Schooling

The question of whether I agree with schooling is a difficult one, for while some schooling is clearly necessary,  schooling placed at too high of a degree has the potential to induce apathy and lack of motivation to learn when pursuing an education. I believe, however, that even apathetic school can be beneficial to society. Gatto says that school induces a great deal of consumerism. Consumerism, however, is a good thing. It keeps a flow of money moving through society and stimulates the economy. Seeing as we are in the middle of a recession, I have to say that Gatto's forced school performing poorly, and assuming he is correct, why not pack in a few extra years of forced schooling? Maybe then the economy will get the boost it needs. This is not the only point he makes, but society has created school for a reason. Sometimes it prepares a person for his job and sometimes it does not. The fact that information is at the tips of our fingers is important. We are genetically designed to live without an education, so if nothing influences a person to pursue an education, that person will likely not pursue an education. (insert anecdote here) When I was a young lad, I wanted to learn how to hack into computers partially because i wanted to protect myself and partially because I was a devious fellow. After spending hours on the internet, however, I could find very little, (probably for a reason). That whole time I just wished that I could take a class that taught me that information quickly and easily. After manifesting more effort than any logical person could ever be expected to exert in one field, I came out with only a very basic knowledge of what I wanted to know. Some might argue that it was a lack of schooling that established such a curiosity, others might say that I do not fall under Gatto's argument. Now that I have rambled for long enough I will express my opinion in a few sentences. I believe that it is important to have schooling to teach basic skills and to serve as a form of advertising or, in a sense, to stimulate the interests of students, but I think that more advanced schooling should be performed out of one's own inspiration, which is already in effect, it is called college.