Examining Attitudes on Education

In a video recently presented at the Learning Without Frontiers conference in London, Noam Chomsky discusses the two possible ways of looking at the purpose of education, the impact of technology and whether education is a cost or an investment. He delves into the current system that has a tendency to teach kids to "pass hurdles" rather than pursuing knowledge that engages us.

Noam Chomsky differentiates two views on education as the traditional interpretation rooted in the enlightenment, which involves "searching the riches of the past" to help them to learn on their own and produce something new, and indoctrination, in which young people have to be placed into a framework (school, universities, churches) where they are taught to follow orders and discouraged from challenging existing frameworks.

Noam Chomsky discusses the impact of technology, which he describes as a neutral tool defined by how we know how to use it. He likens to a hammer, as a hammer "doesn't care if you use it to build a house or use it to crush someone's skull."