Inside American Education

Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas is a book by economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell (hardcover 1993, paperback 2003, Kindle Edition 2010) that details Sowell's assessment of the state of education in the United States (both K-12 education and higher education).[1][2][3]

Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas
AuthorThomas Sowell
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreEducation
PublisherThe Free Press
Publication date
1993
Pages368
ISBN0029303303
OCLC855170876
370.973
LC ClassLA210 .S65 1993

Contents

Criticism of educational "fads"

Sowell was critical of a number of educational programs and paradigms that became popular in the United States in the 1960s onward. Among the programs that he critiqued in his book and other writings were:

  • Man: A Course of Study: Sowell called the curriculum a controversial curriculum and was critical both of the curriculum and the stealth with which it was introduced.[4]
  • Values clarification: Sowell was critical of "values clarification" programs and wrote (in his book as well as in later online pieces) that:

The very phrase "values clarification" is fundamentally dishonest. When parents tell their children not to steal or not to have sex, there is no ambiguity as to what they mean. Clarification is neither required nor attempted. Instead, values are downgraded to subjective preferences of individuals or blind traditions of "our society," and contrasted with alternative values of other individuals and other societies -- including, in some cases, the societies of various species of animals.[152] The "nonjudgmental" approach which pervades such exercises provides no principle of logic or morality by which to choose among the many alternatives presented -- except, implicitly, what "peers" or "experts" or "modern thinking" might prefer. "Clarification" is merely a process used to camouflage this process of undermining the child's existing values. (Page 65)

Sowell has elaborated on his arguments against values clarification on online articles.[5][6]

  • Other educational programs including sex education, drug education, and affective education. Sowell claimed that the programs often strayed from their stated goals and engaged in generic brainwashing of people intended to indoctrinate them and turn them against their parents.[7] In addition, Sowell claimed that many programs labeled as gifted and talented programs also ended up being courses in indoctrination.[8] Sowell named educational theorist Carl Rogers as an important influence on these programs.[9]
  • Sowell argued against peace education and nuclear education programs on similar grounds.[10]
  • Sowell was also critical of bilingual education and cited studies showing that many parents were opposed to such education.[11]

Criticism of low skill level of school teachers

Sowell was critical of schools of education for training the future teachers in educational fads and having low overall standards, and was critical of states requiring people to have credentials from schools of education to take teaching jobs.[12]

Criticism of ideological double standards at colleges

Sowell argued that higher educational institutions were full of double standards, including standards that excused violence and disruption when carried out in the name of politically correct goals, but were extremely harsh on small infractions that might be perceived to oppose politically correct goals.[13] Sowell also criticized the decision of Stanford University president Donald Kennedy to expel China scholar Steven W. Mosher from the Ph.D. program, alleging: "Not one stated requirement for the doctorate in anthropology was even claimed to have been violated...Instead, criteria of personal behavior were created ex post.[14]

Criticism of poor college teaching

Sowell argued that, unlike school teaching, the average quality of college teaching was better. He identified a few problems:

  • Wide variation in teaching standards between instructors at the same institution, with fairly poor instruction at the lower end.[15]
  • Instructors in ideologically driven courses offering easy grades and lax grading standards in order to attract students.[16]
  • Political indoctrination in courses, including indoctrination in topics unrelated to the alleged subject of study.[16]

Reception

Sowell appeared on The Diane Rehm Show on January 13, 1993 to discuss the book.[17]

Chester E. Finn Jr., a former United States Assistant Secretary of Education under William Bennett, praised the book in a review for National Review as "a clear, hard-hitting, amply documented work that manages to be strong without being shrill, sensible yet not narrow-minded, outraged but not outrageous."[18] For Forbes, James W. Michaels called Sowell "an American Emile Zola, accusing the smug American educational leadership of hypocrisy, anti-intellectualism, avarice and propagandizing for essentially left-wing causes...in a factual, analytic style."[19]

John Brademas, a former Democratic Party member of the United States House of Representatives and president of New York University, offered a critical review in The New York Times: "Some of Mr. Sowell's attacks are on target, but his generalizations are so extravagant and his tone so self-righteous and bombastic that he undermines his case."[20] Brademas added that the book "offers little constructive counsel" on dealing with the issues surrounding education in the United States.[20]

Publishers Weekly called some critiques in this book regarding athletic scholarships and publish or perish "well reasoned" but added that Sowell "often goes wildly askew, as when he argues that sex education causes teen pregnancy."[21]

The book was reviewed by Patrick Groff in The Freeman, the journal of the Foundation for Economic Education.[22] Groff was critical of Sowell for failing to be as radical in his proposals for reform as he was forthright in his criticism of the status quo.

Jon Sanders reviewed the book favorably for the Pope Center in August 1997.[23]

gollark: This has inspired much of the theory surrounding apiaristics and hyperscale apiodynamics.
gollark: "Quantum field theory", apparently.
gollark: Just not general relativity.
gollark: Wait, *special* relativity and QM is already done.
gollark: Unfortunately, the universe is then destroyed by the development of superweapons able to write directly onto the fabric of reality.

See also
  • Market Education, a book by Andrew J. Coulson about the history of education worldwide.
  • The Beautiful Tree, a book by James Tooley about low-cost private education for poor people.

References
  1. Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas (Hardcover). Free Press. 1992. p. 384. ISBN 978-0029303306.
  2. Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas (paperback). Free Press. 2003. p. 384. ISBN 978-0743254083.
  3. "Inside American Education". Intellectual Takeout. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  4. Inside American Education, p. 252
  5. Sowell, Thomas (2010-05-11). "A "Duty to Die"?". Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  6. Sowell, Thomas (1998-07-09). "Dumb is Dangerous". Jewish World Review (syndicated column). Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  7. Inside American Education, pp. 62-69
  8. Inside American Education, pp. 34-36
  9. Inside American Education, pp. 55-56, 89-90
  10. Inside American Education, pp. 40-41, 295
  11. Inside American Education, pp. 74-82
  12. Inside American Education, pp. 23-27, 288-291
  13. Inside American Education, pp. 174-177, 188-194
  14. Inside American Education, p. 192
  15. Inside American Education, pp. 207-216
  16. Inside American Education, pp. 210-214
  17. "Diane Rehm Radio Talk Show". C-SPAN. January 18, 1993. Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  18. Finn, Chester E. Jr. (February 15, 1993), "Revenge of the Blob", National Review, 45 (3), pp. 49–50
  19. Michaels, James W. (March 29, 1993), "Ph.D.s in hypocrisy", Forbes, 151 (7), pp. 50–51
  20. Brademas, John (March 28, 1993), "The Victory of the Left-Wing Storm Troopers", The New York Times Book Review, p. 11, retrieved August 26, 2018
  21. "Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas". Publishers Weekly. January 1993. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  22. Groff, Patrick (1994-06-01). "Book Review: Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas by Thomas Sowell". The Freeman. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
  23. Sanders, Jon (1997-08-01). "Recommended Reading: Inside American Education: Thomas Sowell analyzes education at all levels". Pope Center. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
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