from the book which states, “For true believers, children are test animals” (Gatto 178). I completely agree all my years we are tested in everything and every subject. HESPA, SATS, NJASK, Parcc, etc. I am grateful I never had to take Parcc! With PARCC being useless we discussed how they are going to remove this. It is sad that that people depend on a test score to determine where you want to go in life. For example, someone I know is currently in the process of joining the Coast Guard. He didn’t do so well on the Math portion, so had to take a another test until he received a passing score. It sucks that people depend on a number on the test score to determine if you are going to graduate or not or if you are intelligent or not. Colleges look at SATs
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2nd book club meeting / The Underground History of American Education

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During the 2nd book club meeting of The Underground History of American Education by John Gatto was interesting. The class discussed on how much we rely on technology and the pros and cons of it. Will computers replace teachers or professors in the future? Technology can be a good thing and a bad thing. Everything we do now such as applying to jobs, schools, work requires technology. For example, Professors at NJCU depend on technology to use blackboard or send emails to students. Projects for school or jobs require PowerPoint and applying to jobs and doing research is all online. As we pass by a library we don’t see as much people as we used to see back in the day. Technology can be a good thing because we learn to be computer savvy. Children learn through apps on the phone such as shapes, color, matching, etc. There is a certain point where technology may take over children's lives, but it all depends on the parent. Back in the day everyone would be outside at the
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The Underground History of American Education

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In the book, The Underground History of American Education written by John Gatto discussed the problems that happens in American schools. Gatto was a public school teacher in New York and was named State teacher of the year same year he decided to leave. He was named teacher of the year the same year he left. Throughout the book he will discuss what is wrong with our schooling system. My group and I read only chapters one and two. Chapter one was more of an introduction and discussing information about well-known men such as Ben Franklin, George Washington, Andrew Carnegie, and etc. We discussed how teachers name calling students can affect a student mentally. In the book a vice principal had the audacity to tell a 6-year-old girl “Shut up you animal”. Other students over heard and began making fun of her and she did not want to go to school. They summed up what would happen to her in the future and how she would act towards other people. For example, they stated, she would
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1980's- 2000's

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As we approached the last section in the book we can see how rapidly public schools have changed and the percentages of students attending and graduating increased dramatically. Even though the nation has changed a lot for the better we still have more work to do with public schools. We see how everyone has now a higher chance to succeed and how diverse public schools are. A statement that stood out to me the most on page 193 is “It is poor people who typically get trapped in bad schools and can't afford to do anything” This statement is accurate because people who have money can afford to send their child to private school and by their house at a better location. In previous class we have had discussion on how test taking can affect children. In my opinion I don't find it fair because people are simply not good test taker and publishing scores for the public to see can make a child feel bad a cause them self-esteem.  I agree we should take tests in order to see where
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