Who's To Blame?

This essay is a reflection essay about John Gattos short story.

Kori Wilkins
Megan Shepherd
English Comp. 1 (013)
2 November 2010
Who’s To Blame?

John Taylor Gatto writes children lack basic social skills. I must say I have to agree with where he is coming from. Some people think it’s because of the internet and television, which part of it probably is. However Gatto raises a very good point in his article, he explained the amount of time children spend at school and watching television really does leave them little time to do much anything else. Children are also constantly under adult supervision by either their teachers or their parents. This gives them little time to develop their own opinions about things and leaves them little time just to themselves. The amount of time kids spend at school and watching television does in fact affect how children treat one another, and how dependent, passive and timid in the presence of a challenge, and how that lack the ability to communicate with others (Gatto). Who is to blame for the lack of social skills, and independence children have?

The article “Why Schools Don’t Educate” discusses how the amount of schooling and television children go through and watch is hurting their communication skills. Gatto states that “My children attend school thirty hours a week; use about eight hours getting ready, going, and coming home; and spend an average of seven hours a week in homework- a total of forty-five hours. During that time they are under constant surveillance, have no private time or private space, and are disciplined if the try to assert individuality in the use of time or space” Gatto). In this article Gatto is trying to prove that kids need more time to themselves and less time under adult supervision so they can develop their own personalities and opinions rather than the ones of the adults they spend all their time with. He discusses some flaws children have do to the inability to exert any self choice. They only know what they are taught and shown by the adults they are under constant surveillance by.

The average student spends six and a half to seven hours a day at school not to mention the additional two hours of homework (depending on age), which totaled brings them to nine hours of their day dedicated to schooling (Gatto). John Gatto explains that between schooling and homework that there is no time for children to have to themselves. Although many may not agree with him, I do agree with John Gatto that children should not go to school for six and a half hours and then be sent home with an additional two hours of homework. For a lot of students they not only dedicate that much to school but they also dedicate time to the sports they play for their schools or even recreational. According to How Tv Affects Your Children, “Kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games” (“How TV Affects Your Children” 1). We as a society expect our children to maintain average grades in school while also participating in as many school and recreational activities as possible, and also maintaining some type of social life.

Society is one of the biggest problems when it comes to children’s social skills. The fast pace of our society allows for little to no time at all with our whole family. My mom always says when she was a kid her family had a dinner together every single night. Now most families are lucky if they have time to even grab anything to eat at all, more a less do it all together. Gatto raises very good points in this article I don’t know that I agree with them all but I do understand where he is coming from. Gatto states “Of course my kids eat, too, and that takes some time- not much, because we’ve lost the tradition of family dining” (Gatto). Very few families at all seem to find the time to have dinner together between mom and dad’s work schedule and the kid’s school schedule and extracurricular activities. The fast pace life we live in now really has played an effect on children. People say well back in the old days there was always time for family; but also back in the old days normally the father worked and the mother stayed home with the kids, where they cooked and cleaned. Now days I don’t think I know anyone who has a stay at home parent; all my friends parents both work and they both work full time jobs. This makes it a lot more difficult to work an eight to five day, and then get home and have dinner ready before the kids need to get to their sporting events.

So who is to blame for the children of today’s lack of respect towards one another? In Gatto’s article he discusses how cruel children can be towards one another. Children really do laugh at one another’s weaknesses; and show little to any respect or passion to their classmates. Some say that it’s just human nature, but I don’t know if that’s really true? According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “nearly a third of all students aged 12 -18 reported having been bullied at school in 2007, some almost daily.” (Nation Center of Education” 1) Surveys have also shown that 77% of kids have been bullied verbally, mentally, or physically. (Center of Education) Children’s lack of compassion for one another is a major problem in today’s society. I think that mainly has to do with the amount of TV they watch television really does teach children a lot more than anyone thinks it does, good and bad things. I think the reason children are mean to each other is because we as adults treat each other poorly. It truly is a dog eat dog world out there; people have little to any respect for one another. In 2009 in Rising Sun Indiana 17 year old Andrew Conley killed his 10 year old brother, and when asked why he committed such a brutal murder he said, “I just feel like him.” (CBS NEWS)

He is referring to the serial killer TV show Dexter. Dexter was a Television show where the main character Dexter Morgan is a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department. But in his free time he is a serial killer that just can’t be caught. His anger and rage for killing people was developed due to the murder of his mother. Many say that you can’t blame a television show for your actions and I must agree. But there has to be something we are doing wrong that makes our children believe doing what they see on TV is okay. The sad thing about this incident is that this was not the first criminal act a young teenager has committed from watching Dexter nor do I think it is going to be the last. This is just one of many problems we have seen due to TV, we have seen anything from eating problems to fashion. People base everything they want to be and everything they want to look like by what media shows them. Media is what our society lives for; every girl wants to have that skinny beautiful toned body while every guy wants to obtain that ripped muscle bond image. We want to be what media tells us to be, they build a perfect self image for us to live up too.

People dont realize that kids act the way they do because of what they are raised around. They do as they are taught children learn from watching rather it is a parent or a teacher. They treat one another how they see us treat one another; we as adult are the role models for the children all around us. I like what Gatto was saying in his article although I do not agree with all of it I definitely do understand what he means by how children are now. But times have changed and will continue to do so. We are a product of our society and we always will be we care way to much about self image and not enough about everyone around us. It’s a sad but true reality we are what we are taught to be, may it be from a television show or what we take away from our education. After reading John Gatto’s article I really do have a new perspective on why children act the way they do. Who can we blame but ourselves we are what our children want to be. Every single day they watch and learn from us our good things and our bad, they watch and learn from it all.


Work Cited
Taylor, John “Why Schools Don’t Educate” 50 essays: Sundance Choice. Cengage Learning Mason Ohio
How TV Affects Your Children. 1995-2010 The Nemours Foundation. Web. 8 November, 2010
School Bullying. 2009 Bullying Statistics. Web.
Top Gelato NEWS ONLINE.2009-2010, Top Gelato. 6 December, 2009
Martinez, By Edecio. "Alleged "Dexter" Killer Andrew Conley Pleads Not Guilty to Strangling Younger Brother - Crimesider - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. 9 Dec. 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2010.