Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110396 in Books
• Published on: 1992-11-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

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.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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.
- A.R. Huggins, Memphis State Univ. Libs., Tenn.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Calm, Compelling, and Credible!
Sowell begins citing not only the well-known international pupil achievement comparisons, but also a comparison between top science-scoring 13-year-old Korean pupils vs. bottom-scoring Americans at varying levels of reasoning. American performance on "everyday facts" was nearly as good as the Koreans; however, as the level of analysis was raised, our pupils fell further and further behind. Ironically, American pupils thought much more highly of their performance than did the Koreans.

Sowell also rebuts the allegation that test scores have declined because of lowered dropout rates, pointing out that scores have declined at the top - more than 116,000 were above 600 on the verbal SAT in '72, but less than 71,000 ten years later. Further, virtually all 13-year-olds are still in school in the nations compared, and Japan has an even higher proportion of graduates. Finally, Sowell also cites a Rand study comparing unselected youngsters placed in Catholic schools (tuition paid for by others) - they did significantly better than their peers remaining in the public schools.

Refutation of Typical Explanations: Japan averages 41 students/class, vs. 26 in the U.S.; in mathematics the disparity is even greater - 43 vs. 20. American elementary and secondary pupils receive more educational expenditures than most Western Europeans, more than in Canada, and over 50% more than those in Japan or Australia. Inner-city pupils are not to blame - their performance is increasing. "We are turning out some of the most expensive incompetents anywhere."

At the college level, professors have taught fewer and fewer classes, while expenditures have increased. In the 1940s a typical college professor spent 15 hours/week in the classroom. Today 35% of faculty teach undergrads no more than 4 hours/week; at research universities its 51%. Total time spent on duties related to instruction averages about 15 hours/week among faculty at research universities. (Sowell should also have mentioned in the same context that much of their pay also comes from research sources.) During a recent span at MIT, 3 out of 4 nontenured recipients of eg. "teacher-of-the-year" awards were denied tenure due to lack of publication.

Public school teachers consistently are at or near the bottom in achievement test scores. Further, there is no evidence that teachers having college education degrees do better at teaching.

Sowell then complains about brainwashing, cultural relativism, and bilingualism in the public schools, as well as racial admission preferences, political correctness in the colleges and universities. He also points out that college admissions offices usually cite the SAT of those accepted, not that of those actually enrolled, and also often omit scores of those admitted under special provisions - eg. athletes, minorities.

An NCAA survey found that the vast majority of athletic programs lose money. Division I-A basketball players spend 50 hours/week on their sport, and 60 for football. Athletes, not surprisingly, also have lower graduation rates, take phony courses, and have "special advisers."

In some states the local NEA and AFT affiliates contribute more donations than all other political organizations in the state, combined.

Sowell's Recommendations: Greater competition among schools, less faculty involvement in peripheral issues (eg. ROTC presence), and breaking the monopoly on teacher supply held by colleges of education.

The lack of American education is scary
Millionaire in 365 Days: The Daily Plan to Get There

Wow....what an education I got from this book...The book begs the title, "WHAT AMERICAN EDUCATION?".....this is a necessary read to know what is really happening in the educational system....and maybe you can become mad enough to go to your Board of education meetings and scream....!

still relevant, alas
You might think that a book published so long ago (1992) would be out of date by this time. The sad fact is that all the problems discussed in this book are not only still around, but have gotten worse. And the people who are causing the problems are even more sure that they are right.

The second chapter deals with schoolteacher incompetence and some of its causes. The next chapter deals with schoolroom procedures, more familiarly known as brainwashing. This long chapter gives the details on how it is done and what content is being pushed, including anti-Americanism. The fourth chapter discusses current dogmas (multiculturalism, sensitivity, racism) as well as various kinds of "psychobabble".

Part II deals with universities, beginning with a chapter on the problems of Admissions. Chapter 6 deals with the reverse racism involved in college admissions and its resulting "new racism:" i.e. the emergence of racism among college students, traditionally the supporters of civil rights. (Sowell does not seem to connect the fact that reverse racism is inimical to civil rights.) Nonetheless, it's a good, thorough chapter on the problem. Chapter 7 deals with the bias of colleges: doing everything to permit and protect the Ideology, doing nothing to protect those who question the Ideology.

A more thorough and recent exposition of exactly what the New Ideology is and how it is supporting and promoting some of the most dire threats in our nation's history can be found in the book While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within. It will be seen there that indoctrination underlies every major problem that we are having today, and indoctrination insures that these problems will not be solved.