Noam Chomsky on Education

An excellent morning to think about education and its purpose; to that end, a video from Noam Chomsky:

Two competing philosophies.

From the Enlightenment:  "The highest goal in life is to inquire and create, to search the riches of the past."

From our current system of education, indoctrination: "From childhood, young people have to be placed in a framework, accept existing frameworks, not challenge..."

Chomsky goes on to say that

"There have been many measures taken to try to turn the educational system towards more control, more indoctrination, more vocational training, imposing a debt, which traps students and young people into a life of conformity… That’s the exact opposite of [what] traditionally comes out of The Enlightenment. And there’s a constant struggle between those. In the colleges, in the schools, do you train for passing tests, or do you train for creative inquiry?”

An excellent, brief video worth looking at. We have moved in our history from questioning everything to questioning nothing, from exploring the depth and breadth of knowledge to skimming across the surface. We are reliant on technology and allow it to shape us as its tool instead of the reverse.

"Shape the systems of power and authority." It's time.