Customer Reviews

Inside American Education

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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.

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.

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.

Thomas Sowell deftly points out the real problem - not that you may disagree with the morals and values being taught in American public schools, but that these have any business being taught at all when the time could more usefully be spent on education. He dispells other myths such as learning should be "fun" and "relevant" and the notion that elementary school age children have the ability to realistically analyze complex and controversial political issues ("Dear Mr. President, please don't make anymore nuclear bombs...").

This book has provided the impetus for me to purposely frustrate, bore and challenge my children because as Mr. Sowell points out what we knew all along, real self esteem comes from accomplishing something which was not easy.

Even if you plan on sending your children to private school, I recommend this book. The teachers are all coming from the same colleges and universities.

This insightful book exposes many institutional problems in the American education system, and describes why they are so difficult to overcome.

With relentless logic (and endless source refereces), he demolishes the lame excuses educators give for the lackluster results our schools produce. He shows that schools focus on abstract "goals" and "intentions" while ignoring incentives and the often disasterous consequences of the many faddish programs our kids are subjected to.

This book is a real eyeopener. While you may disagree with much of what he says, you cannot help but be impressed with his scholarship and consistent thinking. At the very least, you will begin to look at the efforts of your local schoolboard with an informed and much more critical eye.

This appears to be the first truly honest and comprehensive appraisal of America's education system by an informed educator with no axe to grind. It is also an extraordinary indictment of that system from top to bottom and beginning to end.

Having older children, however, my primary focus in reading the book was on higher education and the impact to be expected from America's "Affirmative Action Program" on their continuing education. In this regard, I was particularly struck by Dr. Sowell's insight into and understanding of the latter program and its consequences; especially since an iron curtain of secrecy appears to surround the program's implementation and its results. Based upon Dr. Sowell's assessment, the program is an abject failure, not only for the majority of those shoe-horned into college, but also for those minorities who are honestly admitted, for those denied consideration for admission, and for the nation at large.

As always Dr. Sowell's analyses and assessments are incisive and backed by facts, figures, and supporting data. In this work, he has chipped away at the deceptions and evasions until the truth is finally revealed. This book should be read by parents of children of all ages as well as by those planning to or about to become parents. After reading it, parents will at least know what they and their children are up against and can then decide for themselves how best to proceed with their children's education.

This is one of the best-written and most thoroughly documented books on the state of public education in America, from kindergarten to graduate school. I would recommend this book to people on either side of the education debates today, because it is a landmark work, thoroughly engaging, and will probably be in the library of many of the critics of the status quo in public education. For that reason alone, it would be good reading for SUPPORTERS of the status quo, so that they might be better prepared to engage their philosophical opponents on level ground. Dr. Sowell's conclusions may not be entirely optimistic, but his evidence is voluminous, thoroughly footnoted, and eminently readable

Years ago, when I first read this book, it seemed overstated and strident. Now that my own children have been in school for some years, this book seems understated and overly charitable.

Read this book. If it reads like a polemic, put the book down and spend some time volunteering at your local public school. Get to know and understand the children having problems. Read up on their problems and on the known methods for addressing these problems. Suggest to the school administration that their problems be addressed using proven methods. Offer to pay any costs out of your own pocket, if cost is an issue. Note their reaction, in particular, note whether or not your suggestion is implemented in a way that actually helps the child.

Then re-read the book. Odds are that it will no longer read like a polemic.

This book is a superb refutation of the spineless and deeply flawed policies that have eroded the quality of American education. A once fine and efficient educational system has been turned completely on its head. Our kids are dumber than ever, yet think they are smarter due to grade inflation and other esteem-boosting policies. Curricula have been watered-down beyond recognition and competition has been subverted in the name of sensitivity. This produces students with poor work habits and fragile egos - not a good sign for the future.

Speaking as a mathematics teacher with several years of experience at both the secondary and the postsecondary levels, I have to say that this is one of the truest books I've ever read. Dr. Sowell has hit the proverbial nail squarely on the proverbial head. What else can I say? Read the book. Sowell makes a much stronger case than I can in this brief space. Sometimes it takes a whole book to make an argument.