One.
Why are people bored? Or why do people capitulate to boredom?
Lethargy
of the spirit, self-pity, being lost in a fog (acedia), learned helplessness,
despondence.
Two.
What are some ways to overcome boredom?
See
yourself as responsible for your boredom and as such you are someone who can
free yourself from being bored.
Three.
Why is John Taylor Gatto opposed to 12 years of compulsory schooling?
1. The original aims of school, to make good people, to
make good citizens, and to make each person his or her personal best, has been
obscured and replaced with a system of dehumanization.
2. This dehumanization consists of “reducing as many
individuals as possible to the same safe level . . . to put down dissent and
originality.” (Mencken)
3. School encourages docility over individual creativity
and leadership.
4. School encourages credulity over critical thinking and
skepticism.
5. School encourages conforming to bureaucratic rules
over self-fulfillment.
6. School is unable to treat individual talent and
instead has become a giant impersonal, dysfunctional baby-sitting service.
7. School is obsessed with “placing” and “ranking”
students based on bogus tests.
8. School often unfairly stigmatizes some students at
early age as being “unfit,” “remedial,” “slow,” or some other label that
encourages failure in school, career, relationships, and life in general.
Essay
Option:
In
one or two pages, summarize Gatto’s major ideas. Then in three pages write about your personal
experience with school that supports Gatto’s critique.
Another Option:
In two pages, summarize Gatto’s major ideas. Then in 3 pages show how
his ideas are illustrated in the film The Chocolate War.
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