What isCrippling Us?

I do believe that the author is making a good point. I believe that there is, something wrong with the way kids are taught in America and more importantly the way teachers teach. Dont get me wrong i love all my teachers and most of them challenge me a fair amount but too many time shave i seen teachers who have NO CLUE on what they are doing. Its not enough that they just know the material, they have to be taught on how to convey it to kids in an understanding manner that everyone can absorb not JUST the advanced students. As Gatto says about school teachers "Boardroom is a common condition of school teachers." I think that this is true. I will say this though, for the most part guilderland high school does a great job of hiring quality teachers. Not everybody of course, but i haven't ever had an unenthusiastic teacher at GHS. But there is something that i would like to point out about the article. When Gatto says "...a considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve-year wringer our kids currently go through, and they turned out all right. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln?.." I just want to point out that all those people lived more than 100 years ago. They didn't have public education. They had one roomschool houses for rich white boys and that was it. I'd also like to point out that the author did not include one accomplished female in his list. Anyway  I do agree with him that much can be learned-most in-fact- out side of a classroom. That what summer vacation is about. 

          Anyway, there are several ways to connect this to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. One way is that Bradbury describes through the character Clarisse McClellan, that the children of her generation are irresponsible. Similar to the way in which Gatto describes children of this generation as being board and unmotivated. Talking about a past generation Clarisse says "...they believed in responsibility..." and later she says "Do you know, i'm responsible. I was spanked when I needed it, years ago..." Bradbury made some accurate predictions on the futre of our nation, as good science fiction authors do. And Gatto, pointed out some of the weaker points in our system, they seem to tie into Bradbury's predictions pretty well.