Inside American Education by Thomas Sowell

From the Publisher

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 and irresponsible 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.

Publishers Weekly

The American educational system, from grade school to grad school, is bankrupt, teachers are incompetent and schools cause social maladjustment, moral confusion and alienation, according to this blistering indictment by Sowell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is critical of values education and ethnic studies, claiming that they brainwash students. His critiques of ``research barons,'' athletic scholarships and their toll on black athletes, education fads and academia's publish-or-perish syndrome are well reasoned. But he often goes wildly askew, as when he argues that sex education causes teen pregnancy, or that dependence on federal funds causes hardship to schools, which often waste resources in their attempt to avoid any suggestion of racial discrimination. And certain of Sowell's solutions, such as discontinuing the tenure system, smack of abridgement of academic freedom. (Jan.)

Library Journal

``The purpose of education is to give the student the intellectual tools to analyze, whether verbally or numerically, and to reach conclusions based on logic and evidence.'' With these words begins a treatise on the failure of American education--elementary, secondary, and college levels--to prepare today's students for the future. Among the many causes of this failure are the poor intellectual capabilities of elementary and secondary school teachers; the politicizing of education, especially the emphasis on world-saving agendas; the affective approach to curriculum (striving to reshape the attitudes of students); and the presence of ``assorted dogmas,'' including multicultural diversity, relevance, and educating the whole person. All these causes and more are clearly discussed, with some frightening true-life examples, to illustrate that students aren't learning the basics because the basics aren't being taught. Recommended for public libraries.-- A.R. Huggins, Memphis State Univ. Libs., Tenn.

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Table of Contents