Education For Whom and For What?

Noam Chomsky, a world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist, spoke at the University of Arizona on Feb. 8, 2012. His lecture, “Education: For Whom and For What?” featured a talk on the state of higher education, followed by a question-and-answer session. Chomsky, an Institute Professor and a Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he worked for more than 50 years, has been concerned with a range of education-related issues in recent years. Among them: How do we characterize the contemporary state of the American education system? What happens to the quality of education when public universities become more privatized? Are public universities in danger of being converted into facilities that produce graduates-as-commodities for the job market? What is the role of activism in education? With unprecedented tuition increases and budget struggles occurring across American campuses, these are questions that are more relevant than ever.

Share this: OFA.BO Tweet this: OFA.BO Educators share how Mitt Romney’s single term as Massachusetts governor resulted in increased classroom sizes, school budget cuts, higher fees and less out-of-school services for students. As Ronald, a former superintendent from Attleboro, MA explains: “Governor Romney said that he was not going to cut education. And then the next thing we knew those cuts were made.”