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Title: Education: Free & Compulsory by Murray Newton Rothbard, Murray N. Rothbard ISBN: 0-945466-22-6 Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute Pub. Date: 15 August, 1999 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $5.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Public Skool!
Comment: Murray Rothbard's _Education: Free and Compulsory_ is a sketchy tirade against the public education system. Rothbard--a free-market libertarian-anarchist with conservative social leanings--begins with the observation that government movers and shakers to control and indoctrinate the populace can use education as an apparatus. To illustrate his point, the cover features a WWII era poster of American schoolchildren collecting supplies for the US military, with "schools at war" prominently displayed. Rothbard traces the first advocates of state funded education to the Protestant Reformation when secular rulers wanted maintain the Protestant faith as state religions. The country that developed the most comprehensive public education program, with mandatory attendance, was Prussia, whose government Rothbard somewhat unfairly characterizes as overly despotic. The American education establishment, as Rothbard notes, praised the Prussian model and brought an extensive state mandated and compulsory education system to the US during the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. The ulterior motive of the education establishment is to use government schools to indoctrinate the nation's children with loyalty to the state rather than allowing them to develop and educate themselves independently with direct parental involvement. The regimes most openly opposed to individual freedom, like Communist Russia and Nazi Germany, have made no secret of their intention to use public schools to inculcate loyalty to government programs. Rothbard cites the fact that not all children are comfortable in an academic environment and instead points toward a decentralized system of technical training, skilled labor and vocational education, similar to the apprentice system. This would suit the needs of what is naturally an inherently diversified and stratified population rather than forcing all children into public schools, which are often a negative influence because of the social problems the students are exposed to in them (drug addictions, sex, gangs, etc). Rothbard also brings into question many of modern teaching techniques in the schools which downgrade individual reasoning capacity (i.e., not sticking to the basic reading, writing and arithmetic) and instead teach students using images and group projects. He also says that schools should abolish "frills" like physical education and the like to keep students more consistently focused on academics. It is clear to any one interested in this question that public schools are propagandizing to children (especially with regards to environmentalism, anti-religion, multiculturalism and "Holocaustianity" in the US). Rothbard is somewhat over-reactionary in his blanked condemnation of all public education, but he does raise some valid questions regarding the disorientating, anti-family agenda of compulsory education in America.
Rating: 4
Summary: Prophetic, as usual
Comment: Here Rothbard, famed as an economic theorist and historian, takes on modern compulsive education and delivers the same no-holds-barred treatment he used for every subject he wrote about.
Published as a two-part installment in The Individualist way back in '71, the essay is perhaps even more pertinent now, as almost each and every politican of every conceivable stripe and ideology attempts to wrest the mantle of education champion from his rivals. Rothbard shows that compulsive education is little more than a scheme by professional educationalists (as opposed to honest teachers) to inculcate young people into obedience to the State and into false notions of equality. It has always been that way, from the inception of public schools by Martin Luther and the Prussians, up to the present day. Rothbard hates the collectivism imposed by these beauracrats. He sees true education as a means for a person to develop an individual consciousness and to be able to reason for himself. In that sense a person can be "educated" without going to school at all. Yes, Rothbard says it - he is one of the few people with the guts - formal schooling is NOT for everyone, and those young people without academic proficiency or intellectual curiosity only bring down more gifted students. (Can you imagine George Bush or Bill Clinton or Newt Gingrich or Bill Bennett or anyone else of their ilk saying such a thing? Nah.)
The book is not merely a libertarian diatribe, however. It is a history lesson, delivered with punch and succictness.
I am a long time teacher. The book opened my eyes in many ways.
Rating: 3
Summary: Slightly misleading title.
Comment: The title of this book is a little misleading. I was expecting an argument, or at least a compare/contrast essay of the two basic types of education. However, this essay is devoted almost entirely to compulsory education alone. It details the history of compulsory education and how it came to be in America. There is really no argument against it, or for it, except in a small introduction. It really allows the reader to take in the history and the subject matter and make of it what one will. I came away with a general dislike for compulsory education, as I was sure I would, but there is really no argument for free education included here.
I did find it interesting that the pioneers of compulsory education in America came out of Massachusetts, home of Ted Kennedy who thinks he is the authority on education today.
All said, it's a very small book, resembling an essay. It's very quick to read and gives a good history. But, if you are looking for a real compare and contrast style, this isn't the one.
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Title: What Has Government Done to Our Money by Murray N. Rothbard ISBN: 0945466102 Publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Institute Pub. Date: 01 June, 1990 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard ISBN: 094546617X Publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Institute Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays by Murray Newton Rothbard, Murray N. Rothbard ISBN: 0945466234 Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute Pub. Date: 15 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School by Gene Callahan ISBN: 0945466358 Publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Inst Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Democracy: The God that Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy, and Natural Order by Hans-Hermann Hoppe ISBN: 0765808684 Publisher: Transaction Publishers Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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