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"2. The essay must contain at minimum one relevant source and one actual quote from outside research supporting each of the following points you will discuss:
a) Is the Paskowitz philosophy of education a good responsible way to raise children?
b) Is John Gatto correct that the educational system in the US is producing people who are unable to think critically or fulfill their potential?
c) Is there any other example of what John Gatto talks about – people who achieved things at a very young age that we normally would consider impossible or unlikely?
d) What in your view is the best way to educate children?"

Schooling our students
Is there a “correct” way to educate children? I am a firm believer that every child is different and learns differently. In class rooms there are maximum 32 students learning alongside each other. Each student with different necessities as well as learning styles. Accompanying the 32 students is one teacher. Often times in class room’s students are weary of asking questions in front of their peers which leaves holes in their education. If there is a correct way to mesh both homeschooling and public schooling I would argue to say that splitting classes into smaller groups would be beneficial. It is less intimidating to ask a question in a small group than in a large group. Also, it would be beneficial if students weren’t forced to sit in a classroom 8-3pm. Instead students should be half the day inside learning and the other half of the day learning in another way that isn’t sitting in front of a teacher listening to them talk.
Surfewise was a raw documentary filled with radical ideas of raising children and teaching them everything they needed to know. In the film we learn about the “first surfing family”, the Paskowitz were anything but normal. The Paskowitz a family of 13 lived in a small camper and traveled all around the world living off of the land and learning from each other. In the documentary we learn that Dorian Paskowitz is a doctor who abandoned his practice to be with close with his family. When watching the film we learn of the hardships the children endured. While it was not normal hardships you would expect to hear they are still considered to be such. “Jonathan: I love doing dishes now. Just having the hot water running over your hands feels like such a blessing.” While living out of the camper the children washed the dishes in the sea so they weren’t accustomed to washing dishes how normal families do. Doctor Paskowitz and his wife did what was right by their standards, and there was nothing wrong with that in my belief.
Doctor Paskowitz wasn’t considered a smart man, in the film that was made about him and his family he was called “the dumbest doctor” when in truth he might have been one of the smartest doctors. In my view he was just blissfully ignorant with an incredible amount of potential. Paskowitz had previously been married two other times and finally found the love of his wife who produced eleven children who were for a while just filled with bliss and gullibility. His children were never placed in a school, the doctor and his wife, Juliette, didn’t really want to put the children in school. Their opinion was that school couldn’t teach the children what they had to offer. All eleven of the Paskowitz youngsters were subjected to tough diet fitness sexuality and most importantly surfing.
In the movie one of Paskowitz sons made a song describing him as the devil, in essence the son believes that his father took away everything that would have been possible for him even though he became a successful musician. Another son called his father a dictator, when one of his children was leaving the never ending road trip doctor Paskowitz would blame that child for the future of the others.
Dorian Paskowitz wasn’t wrong in not sending his children to school. He had radical views of learning and how to live but in essence the radicalness wasn’t there. Essentially he wanted to live how I want to, off of the grid no technology really, feeding off of the land and using everything that God provides for us. Though I share some views with Paskowitz I don’t share all of them. Paskowitz and his wife Juliette had loud intercourse in front of their children. How both of them saw this as anything remotely okay to do around children baffles me.
After reading through John Gatos paper of “against schooling” it became apparent to me why I had such hard time learning in school. As Gatto stated in his paper children get bored in school and don’t want to learn. He believes that when students get bored the teacher gets bored as well. While Gatto presents what is wrong with the education he does not offer a solution only because of the fact that the system is doing exactly what it should be in his belief. The current system in place is based upon the Prussian system. Which essentially makes us all robots, we don’t think for ourselves everyone just thinks what they are told to think is what Gatto believes. He writes that the system created guides us to not be smarter than those in charge. “We buy $150 sneakers whether we need them or not, and when they fall apart too soon we buy another pair” everything we like and we do is because we are told to do or like that thing. The only similarities that I can see in Gatto and Paskowitz is that they both think there is something better than the education system that is currently in place. Neither thinks that the system is broken or ruined so much as both believe there is something more out there then an 8 am- 3 pm class schedule locked inside of a building. Given the opportunity it is in my belief that Gatto would have not sent his children to school and instead would have taught them everything he could have possibly taught his children as did Paskowitz, only he would have gone about certain things differently.
Though I do not fully agree with neither Gatto nor Paskowitz I do see logic in both ideas. Paskowitz wanted nothing but the best for his children; in his eyes he was doing what was right. It may not have been normal or what I would have personally done but I do believe that teaching children everything that as a parent you could possibly know would be beneficial to children and society. Gatto pointed out flaws in the government system that created our education systems.
In schools, children are only taught a certain amount and for the most part taught just to pass tests. As a child I can remember being taught a large amount of information and thinking “how is this relevant to what I want out of life”. Later in high school teachers would say “just pass the test, that’s all you have to do”. I’ve learned more now that I am in college than I ever did in my younger school years. It is in my belief that I’ve only learned more now because of the fact that I am eager to learn now, I don’t have standardized test being shoved down my throat and being forced to learn stuff that is not relative to what I will be doing with my life.
Gatto said that there is no problem with the way schools are because, and only because of the fact that the school system is doing exactly what it is designed to do. Paskowitz says the school system is so messed up it is not worth sending your students to everyday, hence why he kept his children with him at all time and taught them the way of life by his standards. What if there was a happy median… I believe that going to school as a child can be socially beneficial and somewhat educationally beneficial. I think that if a student could be taught at home two or three days a week then the rest of the time the student could benefit from being in a classroom. I also think that if a student can’t be home schooled because the parent has a life style that can make homeschooling a challenge that a healthy alternative would be smaller class sizes.
The more one on one time a student has with an education provider the better. As an adult, I have worked with some middle school and elementary teachers who wish they could have some more time to focus on individual students rather than all of them together all of the time. The teachers often argue that it can be a negative impact to have their students working together all the time. Granted there can be a lot of good that comes out of students working together but then the student doesn’t necessarily think for themselves instead, they group think. Individuality is often buried beneath all of the school work. Creativity is out the door when text books give set guide lines on projects. My proposition on education is to split in school education and home education. Students can learn a lot from the outside world just as they can learn a lot from being with other students at school. Once we start evenly distributing the way we educate young adults the better off we will be. After all our children are the future and right now after reading “against school” and watching “surfwise” I do not feel confident in our future. The change should start now with our generation.
Cinemablend.com, (2014). Interview: The Paskowitz Family Of Surfwise. [online] Available at: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-The-Paskowitz-Family-Of-Surfwise-8782.html [Accessed 3 May. 2014].
Hslda.org, (2014). HSLDA | Homeschooling Grows Up. [online] Available at: http://www.hslda.org/research/ray2003/default.asp [Accessed 8 May. 2014].
Wesjones.com, (2014). Against School - John Taylor Gatto. [online] Available at: http://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm [Accessed 1 May. 2014].

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1. There are not MLA citations, they are URL addresses.
2. #1 is not research, it is a link to the page for the film.
3. Source for quote. Format according to proper citation form, easily available at the "OWL" website I provided on Eagle Online.

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Explain your point in saying this.

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not English grammar

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This is a description of the film and should be in paragraph 2.

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What's missing: you haven't said whether you agree with the filmmakers that the lying was wrong, and why you agree. Just proving that they lied doesn't mean the lying was unjustified. Why do you think the government was lying? What int he film makes you think that? Why was that not okay?

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I'm not sure what in the film tells you that this is why the government was lying.

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although the way you explain this is unclear, I get that you are using it as an example of how a person of the time thought. That's good and relevant.