Compulsory Mis-Education and the Community of Scholars Paperback – January, 1966

Since this book was published in 1964, Goodman's views must be interpreted in the context of education in, and prior to, the 1960's. One's understanding of Goodman would also be helpful if one were involved in the US education system. My only connection with public education was as a student (victim). I graduated public high school in 1962. I found Goodman's book to be hard to understand only because of my not being involved in teaching. But even the lay person can glean much relevant information and comments about the farce of US public education.
In the first part of this book, Goodman makes serveral referrences to the Summerhill school in England that was started in 1921 by Alexander S. Neill. It would be helpful to read his book, "Summerhill, a Radical Approach to Child Rearing" before reading Goodman's book. After reading the books by John Gatto and Charlotte Iserbyt, I had thought that the exposure of the true purpose of "public (government controlled) schooling" had begun around the mid 1980's. But some researchers and teachers have been writing about our schools in the 1960's. "Death at an Early Age", 1967, and "how children fail", originally published in 1964, both available at Amazon.
After reading these books, one may think that the writers were just wasting their time and effort, since the performance of public schools has continuously declined since. Since the US, here in 2013, has a few intelligent and educated people, I can only attribute it to home-schooling, democratic schools, and private schools which have avoided the oppression of government interference.

Compulsory Miseducation was brilliant.

Pointed out that in practice, colleges are a giant vetting system, a long-term abilities test that benefits corporations and govt, who swoop in and skim off the "best" students without having to pay for abilities testing themselves.

The Community of Scholars positioned the college/university in history. Interesting, but not as relevant as Compulsory Miseducation.

This is a classic book from a writer who did a lot to educate the youth of the 1960s and it is, unfortunately, as relevant today as it was when written.

i read compulsory mis-education and it was great. full of fascinating ideas. i will read more by this man.

Paul Goodman, whose most read work is GROWING UP ABSURD Problems in Youth in the Organized Society wrote this essential companion volume, which focused on education itself, in 1964. This was just before, and helped inspire some members of the "counter-culture" to attempt to correct the deficiencies he saw, and long before today's world where the average college student secures his increasingly depreciated "sheep-skin" with an accompanying $24,000 of debt. All too many must be asking themselves: Exactly what for? Does the American educational establishment produce individuals who can actually think, or is the end product someone who can re-produce the "correct answer," much like the products of all too many Confuscian systems, and, for sure, the madrassases? Yes, a rhetorical question that most outside the educational establishment, and some inside, already know the "correct answer."

As Goodman says in his preface: "It is uncanny. When, at a meeting, I offer that perhaps we already have too much formal schooling and that, under present conditions, the more we get the less education we will get, the others look at me oddly and proceed to discuss how to get more money for schools and how to upgrade the schools. I realize suddenly that I am confronting a mass superstition." In surveying the numerous 1-star reviews that are posted against some of the finest literature available, and whose posters are invariably students who have been forced to read it, Goodman's observation easily comes to mind: "Given their present motives, the schools are not competent to teach authentic literacy, reading as a means of liberation and cultivation. And I doubt that most of us who seriously read and write the English language ever learned it by the route of `Run, Spot, Run' to Silas Marner: 150th Anniversary Edition (Signet Classics). Goodman's critique is accompanied by an acerbic wit: "The naïve teacher point to the beauty of the subject and the ingenuity of the research; the shrewd student asks if he is responsible for that on the final exam."

The author addresses in separate chapters the problems of primary, secondary, and college-level education. One of my `betes noires' is brilliantly eviscerated on page 138: "Maybe the most galling thing of all is that there is a Student Government, with political factions and pompous elections. It is empowered to purchase the class rings and organize the Prom and the boat-ride. Our young man no longer bothers to vote. But when there is a need to censor the student paper or magazine, the Administration appoints these finks to be on a joint faculty-student board of review, so that the students are made responsible for their own muzzling." Goodman had the opportunity, but did not take it, to propose that this might really be excellent training for the "real" elections of life, and their inconsequential nature as to the decisions actually made by the ruling elite.

The second essay on the Community of Scholars is equally valuable. In each section he stresses the "guild-like nature" of the educational establishment. Scholarship moves to the increasingly arcane; and hyper-specialization leads to a situation in which only 10 other individuals on the planet are judged competent to take part in the conversation, or even decrypt the jargon.

His prediction at the end, at least so far, has been wide of the mark: "The present system is not viable; it is leading straight to 1984, which is not viable. The change, when it comes, will not be practical and orderly." Actually, the present system has led to having the college football coach be the highest paid individual at the school, and sometimes, on the state salary. Here in New Mexico, the UNM team has now been declared the worst in the nation, yet it would require $5 million to buy this losing coach out of his contract. At least in France, the students would be demonstrating over this, even though they are not helping to pay via their student debt. Yes, not able to think at all.

Meanwhile, Goodman remains an excellent 5-star read for those who aspire to.

Written in 1964, Paul Goodman's anaylsis of the educational system and bureaucracy has proven all too true. The system has gone farther awry than even Mr. Goodman could have guessed, as we have added the penal system and mandatory sentencing to those discarded as cogs/clones in the educational system. The sad part is, despite the warnings of Goodman and scores of others, our schools aren't getting any better. Academic inflation (quantifiable degrees vs. knowledge) has persisted beyond anyone's dreams. The whole educational/government/corporate troica has all but strangled free thought and innovation. It's a shame that this book is out of print, as it should be required reading for school teachers, legislators, parents. As our educational process becomes increasing irrelevant and more kids get lost in the shuffle to be scopped up by gangs/police, this book becomes all the more meaningful.

Paul Goodman has laid it out: school is another racket where people are taught they need the ministrations of the school system. Written in the sixties when it was still fashionable to speak of alienation, Compulsory Miseducation is a bracing reminder that human beings are born free and possess the capacity to shape their own lives outside the institutionalized context of schooling.

Paul Goodman has laid it out: school is another racket where people are taught they need the ministrations of the school system. Written in the sixties when it was still fashionable to speak of alienation, Compulsory Miseducation is a bracing reminder that human beings are born free and possess the capacity to shape their own lives outside the institutionalized context of schooling.