Inside American Education [Paperback]

Thomas Sowell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2003

An indictment of the American educational system criticizes the fact that the system has discarded the traditional goals of transmitting knowledge and fostering cognitive skills in favor of building self-esteem and promoting social harmony.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (March 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743254082
• ISBN-13: 978-0743254083
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #604,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Sowell has taught economics at Cornell, UCLA, Amherst and other academic institutions, and his Basic Economics has been translated into six languages. He is currently a scholar in residence at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has published in both academic journals in such popular media as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes magazine and Fortune, and writes a syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

142 of 146 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do your kids a favor - read this book!, January 18, 2000

By 

Harold Brewer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside American Education (Hardcover)

Thomas Sowell discusses American Education from pre-K's to graduate schools; the students, faculties, and administrations; and the financing, politics, and self-serving policies thereof. In 51 pages of notes, he supplies 1050 individual citations supporting his views and conclusions. His 11-page Index reveals some major themes by the number of pages on which each is discussed -- Brainwashing and Psychological Conditioning (50 pp.), Harvard (52 pp.), and Political Correctness (55 pp.).

Dr. Sowell grew up in Harlem during the 1930's and 1940's. He graduated from Harvard College (A.B. magna cum laude 1958), Columbia University (A.M. 1959), and University of Chicago (Ph.D. 1968) - all degrees being in Economics. With the quality of his education and particularly with his race, given the politics of the past half century, one might expect him to end up as a prominent bauble on some elitist university's faculty tree. Such was not the case. He displayed much too much independence of mind to be safely tucked into anybody's pocket. We learn on page 141 that as early as 1970, "a black professor named Thomas Sowell" warned against programs become too great to disguise, or to hide under euphemisms and apologetics, the conclusion that will be drawn in many quarters will not be that these were half-baked schemes, but that black people just don't have it." Dr. Sowell moved through organizations (U.S. Dept. of Labor, AT&T, The Urban Institute) and universities (Howard, Cornell, Brandeis, UCLA, Amherst). Since 1980, he has been a Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, California.

The reason for looking at Dr. Sowell and his background so carefully is that he makes many bold statements in his book, Inside American Education. "The brutal reality is that the American system of education is bankrupt." " . . . the intellectual calibre of public school teachers in the United States is shockingly low." "Parents who send their children to school with instructions to respect and obey their teachers may be surprised to discover how often these children are sent back home conditioned to disrespect and disobey their parents." Should we listen to a person who says such things? I believe so. Dr. Sowell has been educated in our best schools back before it was de rigueur to have quotas. He has shown an independence of mind to withstand the blandishments of comfortable conformity. He has operated at the top intellectual realms of our country. He has the credentials to make the statements that he does. To decide for yourself, you will have to read the book for his detailed arguments in their favor, because they are far too extensive to cover in a review.

This book may make you paranoid about your children in our schools. You may wish to become more involved with what your children are being taught and who is doing the teaching. You may wish to become a "bigger presence" in the lives of your children by moving them up in your priorities. Time for panic? No. Any system that can produce a Thomas Sowell and allow him the freedom to speak out must have some very great strengths. But . . . read the book.

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for anyone with kids and a clear concience, January 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Inside American Education (Hardcover)

I read this book for the first time in 1993. Being a college professor for many years now, I knew there was something wrong with the American Educational System. Sowell stated it plainly. I am now a father of two and am facing the decision of how to educate my children (home, private school, public school, or charter school -- if it ever happens --). As Sowell states the American educational system is bankrupt. The definition of quality education is nebulous at best. Powerful teacher unions and other interest groups mess with our children's minds and produce intellectually lazy graduates: people who know quite a bit about self-granted rights and everyone else's obligations but little about personal obligations, responsibility, and logical and productive thinking. Anyone with school-age children should read this book before deciding which school is best for his/her children.

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A detailed summary of problems in American Education, September 3, 2004

By 

Henry Cate III (CA. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inside American Education (Hardcover)

Wow, what a book. This is an amazing attack on the public education system. Almost everything is explored, how teachers teach, what teachers teach, the kind of people attracted to education, all the politics of education, how much money is spent on education, and on, and on, and on.

The first hundred pages focus on the first thirteen years of schooling, from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The rest of the book explores just how many problems there are in colleges and universities.

The first chapter, "Decline, Deception, and Dogmas," opens the book with Thomas Sowell reviewing just how bad the public education system has gotten. Students are not being taught the basics, and are being brain washed. Much of the particular details Sowell explores fall into one or both of these categories. There has been a marked decline in learning, with a parallel dramatic increase in A's and B's. Thomas Sowell says part of the reason for the grade inflation is so parents feel good about their children and don't realize the children are not learning anything. Students are being taught to feel good about themselves, even when they are learning very little. American students are failing in both rote learning and in problem solving. One of my favorite lines went something like: "Johnny can't read. Johnny can't think. And Johnny doesn't even know what thinking is." Students often confuse thinking with feelings.

Thomas Sowell covers how the public education system has five basic responses to criticism: secrecy, camouflage, denial, shift the blame, and then ask for more money. States which spend more money per capita don't do better

The third chapter, "Classroom Brainwashing," is about how so many groups are trying to use the public school system to influence and even control how children think, so little time is left to be spent on teaching the children the basics and how to think. Most of these groups have different agendas, but all of them work at separating the individual from his family. Thomas Sowell talks about a number of the different type of brainwashing techniques used in the classroom.

After four chapters on K-12, the book moves on to problems in colleges and universities. There are a scary number of problems.

After reading this the first time I went out and bought three more copies to loan to friends. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in the current state of public education in America. It is well written and well documented. In many ways it is sad, this was written back in 1992, and if anything things have gotten worse.