Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas - Hardcover

Sowell, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0029303303 ISBN 13: 9780029303306

Publisher: Free Press, 1992

Synopsis

An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Our educational establishment - a vast tax-supported empire existing quasi-independently within American society - is morally and intellectually bankrupt, charges distinguished economist and social critic Thomas Sowell. And in this top-to-bottom tour of the mismanaged institutions, cynical leadership, and tendentious programs of American education, Sowell exposes the numerous "deceptions and dogmas" that have concealed or sought to justify the steep and very dangerous decline in our educational standards and practices across the board. Among the more serious ills of American education are the technically sophisticated brainwashing techniques now being applied to children and teenagers in so-called "affective education" programs; the special "peace" and "nuclear" education programs that actively promote "politically correct" attitudes; the "values clarification" and sex education curricula that portray parental and religious authority figures as agents of a repressive and unjust social and political orthodoxy; and the racial "mini-establishments" created on college campuses by minority demagogues and complaisant administrators that enshrine a self-serving ideological double standard, thus betraying the real interests of minority students. Sowell's exhaustively researched investigation draws particular attention to the wide array of textbooks and other instructional materials, promoted with astonishing success by a multi-million dollar industry styling itself a "secular humanist" movement, which fosters these ideas - ideas that are not just anti-American, Sowell maintains, but essentially totalitarian in character. These sinister curricular developments, combined with often cowardly andirresponsible management more concerned about institutional image and ranking than with fiscal integrity or a commitment to educate our youth, will breed disaster unless immediate steps are taken to reform the entire educational system.

Synopsis:

Thomas Sowell argues that the educational establishment of the United States - a vast tax-supported empire existing quasi-independently within American society - is morally and intellectually bankrupt. He suggests in a top-to-bottom tour of the mismanaged insitutions, cynical leadership and tendentious programmes of American education, that "deceptions and dogmas" have concealed or sought to justify the steep and dangerous decline in educational standards and practices across the board.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0029303303
• ISBN 13: 9780029303306
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384