LOCALDEV (alonovolabs)

I like Chomsky, but this book is a swindle 2003-11-12

Reviewer: Prometheus

I should say that I'm a fan of Chomsky's logical approach to political and historical criticism, but I'm afraid the title of this book is misleading. The book claims to be Noam Chomsky's view of education, but only 21 pages (out of 188) focus on Chomsky's ideas regarding education, and even that portion is merely a transcript of an interview in which Chomsky talks for about 16 pages. The rest of the book gives a basic overview of Chomsky's ideas on propaganda. That would be fine if the book was called 'Chomsky on Propaganda, with some notes on Mis-Education', but it isn't.

At a list price of over twenty dollars, I find this book to be overpriced. Chomsky's books are never cheap (and are often beyond the budget of many who might find Chomsky's ideas interesting), but this one is far too expensive considering what the title led me to believe it was.

I'm a Chomsky fan, but this book is a swindle 2003-08-08

Reviewer: Prometheus

I should say that I'm a fan of Chomsky's logical approach to political and historical criticism, but I'm afraid the title of this book is misleading. The book claims to be Noam Chomsky's view of education, but only 21 pages (out of 188) focus on Chomsky's ideas regarding education, and even that portion is merely a transcript of an interview in which Chomsky talks for about 16 pages. The rest of the book gives a basic overview of Chomsky's ideas on propaganda. That would be fine if the book was called 'Chomsky on Propaganda, with some notes on Mis-Education', but it isn't.

At a list price of over twenty dollars, I find this book to be overpriced. Chomsky's books are never cheap (and are often beyond the budget of many who might find Chomsky's ideas interesting), but this one is far too expensive considering what the title lead me to believe it was.

Simply Great 2002-08-10

Reviewer:

In On Mis-Education, the noted activist and scholar Noam Chomsky puts forth a well reasoned analysis of the failure of public eduction in America. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that many americans do not even know how many states are in the United States, or even who their senator or even president is (not that the last matters very much). On the contrary these same citizens can tell you countless bits of information on even the most obscure of Hollywood personalities. The failure that this represents, however, is not completely the fault of the people themselves, although they do bear a vurden for their own lack of intellectual curiosity, it is primarily due to the conserted and intense barage of mindless drivel constantly transmited through our media outlests and schools. In this era of information, TV is often seen as the fountain of truth and as the previous review shows, this is not an all too uncommon thing. Fortunately for us, Chomsky lays it all out and exposes how the media shapes what passes for knowledge in today's world, which comes down to a simple equation of profit and cost.

Misleading title 2001-10-12

Reviewer: Bakari Chavanu

Chomsky and Macedo should have known better: the title of their book is misleading. It should of been titled "Chomsky on Mis-Political Education." I don't have a problem with Chomsky's political analysis, but I was expecting him to talk more about the public and private school system in this country. He only does this in the first chapter, and then rest of this short book focuses on what Chomsky knows best: domestic and international politics. A better book on this subject is "Educating the 'Right' Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality," by Micheal W. Apple.

It wasn't about education 2001-07-27

Reviewer: Gabriella

I wish I could have given this book more stars. I admire Chomsky on many different levels and I was very excited to see this book. I am a teacher as is my husband and we feel there are a lot of anti-teacher, anti-public education, anti-students, etc. attitudes facing us, and we feel many are instigated by the corporate attack on the U.S. We thought, "Great! If there is anyone who can break these issues down and do them justice, it's Chomsky." Unfortunately, like the previous reviews stated, he relied on what he knows best which, as always, is well-argued and very peruasive. Yet, education in the U.S. didn't really fit into the big picture. We are disappointed that we bought a book that we have read before (a pastiche of earlier books). I am very let down that there was no exploration of the current state of education. Any analysis of U.S. education would have been nice. The title is deceptive and I am hurt that he didn't write about an issue that hits close to home for me.