Sunday, July 4, 2010

Education — a ‘culture-killing weapon’?

from Green Left. This is a review of Noam Chomsky's new book, New World of Indigenous Resistance, and the responses to the book by indigenous critics. 
Chomsky then reflected upon the commentaries. The result is a book that could change the way its readers think about education forever.

Chomsky points out early on that education is used as a homogenising force. But his respondents pull no punches.
Under the control of capitalist ruling classes, education has both positive and negative features, and people must be aware of both. The negative side, as many indigenous critics have pointed out, is the destruction of indigenous language and thought that contain perspectives beneficial to the survival of the human race. Even Chomsky was surprised by some of the responses.