A great clip from an old talk by Noam Chomsky wherein he answers a question about the role and nature of education:
I'd maybe quibble with some of the details of what he says -- I think his characterization of Japanese society is too monolithic and a bit orientalist, for instance. But his basic points about education are bang on.
(Found via radio free school.)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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2 comments:
Hi Scott - yeah, I cringed at the thing about Japan, but the trajectory on schooling was fairly on target. My experience with schooling was that they weren't able to fully subdue my personality - I swear, from my early report cards, I still "get carried away with a silly idea" etc, to this day. A natural rebel, I was...
Hey Randy. Good to hear that schooling didn't squelch the rebel in you! Actually, that's one of my other quibbles with Chomsky's stuff on education and on the media...the way he presents things often doesn't leave enough space to talk about the ways in which structures are not just absolute but have their impact on individuals mediated by how individuals take them up...in other words, survival and resistance are possible. I know he'd not only admit that but applaud it when asked, but the place he starts from often doesn't make that space for survival and resistance very visible.
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