Getting Schooled

Getting Schooled” by Garret Keizer

            Garret Keizer, critically claimed American author and essayist, has also taught English at a public high school in Orleans, Vermont. In, “Getting Schooled” Keizer describes his experience returning to teaching at a high school from which he had taken a fourteen-year hiatus. While Keizer describes his return as pleasant, he cannot deny that much has changed in the fourteen years he has been gone. Throughout the essay, Keizer explains to his readers, the average educated American familiar with the education system, these changes through the comparative rhetorical strategies.

            Keizer mainly communicates the differences between his past and present school experiences through the point-by-point comparative technique. In this fashion he introduces each point, and then recalls how it differs, or remains the same. However, Keizer’s essay does not make the reader “sea sick” as one might expect from an entire essay of point-by-point comparison. He also utilizes exemplification, adding length to each point, and making the differences clearer.

            For example, he notes that technology has been introduced into almost every aspect of learning, and is able to provide countless examples. He writes, “The library looks like a NASA control center… The proverbial dog who ate the homework is now a flash drive. Smoking in the boys’ room is now texting in the boys’ room…” (180). Technology has overwhelming changed school life. Keizer is able to effectively demonstrate this to his reader because, having seen the development of technology, can relate to these examples. Keizer also notes that teachers are more involved in giving kids extra help to succeed, and that students’ attitudes are changing as well.

            All in all, Keizer successfully contrasts past and present teaching experiences. Through point-by-point comparison and exemplification he creates a compelling narrative with interesting commentary on the “twenty-first century” school.  Students, he explains, have evolved into primarily social creatures, turning school into a “social democracy”. What this means for the teacher as an artisan, Keizer isn’t sure, but what he can say for sure is that “kids are kids”. That’s one thing that hasn’t change, and never will.

The twenty-first century classroom

N.d. Photograph. Edudemic. Edudemic, 30 Nov. 2011. Web. 4 Aug. 2013. <http://www.edudemic.com/2011/11/technology-transform/>.