1. In this article Gatto is literally saying that the public education system is making children grow up to become children. This means that children grow up to be mindless robots who live to consume that which the society provides. People are taught that the only way they can be successful if they go through at least 12 years of schooling.
2. I believe that Gatto is saying this because he's seen this first hand through his experience as an elementary school teacher. He completely believes that the point of schools is to create consumers for the future that don't think about their actions. He presents his argument through stories of his own, and by citing other scholar that have made similar conclusions.
3. I don't agree with Gatto's ideas of schooling creating mindless consumers. Yes, the purpose of school is to help people create better jobs for themselves in the future, especially at and above the secondary education level. However there is more to school than people just learning how to have a job. Students learn how to interact in a social environment and become educated in the things that are important to today's society, such as current events and world history. This essay reminds me of a teacher I had for English class during high school. He was one of the most engaging teachers that I ever had and I was never bored in his class. It's teachers like him that make me disagree with this article the most, he was not doing his job just to pump out more people to consume mindlessly. He was doing his job because he thoroughly enjoyed it.
4. Gatto is appealing to the reader by personalizing the essay. He adds in his own experiences as a teacher, appealing to the readers ethos because it gives Gatto more credibility than an average Joe off the street would have. There is also a bit of pathos involved because parents worry about the way their children are educated.
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