John Taylor Gatto Against School Essay

When it comes to the traditionalistic education, seat Taylor Gattos Against School questions whether we re in ally need the nine month, drawn appear, traditional curriculum. Gatto goes on to name several successful people through chronicle that were non products of a contemporary schooling system. When I think of Gattos theory of forced schooling, a friend of mine named John metalworker who goes by the alias of Viper comes to mind. Viper is in his late 20s, lives in southwesterly Philadelphia, and has worked as a Roofer for the past 10 forms. Viper went to a public school in South Philadelphia. Viper went to a school where said, It wasnt easy. I was weedy and white and we were poorer than the jigs that went to school wit us, so we caught alota shit. Vipers school was super underfunded. Some days there would be trash laid out by the trash cans cause nobody would change the trash bags, the food for thought was shit, and the bathroomsfor arrive at it. He would walk twelve bloc ks back to his house dear to go to the bathroom. There were no extracurricular activities like book clubs and doughnut and the school was rundown and decrepit. at long last he started to miss classes regularly. He felt up that the teachers did non care. Classes were extremely boring to him. He was actually approached by his biology teacher and told he could cut class anyday as dogged as he turned in his work and he would cause a D at the end of the year. He was not amuse by the offer, he was not tied(p) interested in graduating anyto a greater extent. I expected to be a laborer for the rest of my life so I felt like education was unimportant. Vipers education started taking a back seat to work just about his sophomore year of high school. He was the middle child in a family of four, all of whom have dropped out of high school and are laborers today. My parents made me get a job when I was thirteen, thats the way it was with all my brothers, says Viper. Eventually he star ted to pull ahead a decent amount of money and admits to beingness extremely nave, saying Why the fuck was I gonna go ta school for eight more days if I was makin 25-30 kilobyte dollars a year.Do the math, instead of spendin 100 meter dollars in college and make off my time in school I coulda made 200 thousand dollars by the time I was 24. One day Viper decided to make an appointment with a school advocate. He was hardly going to class, workss every day when he was supposed to be in school, and partying every night and having fun. School was more of a social event. He was right going to school to see his friends and make plans for the weekend. When he told the school counselor that he was planning on dropping out the counselor stood up, looked him in the eye, extended his hand and said, Good Luck The guy didnt even give a shit Viper said.By the time December came around of his sophomore year, he was a high school dropout. He was working everyday by that time already so he w as not stagnant. He was still living with his parents. The fact that he dropped out was ok with them because he could contribute to the house, as his paternity put it. Viper eventually salve enough money to get his own place and now lives with his married woman of three years and their two children who are two and five years of age. He said, I always thought I learned more out of school than in high school, but its not what my kids are gonna do. He aspires to open his own roofing telephoner one day. Although I do not agree with the path that Viper chose in life, he is happy and successful today. He is a great father and happily married. He does not drink anymore and devotes every sec of his free time to his family. In a way he is intimately a survivor to me. He is not well spoken or the brightest guy in the world, but he would do anything in his office to help any person in a bind.