In Against Schooling, Stanley Aronowitz passionately raises an alarm about the current state of education in our country. Discipline and control over students, Aronowitz argues, are now the primary criteria of success, and genuine learning is sacrificed to a new educational militarism. In an age where school districts have imposed testing, teachers must teach to test, and both teacher and student are robbed of their autonomy and creativity. The crisis extends to higher education, where all but a few elite institutions are becoming increasingly narrowly focused and vocational in their teaching. With education lacking opportunity for self-reflection on broad social and historical dynamics, Against Schooling asks "How will society be able to solve its most pressing problems?" Aronowitz proposes innovative approaches to get schools back on track..

About the Author
Stanley Aronowitz is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. He is the author of many articles in The Nation, Village Voice, and other magazines. His most recent books include Left Turn: Forging a New Political Future (Paradigm 2006).

Reviews

"Stanley Aronowitz is a national treasure. Against Schooling is vintage Aronowitz. The book makes a brilliant and impassioned argument for the necessity of creating new knowledges and social and cultural practices that do not repeat the privileging hierarchies of previous generations, but enable individuals to become global as well as national citizens who refuse to accept the current regime of educational degradation. Aronowitz's call for a protagonistic effort to bring teachers in higher education together with elementary and secondary school faculty in a common fight is one that we must take seriously if we want to save not only our schools but the very fabric of our social universe."
-Peter McLaren, UCLA

"This is an important book-radical in its analysis and proposed ways forward. It comes at an important time, when there is growing disillusion with the narrow understanding of education as it is embodied in schools shaped by the 'performance management' and centralization instituted by dominant governments. We need to be reminded, as Aronowitz reminds us, of a different vision, one that is rooted in a different understanding of human development and social improvement."
-Richard Pring, Oxford University, Key Words

Book Information
ISBN 9781594515033
Author Stanley Aronowitz
Format Paperback
Page Count 216
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Inc
Weight(grams) 249g