In Against Schooling, Stanley Aronowitz passionately raises an alarm about the current state of education in our country. Discipline and control over students, Aronowitz argues, are now the primary criteria of success, and genuine learning is sacrificed to a new educational militarism. In an age where school districts have imposed testing, teachers must teach to test, and both teacher and student are robbed of their autonomy and creativity. The crisis extends to higher education, where all but a few elite institutions are becoming increasingly narrowly focused and vocational in their teaching. With education lacking opportunity for self-reflection on broad social and historical dynamics, Against Schooling asks How will society be able to solve its most pressing problems? Aronowitz proposes innovative approaches to get schools back on track.
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To say that Stanley Aronowitz is a national treasure is an understatement. Against Schooling is vintage Aronowitz. Against Schooling makes a brilliant and impassioned argument for the necessity of creating new knowledges and social and cultural practices that do not repeat the privileging hierarchies of previous generations but enable individuals to become global as well as national citizens who refuse to accept the current regime of educational degradation. Aronowitz s call for a protagonistic effort to bring teachers in higher education together with elementary and secondary school faculty in a common fight is one that we must take seriously if we want to save not only our schools but the very fabric of our social universe. --Peter McLaren, UCLA
About the Author
Stanley Aronowitz is Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author most recently of The Knowledge Factory (Beacon 2000) and How Class Works (Yale University Press 2003). The Green Party candidate for New York governor in 2002, he has also been a contributor to The Nation, The Village Voice, and New Politics.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
timely and important,
This review is from: Against Schooling: For an Education That Matters (The Radical Imagination) (Paperback)
stanley aronowitz's new book is a strong and timely critique and analysis of the rush to "standards" and standardization in education. the author puts the regressive movement in education in the current political, social context in a clear and comprehensive way. for educators, oarents, and just about anyone concerned with our future.
4.0 out of 5 stars
ambitious, dense, and brilliant on the predicament of educators and the history of unions,
By Stephamm "Stephanie Barbe Hammer" (LA and Riverside, CA and Whidbey Island WA,USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Against Schooling: For an Education That Matters (The Radical Imagination) (Paperback)
Against Schooling builds on the arguments articulated in Aronowitz's clear, and user friendly previous book THE KNOWLEDGE FACTORY. If you don't know that book, I would recommend reading it first in order to get a clear picture of Aronowitz's perspective and in order to get a helpful overview of the 20th Century history of US colleges and universities.
The present volume is more theoretically ambitious, denser, and at times more disjointed. However, the analysis of the current (early 21st Century) set of predicaments facing college faculty is convincing and devastating, and Aronowitz diagnoses the problems of the liberal/left in the academy with precision and sympathy. He makes a few very helpful suggestions as to what one might do to break through the impasse. Likewise, his discussion of the history of labor unions is helpful and well-written. I also appreciated the discussion of Gramsci's views of education -- of which I was unaware. The book ends a bit curiously -- with what feels like a separate essay on Paulo Freire. But all in all, it's a very fine book, and to my mind, no one really understands what is happening at the university better than Aronowitz. And to his credit, he's not willing to just sit around and bemoan the sorry state of things. Whether or not you share his political views, you'll be hard pressed to deny his analysis of the US economy, the job market, and how these matters are connected inextricably to college and how it works and what it teaches. Try it out. But be sure to read the Knowledge Factory first.
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