Homework 50

The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher
The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto, is a speech given by him when he received the New York State Teacher of the Year award in 1991. His speech is basically stating that teachers are always using the same six lessons in their classrooms, when they are teaching their fellow students. He says that teachers try to strip away the value of a student’s worthiness, and that students learn that the teachers are always the ones that are right no matter what happens. He also explains that teachers teach students that they are always being watched, and that homework is assigned in order to provide a surveillance system at home.

When I read this speech, I was beyond shocked. At first I could not understand if Gatto agreed or disagreed with these lessons, and then I realized that he did indeed disagree with them, but he was trying to explain that some teachers agreed and obeyed them. I find some of these lessons ridiculous, such as lesson five “I teach that your self-respect should depend on an observer's measure of your worth”. I think in no way should a teacher be the one determining a student’s worthiness. Who are they to judge what self-respect a student should have, or how worthy they should be in everyone’s eyes? I would never want a teacher to tell me that I am worthy of this grade, and that is the only thing I am worthy of. I don’t want someone else telling me what I am worth, that is no place in anyone’s right to say. I understand some people argue that grades are a way to evaluate a student’s worthiness, however I disagree. Grades are a way to evaluate a student’s progress, not what respect they should have for themselves because of how they are seen in someone else’s eyes. I thought that Gatto had a point when he was disagreeing with the six lessons most teachers use in the classroom. These lessons are wrong and degrading students everywhere. School is not about stripping away a student’s ability to think and have their own mindset, it’s about letting a student explore the world around them with the help of teachers. However with these lessons, that is nearly impossible to do.

Fanning's Interview
In our class, Mr. Fanning came in to answer a set of questions posed by us, the students. He answered the questions posed in a pretty generic way, but also added his own twist to them. By this I mean that he was not the “education is the most important thing in your life, end of story” speaker, instead he was the “education is the most important thing in your life, and here is why” speaker. He explained that when he was younger and in high school, he did not really care for school, instead he just wanted to start a rock band. Remarkably he went to an outstanding college, Skidmore College, while deciding to pursue his dream to be a rock star. After he graduated he became a rock star, but soon retired and came back to teach. One thing Mr. Fanning said was that education is the most important gift someone can ever give you. A pretty generic answer, but he then went on to expand on this statement. He explained that college opens a lot of opportunities for you, and that you can always learn something new, no matter what age you are at. He explains that people are always going back to school to further increase their education, because it is the one thing that sets the building blocks for the rest of your life. Sam Kaplan asked Mr. Fanning how living the rock star lifestyle influenced his teaching style at SOF. To this, Fanning replied that he understands what we are going through as teens. He knows what we are going through, but wants to see all of us succeed at life. Fanning also went on to explain how he loves being principal at SOF because of the diversity around him. Beacon high school, he said, screens its students, and expects them all to get perfect grades, and to always listen to the teacher. However, at SOF, there is a large variation of students, ranging from struggling students to excelling students. He explains that it is this diversity that makes him enjoy teaching (when he did) and being principal at SOF.

It was surprising to hear Mr. Fanning answer the questions in the way he did. I always thought of him as someone who wanted to push the value of education on us, and to make us all want to go to college (not that I ever had a doubt in my mind about going). However, listening him talk about his life shown me a new side of him. I thought it was really cool how he was a rock star at first, and then went on to find a career in the education system. I agree with him that SOF is an extremely academically and racially diverse school, and sometimes I wondered why this was. After listening to him compare SOF to Beacon, I realized the answer to my question. It gives me appreciation for the teachers at SOF, because they have to make sure each student gets their needs met. Each student learns at a different pace, and with such an academically diverse student body, teachers need to work hard in order to help each student in their own way. I always understood the value of education, and never had a doubt in my mind that I would attend college, and then possibly attend grad school if that’s where my future takes me. However, after listening to Fanning talk about all the different ways an education can shape you, and how you can always learn something new, I now further appreciate the ability to have such an outstanding education. Fanning’s interview really made me think about education in a new light.

John Gatto: Teacher of the Year Acceptance Speech
In John Gatto’s Teacher of the Year Acceptance Speech, he is criticizing our education system and how schools are run now. He explains that schools are no longer used to educate students, but rather to teach them to obey orders. He also states that schools force students to sit in a confined area with other people their age, and all learn the same thing. They never see diversity in their school lives, thus cutting them off from reality and what happens to them in their future. He also states that school leaves little time for a child’s mind to grow and develop on their own. Children are constantly under surveillance, even when they are at home (through the use of homework) and have no time to decide what they want to do with their lives or what they want to do for fun. Towards the end of his speech he explains what he wants to change about the school system, and how it should be reformed.

When I first started reading his speech, I have to admit I was genuinely shocked. What teacher would create an acceptance speech that criticizes the very system that he works in and just accepted an award based on? But into further reading his speech, I realized that Gatto had a point. The school system is all about making children into students who memorize everything the teacher tells them. Students don’t have a chance to think on their own, or a chance to explore something using their mind. Instead they are forced to memorized formulae that would never help them in their future unless they go into that particular field. Gatto is right when he says schools don’t educate us, instead they teach us to obey orders. Schools are like a factory, with the teachers being the ones in charge and the students being the assembly workers always going through the same routine without paying much attention to what they are doing.

Lisa Delpit on power and pedagogy
Lisa Delpit argues that students who were raised in a family that taught them basic skills would further advance in schools than students who were not taught basic skills would. She argues that students who come from a “culture of power”, whom are mainly white kids, will do better in school because they all ready know the basic things. However students who don’t come from this “culture”, whom are mainly the minorities or poor kids, will struggle in school, and once teachers see that happening, they will deem them a slower learner, and make them take remedial courses. Delpit argues that a fair curriculum should be created for everyone, including the students who were not raised in the “culture of power”. She suggests that an appropriate education is created for these minority students.

I agree with Delpit because it is harder for students to learn as quickly as they should if they don’t have a background in the basic skills. Everything she is talking about goes back to the theory of “culture maps”, and how some people are born into the “typical American culuture map”, while others are born into a map that doesn’t prove education to be too important. Although most people don’t connect race and class with the education field when you first think about schools, Delpit shows people that it is a huge controversy when students are learning.