Before
reading “Against School” by John Gatto, I paid no attention to my teachers and
how they behaved. I hadn’t had a reason to. Looking back, they were all molded
from the same cookie cutter. There were two that I can pull from my mind, that
weren’t the same as the rest. Those were the teachers that changed my life.
Mr.
Guyette wasn’t just a great math teacher, but he wanted to give his students a
great education. Like Gatto, he thought that students didn’t think for
themselves and instead accepted whatever the teachers threw at them, without
knowing everything about it. Guyette attempted to change that in his students.
He wanted our motivation to come from within, not from fear of our parents disapproving
of our grades. Most people in his classes though, didn’t change—it’s hard to
after having ten years of identical teachers—but some did change, including me.
By having him as my teacher for two years, I think for myself and don’t accept
what’s blindly thrown at me. I have an intrinsic need to know why things happen
the way that they do. Knowing that it does happen isn’t enough for me.
The
second teacher who broke from the pack was Mr. Erlandson. He taught history.
Most history teachers that I’ve had, only look at one side of the story—the side
of the Americans—and how everything Americans did was right and civil. He didn’t.
He had us look at everything going on in the situation and most of the time,
the U. S. was at fault. We had been taught from little on that America is the
best place out there, but after learning about some of the things that our
country has done, makes me doubt a lot of things that I’m expected to believe.
He taught students to doubt everything in our world and just like Gatto and
Guyette, expected us not to take things blindly.
Now,
I’m aware of how messed up the American school system is. Had it not been for
Mr. Guyette and Mr. Eralndson, I think I would’ve been blind forever. I never
would have believed Gatto’s story and claimed him to be mad. Becoming a teacher
is that much more important to me because if I can help even one student in
realizing what’s written above, then I have succeeded in life.
