Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas
Thomas Sowell. Free Press, $57 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-02-930330-6
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. (Jan.)
Details
Reviewed on: 11/02/1992
Genre: Nonfiction
Compact Disc - 979-8-212-08813-8
MP3 CD - 979-8-212-08814-5
Open Ebook - 384 pages - 978-1-4391-0762-1
Paperback - 384 pages - 978-0-7432-5408-3