Chomsky The Purpose of Education
https://authenticaesl.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/noam-chomsky-the-purpose-of-education-2158min/
Transcription:
oam Chomsky – The Purpose of Education – Part One
1 [00:39] Well, we can ask ourselves what the purpose of an educational system is.
2 And of course, there are sharp differences on this matter.
3 There’s the traditional, an interpretation that comes from the Enlightenment, which holds that [01:00] the highest goal in life is to inquire and create;
4 To search the riches of the past;
5 Try to internalize the parts of them that are significant to you;
6 Carry that quest for understanding further in your own way.
7 The purpose of education from that point of view is just to help people [01:30] determine how to learn on their own.
8 It’s you, the learner, who is going to achieve in the course of education and it’s really up to you what you’ll ...
9 What you’ll master or where you’ll go;
10 How you’ll use it;
11 How you’ll go on to produce something new and exciting for yourself, maybe for others.
12 That’s one concept of education.
13 [02:00] Now the other concept is essentially indoctrination.
14 People have the idea that from childhood, young people have to be placed into a framework in which they’ll follow orders, accept existing frameworks and not challenge, and so on.
15 And this is often quite explicit.
16 And so, for example, after the [02:30] activism of the 1960s, there was great concern across much of the educated spectrum that young people were just getting too free and independent;
17 That the country was becoming too democratic, and so on.
18 And in fact, there’s an important study on what’s called the crisis of democracy and too much democracy, [03:00] arguing that there are—claiming that there are certain institutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young.
19 That’s their phrase.
20 And they’re not doing their job properly;
21 That schools, universities, churches, we have to change them so that they carry out the job of indoctrination and control more effectively.
22 That’s actually coming from the liberal internationalist end of the spectrum—of the [03:30] spectrum of educated opinion.
23 And in fact, since that time, there have been many measures taken to try to turn the educational system towards more control, more indoctrination, more vocational training;
24 Imposing a debt which traps students, young people, into a life of conformity, and so on.
25 That’s, you know, the exact opposite of the—of what I referred to [04:00] as the(?)—tradition that comes out of the Enlightenment.
26 And there’s a constant struggle between those in the colleges, in the schools.
27 And in the schools, do you train for passing tests or do you train for creative inquiry?
28 Pursuing interests that are aroused by material that’s presented that you want to pursue either on your own or in cooperation with others.
29 And this goes all the way through [04:30] up to, you know, graduate school and research.
30 It’s just two different ways of looking at the world.
31 When you get to a, say, a research institution like the one we’re now in at the graduate level, it essentially follows the Enlightenment tradition.
32 In fact, science and—it couldn’t progress unless it was based on inculcation of the [05:00] urge to challenge;
33 To question doctrine, question authority, search for alternatives, use your imagination, act freely under your own impulses.
34 Cooperative work with others is constant, as you can see just by walking down the halls.
35 That’s my view of what an educational system should be like down to kindergarten.
[CONTINUED IN PART TWO]
Noam Chomsky – The Purpose of Education – Part Two
1 [05:30] But there’s—there certainly are powerful structures in the society which would prefer people to be indoctrinated;
2 Conform, not ask too many questions, be obedient, fulfill the roles that are assigned to you, and don’t try to shake systems of power and authority.
3 Those are choices we have to make either as people that—wherever we stand [06:00] in the educational system as students, as teachers;
4 As people on the outside trying to help shake it in the directions in which we think it ought to go.
5 Well, there certainly has been a very substantial growth in new technology, technology of [06:30] communication, information, access interchange.
6 It’s surely a major change in the nature of the culture and society.
7 It’s—we should bear in mind that the technological changes that are taking place now, while they’re significant and probably come nowhere near having as much impact of technological advances of, say, a century ago, plus or minus.
8 [07:00] So the shift, say, let’s take just communication.
9 The shift from a typewriter to a computer or a telephone to the email is significant, but it doesn’t begin to compare with the shift from a sailing vessel to a telegraph.
10 And the time that that cut down in communication between, say, England and the United States was extraordinary [07:30] as compared with the changes taking place now.
11 And the same is true of other kinds of technology, like just introduction of, say, plumbing.
12 Widespread plumbing in the cities had a huge effect on health, much more than the discovery of antibiotics.
13 So the changes are real and significant, but we should recognize that others have taken place which in many ways were more dramatic.
14 The—as far as the technology itself and education is concerned, [08:00] technology is basically neutral.
15 It’s kind of like a hammer.
16 I mean, you can—the hammer doesn’t care whether you use it to build a house or whether a torturer uses it to crush somebody’s skull;
17 A hammer can do either.
18 The same with the modern technology; say, the Internet, and so on.
19 The Internet is extremely valuable if you know what you’re looking for.
20 I mean(?), I use it all the time for research.
21 [08:30] I’m sure everyone does.
22 If you know the kind of—what you’re looking for, you have a kind of a framework of understanding which directs you to particular things;
23 Lets you sideline lots of others.
24 Then this can be a very valuable tool.
25 Of course, you always have to be willing to ask, “Is my framework the right one?”
26 “Maybe I ought to modify it.”
27 “Maybe if there’s(?) something I look at that questions it, I should rethink how I’m looking at things.”
28 But you can’t [09:00] pursue any kind of inquiry without a pretty relatively clear framework that’s directing your search and helping you choose what’s significant and what isn’t;
29 What can be put aside, what ought to be pursued;
30 What ought to be challenged;
31 What ought to be developed, and so on.
32 I mean, you can’t expect somebody to become a biologist, say, by [09:30] giving them access to the Harvard University Biology Library.
33 And say, “Just look through it.”
34 That will give them nothing.
35 And the Internet is the same except magnified enormously.
36 If you don’t understand or(?) know what you’re looking for;
37 If you don’t have some kind of a conception of what matters;
38 Always, of course, with the proviso that you’re willing to question it if it seems to be going in the wrong direction.
39 [10:00] But(?) if you don’t have that, exploring the Internet is just picking out random factoids that don’t mean anything.
40 So behind any significant use of contemporary technology;
41 The Internet, communication systems, what—graphics, whatever it may be;
42 Behind—unless behind it is some well-constructed [10:30] directive, conceptual apparatus, it is very unlikely to be helpful.
43 It may turn out to be harmful.
[END OF RECORDING – 10:41]