Analysis Of Noam Chomsky's Views And Criticism Of Education

For many, the desire to learn is considered an integral part of being human, and education has long been held as an answer to this fundamental curiosity. Throughout history there have been many different approaches on the best methods of educating others, and in particular, educating the youth. One such method, universal formal education, rose to prominence in the United States in the 17th century and is what most students would recognise today (Gray, 2008).

Nowadays, school is a part of every young American’s life, but there are those who believe that the education system that is responsible for teaching and nurturing the youth has lost its focus on the original human curiosity that prompted education. One such critic has spoken extensively on the school system’s seeming tendency to control students and encourage obedience. American linguist, social critic, and philosopher Noam Chomsky is critical of the education system in the United States as a way of creating compliance in the youth.

One of Chomsky’s criticisms of the education system is that, in his opinion, it uses student debt as a way of training students to become obedient workers (Learners Without Frontiers, 2012). Because higher education in the United States is so expensive, with tuition fees at both private and public American universities being among the highest, if not the absolute highest in the world, student loans are a necessity for many Americans to afford post-secondary schooling (Jackson & Nudelman, 2017)(Kagan, 2019).

Debt owed from student loans is currently at the highest it has ever been in the United States, totalling over $1.6 trillion USD (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2020). In the view of Noam Chomsky, student debt is used as a tool to create compliance in American youth because it creates a system where students must focus on repaying the money they owe as soon as they leave post-secondary school. Students are therefore pressured into entering the workforce, attempting to earn as much money as they can. Chomsky talked about this concept in an interview with the Breakwater Review in 2013:

In this example, Chomsky stresses how students in debt are given no choice but to focus solely on earning money, never getting a chance to think about changing society, helping other people, or even questioning the flawed way in which the school system was designed in the first place. According to Chomsky, student debt comes directly from the attempt to ensure students swiftly become workers who do not complain and do not rebel against the system (Hodgkinson, 2013). This entire structure, according to Chomsky, controls people from a young age as soon as they finish schooling so that they will enter the workforce quickly and obediently under the guise of repaying a debt.

Another of Chomsky’s criticisms is that he believes creativity is being suppressed through the use of standardised tests, creating compliance in children. It is undeniable that the current American education system focuses heavily on standardised testing; in a study done in 2015 by the Council of the Great City Schools, it was found that the average American student takes 112 standardised tests between pre-kindergarten and grade twelve (Layton, 2015). According to Chomsky, with the current focus on standardised tests, students cannot pursue their own creative interests, and instead must learn the same knowledge as everyone else (Falcone, 2013). Students must spend a great amount of time studying to pass tests, and not for the purpose of learning anything new. In a 2015 interview with The Progressive Magazine, Chomsky stated that mandatory standardised testing of children

Chomsky also expands on this idea in a section of his book Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky, where he explains that the obligatory constant studying for standardised tests effectively creates compliance in children because they learn to follow orders by studying as they are told to do instead of allowing their curiosity to guide them (2002). Because compliance is instilled in students from when they are young, the American education system is able to easily create obedient children, while suppressing their natural creativity.

Although Noam Chomsky has many criticisms of the American education system, he also offers many solutions. When asked about the true purpose of education in a 2012 interview with Learners Without Frontiers, Chomsky stated that he generally agrees with the values of the Enlightenment, which dictate that,

As seen here, most of Chomsky’s solutions revolve around emphasising the importance of critical thinking, inquiry, and creativity in schools. He believes that, instead of being forced to constantly assess and rank students with standardised tests, teachers should be allowed to teach their own imaginative lessons which offer a hands-on approach in order to engage students (Learners Without Frontiers, 2012). He also advocates for self-guided learning, where students can learn more about topics that interest them; this was, in fact, the method of schooling which Chomsky, himself, experienced in elementary school and found very successful (Falcone, 2013). According to Chomsky, when students are given these opportunities to experience more freedom in education instead of being made obedient, their learning flourishes. In response to the American education system’s tendency to produce compliant students, Chomsky offers solutions in order to create a more effective way of learning.

Overall, Noam Chomsky is critical of the American education system as a way of creating compliance in the youth. He not only identifies problems, such as student debt creating obedient workers or standardised tests suppressing creativity, but also offers many solutions to change the faulty school system into one that concentrates on the true purpose of education.

Chomsky’s ideas about how education should be improved translate into a very real aspect of everyday life; compliant students who were told not to think for themselves eventually make up a compliant society that cannot move forward. Chomsky’s criticisms serve as reminders that the youth ought to be taught, inspired, and encouraged rather than controlled. When acknowledging the considerable time that a young person spends in school, one hopes they are learning more than merely obedience.