Noam Chomsky's Critique of the Modern Education System

Introduction

Noam Chomsky, a renowned linguist, philosopher, political critic, and activist, has offered extensive insights into the role and function of education in modern society. This article examines Chomsky's critique of the educational system, emphasizing its alleged antidemocratic tendencies and its role in perpetuating social inequalities. It will delve into his views on how education should foster critical thinking and independence, contrasting it with what he sees as the prevailing model of indoctrination and control.

The Enlightenment Ideal vs. Modern Reality

Chomsky defines education in an Enlightenment sense, where the "highest goal in life is to inquire and create," and the purpose of education is to help people learn on their own. He contrasts this with indoctrination, where young people are placed into a framework where they follow orders. This imposition of conformity, he argues, is the antithesis of Enlightenment ideals. Throughout the modern period, beginning with the Enlightenment, education was widely regarded as the most important asset for building a decent society. However, the actual state of education has both positive and negative elements.

Education as a Tool for Democracy

An educated public is a prerequisite for a functioning democracy, where "educated" means not just informed but enabled to inquire freely and productively, the primary end of education. Chomsky views John Dewey as a critical figure advocating for democratic education and active participation in learning, emphasizing Dewey’s belief that education should foster critical thinking and worker control over industry.

The Propaganda Framework

Chomsky illustrates that schools and media operate within a propaganda framework that distorts critical engagement with reality. He highlights that both institutions promote a superficial understanding of democracy, ultimately serving elite control over public consciousness.

Market-Driven Education

Much of what prevails in today’s world is market-driven education, which is actually destroying public values and undermining the culture of democracy with its emphasis on competition, privatization and profit-making. These market-driven education tendencies should be regarded as part of the general neoliberal assault on the public. The business model seeks “efficiency,” which means imposing “flexibility of labor” and what Alan Greenspan hailed as “growing worker insecurity”.

Examples of Market-Driven Education

In the State of Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker and other reactionaries have been attempting to undermine what was once the great University of Wisconsin, changing it to an institution that will serve the needs of the business community of Wisconsin, while also cutting the budget and increasing reliance on temporary staff (“flexibility”). At one point the state government even wanted to change the traditional mission of the university, deleting the commitment to “seeking truth” - a waste of time for an institution producing people who will be useful for Wisconsin businesses. Stefan Collini concluded that the Tory government is attempting to turn first-class universities into third-class commercial institutions. For example, the Classics Department at Oxford will have to prove that it can sell itself on the market. If there is no market demand, why should people study and investigate classical Greek literature?

The Erosion of Public Values

Chomsky argues that market-driven education undermines the culture of democracy by emphasizing competition, privatization, and profit-making. This approach, he believes, is part of a broader neoliberal assault on the public sphere, prioritizing the needs of the business community over the development of critical and engaged citizens.

The Role of Technology in Education

Chomsky views technology as "basically neutral," like a hammer that can build a house or "crush someone's skull." The difference is the frame of reference under which one uses the tool. He goes on to discuss the technological changes in education occurring now, the focus of innumerable discussions and debates about not only the purpose of education, but also the proper methods, including the current unease over the shift to online over traditional classroom education or the value of a traditional degree versus a certificate.

Indoctrination and Control

Chomsky contends that modern education systems are designed to impose obedience and passivity, preventing people from being independent and creative. He points to the emphasis on vocational training, which equips students with generic, transferable, menial skills that make them perfect workplace fodder, and the "teach-to-test" approach, which discourages critical thinking and questioning. The vocational subjects now, for example BTECs, equip kids with generic, transferable, menial skills that will make them perfect workplace fodder. On a course like this, in science say, you would be asked to design a powerpoint on the Periodic Table, but not ever have to learn anything about the Periodic Table. Or perhaps you would make a poster about Radiation, but not have to ever know anything about it.

Student Debt as a Tool for Indoctrination

Chomsky suggests that skyrocketing student debt is a device of indoctrination, trapping students into a life of conformity. He notes that countries with excellent educational systems, such as Finland and Germany, offer free education, and that the United States in the 1950s was able to provide virtually free education despite being a much poorer country.

The Impact on Teachers

Teachers are turning into adjuncts, temporary workers who have no rights. The more you can get the graduate students, temporary workers, two-tier payment, the more people you have under control - and all of that’s been going on. And now it’s institutionalized with No Child Left Behind/Race to the Top; teach to the test - worst possible way of teaching. But it is a disciplinary technique.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

ALEC is corporate funded, the Koch brothers and those guys. It’s an organization which designs legislation for states, for state legislators. Now they have a new program, which sounds very pretty on the surface. It’s designed to increase “critical thinking.” And the way you increase critical thinking is by having “balanced education.” “Balanced education” means that if you teach kids something about the climate, you also have to teach them climate change denial. All of this is a way of turning the population into a bunch of imbeciles.

The Importance of Critical Thinking

Chomsky asserts that the ideology of neutrality in education encourages passivity and undermines critical inquiry. He emphasizes the need for education to foster the impulse to challenge authority, think critically, and create alternatives to well-worn models. Free higher education could be instituted without major difficulties, but neoliberalism is standing in the way.

Adam Smith and the Division of Labor

Adam Smith is very well known for his advocacy of division of labor. Chomsky points out that not many people get to the point hundreds of pages later, where he says that division of labor will destroy human beings and turn people into creatures as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human being to be.

Classical Liberalism and Libertarian Socialism

The founders of classical liberalism, people like Adam Smith and Wilhelm von Humboldt, who is one of the great exponents of classical liberalism, and who inspired John Stuart Mill - they were what we would call libertarian socialists, at least that ïs the way Chomsky reads them. Humboldt says if a craftsman builds something under external coercion, like pay, for wages, we may admire what he does but we despise what he is. On the other hand, if he does it out of his own free, creative expression of himself, under free will, not under external coercion of wage labor, then we also admire what he is because he’s a human being.

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The Development of Corporations

Originally, corporations existed as a public service. People would get together to build a bridge and they would be incorporated for that purpose by the state. They built the bridge and that’s it. They were supposed to have a public interest function. Well into the 1870s, states were removing corporate charters. They were granted by the state. They didn’t have any other authority. They were fictions. They were removing corporate charters because they weren’t serving a public function. It wasn’t until the early twentieth century that courts and lawyers designed a new socioeconomic system. It was never done by legislation. It was done mostly by courts and lawyers and the power they could exercise over individual states. New Jersey was the first state to offer corporations any right they wanted. Of course, all the capital in the country suddenly started to flow to New Jersey, for obvious reasons. Then the other states had to do the same thing just to defend themselves or be wiped out. It’s kind of a small-scale globalization. Then the courts and the corporate lawyers came along and created a whole new body of doctrine which gave corporations authority and power that they never had before.

A Vision for Education

Chomsky describes the school he attended as a child, which was run on Deweyite lines, as an example of a successful educational environment. He emphasizes the importance of encouraging students to do what they like to do, fostering cooperative work and projects, and promoting study and challenging questions. He suggests that education should not be about ranking students or imposing grades, but about providing information and encouraging creativity.

Mosquitoes, Rain, and Scientific Inquiry

One program starts by asking the question, “How can mosquitoes fly in the rain?” And then, but why is there a problem? So how come they don’t get smashed to pieces? And what makes them stay up? And then a million other questions come. You start looking into these questions. You start learning physics, biology, all kinds of things. And there are things that the students can do so that they can ask questions, and pursue them, and do experiments and so on.

Seeds, Embryos, and the Joy of Discovery

In one kindergarten program, the kids were given dishes which had in them a bunch of objects and pebbles, shells, seeds and others. They had a problem, which was to figure out which ones were the seeds. So they had a scientific conference, and kids get together and figure out ways, things you can try. Teacher is in the background guiding it, but mostly independent. Finally, they figured out what the seeds were. At that point, each kid was given a magnifying glass and the teacher opened the seeds and took a look inside. They could find the embryo that makes it grow. Those kids not only learned some biology; they also learned that it’s fun to understand things and to discover things.

Combating Apathy and Indoctrination

Chomsky notes that even in affluent suburban high schools with ample resources, apathy and indoctrination can be prevalent. He emphasizes that it is possible to create schools with programs that promote critical thinking and creativity in all areas of study, but that this requires teachers to have control over what they are doing and to be respected for their expertise.

Teacher Control vs. Administrative Control

Chomsky views the destruction of teachers’ control of the classroom as analogous to the loss of worker control on the shop floor. He argues that control from above, control by the administrators, and a lack of respect for the working person, whether it’s a teacher or machinist, are detrimental to the educational process.

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