on the purpose of education

To get the most out of the words of Noam Chomsky on the purpose of education from this video you really should view it, but the notes below -- taken while watching through the video (and hitting pause a lot), which are mostly direct quotation, but not 100% accurate nor complete -- might be helpful to some (it helps me to have a text-searchable reference to this sort of information, and it helps me to internalise ideas by transcribing and rereading...), please do bare in mind that typed text is a poor shadow of the spoken word and so much meaning is found in the way that words are said, so here's the video:

http://blip.tv/learning-without-frontiers/noam-chomsky-the-purpose-of-education-5925460






[credit: learning without frontiers ]
[title: Noam Chomsky ]
[subtitle: purpose of education]

we can ask ourselves what the purpose of educational system is , and of course there are sharp differnces on this matter


there's the traditional , an interpretation that comes from the enlightenment which holds
that the highest goal in life is to inquire and create,
to search the riches of the past and try to internalise the parts of them that are significant to you, and cary that quest for understanding further in your own way


purpose of education from that view is to help ppl to determine how to learn on their own,


its you the learner how is going to achieve in the course of education and its really up to you what you'll master, where you'll go, how you'll use it, how you'll go on to to produce something new and exciting for yourself and maybe for others

that's one concept of education

the other concept of edu is indoctrination
ppl have the idea that from childhood young ppl have to placed into a frame work in which they will follow orders, accept existing frameworks, not challenge, and so; this is often quite explicit

and so for example after the activism of the 1960s there was much concern across much of the educated specturm that young people were getting too free and independent, that the country was becoming too democratic and so on, infact there's an important study on what's called the crisis of democracy , too much democracy , arguing that there are certain institutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young, that's their phrase, and they're not doing their job properly; that's schools, universities, churches, we have to change them so they carry out the job of indoctrination more effectively; that's actually coming from the liberal internationalist end of the spectrum of educated opinion, and infact since that time there have been many measures taken to turn the educational system towards more control more indoctrination more vocational training imposing a debt which traps students and young ppl into a life of conformity and so on ; that's the exact opposite of what i referred to as the tradition that comes out of the enlightenment and there's a constant struggle between those in the collages in the schools

in the schools do you train for passing tests, or do you train for creative inquiry - pursuing interests that are aroused by the materials that are presented

and this goings on all the way through graduate school and into research: two different ways of looking at the world

when you get to a research institution, like the one we're now in, at the graduate level it essentially follows the enlightenment tradition , in fact science couldn't progress unless it was based on ('inculturation') of the urge to challenge to question doctrine, question authority, search for alternatives, use your imagination, act freely under your own impulses, cooperative work with others is constant as you can see just by walking down the halls, that's in my view what an educational system should be like , from kindergarden up, but there are certainly are powerful structures in society that would prefer ppl to be indoctrinated, conform, not ask to many questions, be obedient, fulfil the roles that are assigned to you and dont try to shake systems of power and authority

those are choice we have to make, where ever we stand in the educational system, as students as teachers, as people on the outside trying to help take it in directions that we think it ought to go

[subtitle: impact of technology]

there certainly has been a very substantial growth in new technology; technology of communication, information, access, interchange
its truely a major change in the nature of the culture and society

we should bare in mind that the technologic changes that are taking place now while their significant probably coming no where near as much impact as the technological advances of , say, a century ago plus or minus , so the shift, lets just take communication, the shift from a typewriter to a computer , or a telephone to email is significant but it doesn't begin to compare with shift from a sailing vessel to a telegraph - i mean the time that that cut down in communication between, say, England the United States, was extraordinary compared with the changes taking place now
and the same it true of other kinds of technology like say the introduction of plumbing, wide spread plumbing in the (?) had a huge affect on health compared to the discovery of antibiotics

so the changes are real and significant, but we should that others have taken place which many ways were more dramatic

as far the technology itself and education are concerned technology is basically neutral , its kind of like a hammer ; the hammer doesn't care whether you use it to build a house or whether a torturer uses it to crush someones skull, a hammer can do either, same with the modern technologies, the internet and so on,

the internet is extremely valuable if you know what you're looking for , i use it all the time for research i'm sure everyone does, if you know kind of what you're looking for you have a a kind of a frame work of understanding which directs you to particular things, and lets you sideline lots of others , then this can be a very valuable tool , of course you always have to be willing to ask is my framework the right one? you may be able to modify it, may be if there's something i look at that questions it i should rethink how i am looking at things , but you can't pursue any kind of inquiry without a pre- relatively clear framework, that's directing your search and helping you choose what's significant and what isn't what can be put aside what ought ot be pursued, what ought to be challenged what ought to be developed and so on. I mean, you cant expect someone to become a biologist, say, by giving them access to the Harvard University biology library and saying just look through it, that'll give them nothing , and the internet is the same except magnified enormously.

if you dont understand or know what you're looking for or if you dont have some kind of a conception of what matters, always of course with the proviso that you'll question it if you seem to be going in the wrong direction , if you dont have that, exploring the internet is just picking out the random factoids that dont mean anything

so behind any significant use of contemporary technology , the internet , the communication systems, graphics, whatever it may be, unless behind it is some well constructed directive conceptual apparatus it is very unlikely to be helpful it may turn out to be harmful; for example, random exploration thru the internet turns out to be a cult generator - pick up a factoid here, a factoid there, and somebody else reinforces it, all of a sudden you have some crazed picture which has some factual basis but nothing to do with the world, you have to know how to evaluate it interpret and understand. say biology again, the person who wins the nobel prize in biology is not the person who read the most journal articles and took most notes on them, its the person who knew what to look for, and cultivating that capacity to seek what's significant, always willing to question whether you're on the right track, that's what education is mean tot be about, whether its using computers and the internet, or pencil and paper, or books.

[subtitle: cost or investment]

education is discussed in terms of whether its a worthwhile investment does it create human capital or economic growth and so on ; that's a very strange , a very distorting way to even pose the question

do we want to have a society of free creative independent individuals able to appreciate and gain form the cultural achievements of the past and to add to them , do we want that ?

or do we want people who can increase GDP ?

they're not the same thing.

and a education of the kind that, say, Bertrand Russell or John Dewey talked about, that's a value in of itself , whatever impact it has on the society its a value because it helps create better human beings, after all that's what an educational system should be for

on the other hand if you want to look at it in terms of costs and benefits, take the new technology that we have just talked about : where did that come from?

a lot of it was developed right where we're sitting , below where we now are was a major laboratory back in the 1950s , , which had lots of scientists, engineers, people of all kinds of interest, philosophers, others, who were working on developing the basic character , and even the basic tools of the technology that is now common , computers and the internet for example were pretty much in the public sector for decades just funded in places like this where ppl were exploring the possibilities that were most unthought of unheard of at the time , and some of them worked some didn't . the ones that worked were finally converted into tools that ppl can use ,

that's the way scientific progress takes place

that's the way cultural progress takes place

classical artists for example came out of a tradition of craftsmanship that was developed over long periods with master artisans and others and sometimes you can rise on their shoulders and create new marvellous things ,

but it doesn't come from nowhere

if there isn't a lively cultural and educational system which is geared towards encouraging creative exploration , independence of thought , willingness to challenge , to cross frontiers , to challenge accepted beliefs and so on , if you don't have that then you're not going get the technology that can lead to economic gains that I don't think is the prime purpose of cultural enrichment and education but that's a part of it

[subtitle: assessment vs autonomy]

there is in the recent period particularly an increasing shaping of education , from the early ages on , towards passing examinations

taking tests can be of some use , both for the person who's taking the test to see what i know and where i am what i've achieved what I haven't , and for instructors what should be changed and improved in developing the course of instruction , but beyond that they don't really tell you vey much

I know , for many many years I've been on admissions committees for entry into an advance graduate programme , maybe one of the most advanced anywhere , and we of course pay some attention to test results but really not too much

a person can do magnificently on every test and understand very little

all of us who've been through schools and collages and universities are very familiar with this , you can be in some course, say, that you have no interest in and there's demand that you pass a test and you can study hard for the test and you can 'ace it' , to use the idiom, you can do fine and a couple of weeks later you forgot what the topic was , I'm sure we've all had that experience , i know i have

it can be a useful device , it contributes to constructive purposes of education , but if its just a set of hurdles you have to cross it can turn out to be not only meaningless but it can divert you away from things you want to be doing , i see this regularly when i talk to teachers, i'll give you one experience from a couple weeks ago, but there's plenty like it

talking to a group which included many school teachers, one was a 6th grade teacher , teaches kids that are 10or11, 11or12, something like that, ,,,

she told me an experience she'd had where a little girl had come up to her and said she was really interested in something that came up and she asked could the teacher give her some ideas for how to look into it further
and the teacher was compelled to tell her , I'm sorry but you can't do that, you have to study to pass this national exam that's coming , that's going to determine your future , the teacher didnt say it but it's going to determine my future whether i'm rehired and so on

the system is geared to getting the children to pass hurdles but not to learn to understand and explore

that child would have been better off if she had been allowed to explore what she was interested in , and maybe not do so well in the test about things she wasn't interested in

I don't say that test should be eliminated, they can be a useful educational tool , but ancillary , something that's helping improve for ourselves, for instructors and others, what we are doing

passing tests doesn't begin to compare with searching and inquiring and pursuing topics that engage us and excite us - thats far more significant than passing tests and infact if thats the kind of educational career that you're given the opportunity to pursue you will remember what you discovered ,

a world famous physicist right here at MIT who like a lot of the senior faculty was teaching freshman courses, he once said that in his freshman course he'd be asked what are we going to cover this semester and his standard answer was it doesn't matter what we cover, it matters what you discover , and that's right

teaching ought to be inspiring students to discover on their own,
to challenge if they dont agree,
to look for alternative if they think there are better ones ,
to work through the great achievements of the past and try to master them on their own because they're interested in them

if that's the way teaching is done students will really gain from it and will not only remember what they studied but will be able to use it as a basis for going out on their own

and again, education is really aimed at just helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own,
because that's what you're going to do for your life,
not just absorb materials that are given to you from the outside and repeat it

[credit: learning without frontiers ]