Noam Chomsky's Views on Modern Education

I am a big fan of Chomsky and has long been a supporter of his critiques over the global institutions and their alignment towards the Washington consensus. Recently, he shared his thoughts on modern education and questions the role of modern educators (like myself?). One of his thoughts is instead of teaching our students “how to learn on their own.” education has become “indoctrination, with people placed in a framework where they follow orders. I can't agree more with this point.

He also deplores the idea of education as an engine of economic growth as the antithesis of its real role, “to create better human beings.”


Why modern educators feel that our role is to pass the students? help them to obtain high(er) GPA? or gain high level of satisfaction from the evaluation? All of these are very superficial and nothing to do with 'the value' of education. Perhaps, the mechanism of education has driven educators to behave and act more in the direction of creating people who can conform and be obedient and less creative.

Institutional factors such as the way University was structure to educate younger generation, the quality of academic (teaching vs. research) and students' expectation must be changed to match this change.