Overview

What is it about today's school system that so many find unsatisfactory? Why have so many generations of reformers failed to improve the educational system, and, indeed, caused it to degenerate further and further into an ever declining level of mediocrity?

In this radical and scholarly monograph, out of print for two decades and restored according to the author's original, Murray N. Rothbard identifies the crucial feature of our educational ...
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Education: Free and Compulsory (LFB)

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Overview

What is it about today's school system that so many find unsatisfactory? Why have so many generations of reformers failed to improve the educational system, and, indeed, caused it to degenerate further and further into an ever declining level of mediocrity?

In this radical and scholarly monograph, out of print for two decades and restored according to the author's original, Murray N. Rothbard identifies the crucial feature of our educational system that dooms it to fail: at every level, from financing to attendance, the system relies on compulsion instead of voluntary consent.

Certain consequences follow. The curriculum is politicized to reflect the ideological priorities of the regime in power. Standards are continually dumbed down to accommodate the lowest common denominator. The brightest children are not permitted to achieve their potential, the special needs of individual children are neglected, and the mid-level learners become little more than cogs in a machine. The teachers themselves are hamstrung by a political apparatus that watches their every move.

Rothbard explores the history of compulsory schooling to show that none of this is accidental. The state has long used compulsory schooling, backed by egalitarian ideology, as a means of citizen control. In contrast, a market-based system of schools would adhere to a purely voluntary ethic, financed with private funds, and administered entirely by private enterprise.

An interesting feature of this book is its promotion of individual, or home, schooling, long before the current popularity of the practice.

To search for titles from Laissez Faire Books, enter a keyword and LFB; e.g., Economics LFB
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Editorial Reviews

http://edphilosopher.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/against-compulsory-education-murray-rothbards-education-free-and-compulsor
We talk of how we are going to improve public education, what subjects to teach or not in public education, or how to teach certain subjects in public education. Rarely do we talk about the issue all of these questions presuppose: whether to have public education or whether it is the best way to educate children. If nothing else – and there IS plenty else – Murray Rothbard’s short essay “Education: Free and Compulsory” serves to offer up the seldom heard argume
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Product Details

  • BN ID: 2940015622300
  • Publisher: Laissez Faire Books
  • Publication date: 9/26/2012
  • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
  • Format: eBook
  • Sales rank: 376,531
  • File size: 2 MB

Meet the Author

Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist, historian, and political theorist. He was a prominent exponent of the Austrian School of economics and fundamentally influenced the American libertarian movement and contemporary libertarian and classical liberal thought, by theorizing a form of free-market anarchism which he termed "anarcho-capitalism." Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the American libertarian movement.
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  • Posted April 6, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    Conceived in Liberty
    For a New Liberty
    For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto
    Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market: The Scholars Edition
    The Ethics of Liberty

    A Great Monograph on the History of Compulsory and State Education

    This monograph is extremely informative and worth reading for anyone interested in education systems. It discusses education systems in European history as well as education systems in American history. The general thesis is that compulsory state education does not serve to benefit students, but rather serves only to benefit the state.

    This monograph's only defect is that it does not, if I recall correctly, give much, or perhaps any, information on the various styles of non-statist education, my favourite of which is the Sudbury model of education. For those wishing to learn more about the Sudbury model of education, I would recommend the documentary <i>Voices from the New American Schoolhouse</i> (2005) by Daniel Mydlack.

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