The Underground History of American Education

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 be angry and give the person who teased her a ticket,” Throws away Jane’s passport application after Jane leaves the office”. These are some scenarios on what kind of person would be if Bianca would be by these cruel words from a teacher or principle. In these scenarios we see how just from these cruel words it can make a person especially a young child aggressive. Imagine how many other teachers name call other students?
While reading the book, my group and I found out schools were not made to get an education. It was all for business and too boost up the economy. Gatto stated a quote.” The secret of American schooling is that it doesn't teach the way children learn, and it isn't supposed to; school was engineered to serve a concealed command economy and a deliberately re-stratified social order”. Another question we went over was how do you feel about forced schooling? We discussed how forcing students to go to school isn't exactly the best idea. Students get bullied, rebelling starts to occur, and there is no freedom of speech because some teachers take it as disrespect when students tell them the truth. Students usually get punished when they express how they feel because teachers or principals would take it as disrespect. As the chapters goes on we will see what else occurs and how corrupt it can be.