by Thomas Sowell (Author)



Editorial Reviews

From 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.

From 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.

Product Details

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Free Press (March 14, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743254082