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Toward the Destruction of Schooling
This zine is a revolutionary critique of schooling and its role in maintaining relationships of coercion and domination in modern society.
"As students go hazily from class to class, box to box, schooling as a technique of social control perpetuates itself. And as leftists drone on about better education for the people, for the masses of people, they are unaware of what an important role they play in reproducing existent social and economic formations."
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"As students go hazily from class to class, box to box, schooling as a technique of social control perpetuates itself. And as leftists drone on about better education for the people, for the masses of people, they are unaware of what an important role they play in reproducing existent social and economic formations."
Download zine (pdf)
For an online html
42 pages, Zine
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 12, 2022
Short introduction to the school as an extension of the carceral society that has created and is reproduced by factories.
I have a lot of questions about what a genuinely liberatory education would look like... doesn't it still make sense to have mandatory courses for learning how to read and write, and do basic mathematics and science, treating those as the necessary building blocks for being able to interact with the natural and social worlds on your own terms?
I understand that anarchists tend not to propose alternative institutions in their theory because it can take away from the "free association" part of revolutionary praxis, but I think it would be nice to have possibilities (alternative, not solely counter-state) presented.
Nevertheless, it's still clear that schools are institutions designed for disciplining children rather than providing a genuinely useful education.
I have a lot of questions about what a genuinely liberatory education would look like... doesn't it still make sense to have mandatory courses for learning how to read and write, and do basic mathematics and science, treating those as the necessary building blocks for being able to interact with the natural and social worlds on your own terms?
I understand that anarchists tend not to propose alternative institutions in their theory because it can take away from the "free association" part of revolutionary praxis, but I think it would be nice to have possibilities (alternative, not solely counter-state) presented.
Nevertheless, it's still clear that schools are institutions designed for disciplining children rather than providing a genuinely useful education.
December 16, 2022
The argument was well-researched and thorough, in my opinion. Yes, schools and schooling are key tools for social control and surveillance. I understand why anarchists don't and cannot give concrete alternatives, and I think it is analogous to why it's so not the point to read an abolitionist text and think "but what is the alternative?" because there should be no alternative to policing, criminalization, and coercion—we need to think beyond reproducing or inverting these oppressions. However, I think it would've been worthwhile to discuss more in depth how capitalism commodifies education in schooling. What would education look like de-commodified? What that still be schooling?
May 12, 2021
Brilliant. Practically obliterates the legitimacy of the educational system, all while keeping a sassy anarchistic undertone.
To my mind, the institutions themselves can be compared to factories. They share a lot of the same attributes: uniformity, monotony, subservience of the workers (students).
"Students are taught, through the process of schooling, to be conformist, unimaginative, docile, and a great many other things. . ." That is exactly the current situation.
To my mind, the institutions themselves can be compared to factories. They share a lot of the same attributes: uniformity, monotony, subservience of the workers (students).
"Students are taught, through the process of schooling, to be conformist, unimaginative, docile, and a great many other things. . ." That is exactly the current situation.
July 15, 2024
Book club’s consensus: there was lots of available arguments that were not taken to full length. Author seems like he was going for the a working class anarchist uprising but failed to follow through… get almost like this was a college students’s best 4 essays from a philosophy class mushed together and poorly edited. So much lost potential!
To all my zine authors, please don’t be afraid of editing- from, a tired reader
To all my zine authors, please don’t be afraid of editing- from, a tired reader
October 12, 2019
Would have liked it to includr a consideration of the liberatory potentials of of self-learning and of self-discipline, otherwise brilliant
September 6, 2008
This zine, "Toward the Destruction of Schooling," is a well-researched indictment of the institution of schooling.
It makes a compelling argument with clear analysis. The argument is compelling because it is made less through stated opinion and mostly through presentation of history, numerous quotes from others (those critical of schooling, those who seek to reform schooling, and those who are straight up into schooling as a means to control people).
It's pretty easy to understand. It's nonfiction, so that's always a slower read for me than fiction, but it's accessible. It's easier to read for anarchists, because the underlying assumptions and and message of the writing is anarchist, but it should be easy to read for most folks.
As I said, it's well-researched, using 145 endnotes for less than 28 pages of text. Which is kinda ironic, because it's critical of schooling and academia, and it's presented in a somewhat academic form.
I liked Derrick Jensen's Walking on Water better, because it's more personal and he discusses his feelings about the contradiction between being a teacher and being against schooling. But something common to Jensen and this zine are many quotes that speak for themselves. That is, they are from education theorists, philosophers, developers, administrators, and reformers from the last few centuries, mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries. These quotes plainly and clearly state what they perceive as the goal of education: to beat children's wills, make them blindly follow authority, and turn people into quiet, unquestioning, productive workers and consumers.
So you could argue all you want from history, current issues in education, your experience or the experiences of others in school, present a clear analysis, but you'd be more effective by pulling out a quote from a designer of the modern education system, who states blatantly this purpose of schooling.
It's interesting because back then, the architects of the education system (some were corporate barons like the Rockefellers) supported, and discussed it honestly, education for the purpose of creating sheepish workers. More recently, the education reformers and advocates (the more progressive ones, anyway) think they're helping students, trying to design schools to be more friendly and to work better for students, but really they're helping students adjust to this system that cannot be reformed, thereby setting the students on the path desired by the elites. It's similar to how unions act as a recuperating tool, convincing workers they can get their fair share of the pie, while still being exploited by capitalists and participating capitalist production.
and this apparently is what i want to do, since i want to teach. i knew before, especially after reading Jensen and this zine, why school is wrong. so it will be difficult come to terms with my possible role in this whole mess. i convince myself that i will encourage students to question authority, question me, question the system, question their roles in the system and whether they have to participate. but maybe in allowing a place for them to vent their frustrations at the school system, and helping them know they're not alone and not crazy, maybe they'll feel less angsty and more comfortable in school and later stop questioning and just get absorbed into the system.
damn, this is quite a conundrum. and i don't necessarily want to encourage them to drop out, either, although this works for some people, it may not for everyone, and what if there's an underprivileged student who drops out by my unwitting encouragement and realizes that although even with an education they'd have less opportunities than more privileged sectors of society, they'd be even more screwed without a completed education. but maybe they'd be freer.
well, i need to read more books for answers, like bell hooks, although i know that books won't give me answers. they'll help, but i gotta figure this shit out in real life, on my own, with friends, in my community. fortunately, i have anarchist friends who are into teaching. we've talked about opening a free "school", which would consist of true learning and education in a natural setting, not schooling inside a prison. well, we'll see what happens.
It makes a compelling argument with clear analysis. The argument is compelling because it is made less through stated opinion and mostly through presentation of history, numerous quotes from others (those critical of schooling, those who seek to reform schooling, and those who are straight up into schooling as a means to control people).
It's pretty easy to understand. It's nonfiction, so that's always a slower read for me than fiction, but it's accessible. It's easier to read for anarchists, because the underlying assumptions and and message of the writing is anarchist, but it should be easy to read for most folks.
As I said, it's well-researched, using 145 endnotes for less than 28 pages of text. Which is kinda ironic, because it's critical of schooling and academia, and it's presented in a somewhat academic form.
I liked Derrick Jensen's Walking on Water better, because it's more personal and he discusses his feelings about the contradiction between being a teacher and being against schooling. But something common to Jensen and this zine are many quotes that speak for themselves. That is, they are from education theorists, philosophers, developers, administrators, and reformers from the last few centuries, mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries. These quotes plainly and clearly state what they perceive as the goal of education: to beat children's wills, make them blindly follow authority, and turn people into quiet, unquestioning, productive workers and consumers.
So you could argue all you want from history, current issues in education, your experience or the experiences of others in school, present a clear analysis, but you'd be more effective by pulling out a quote from a designer of the modern education system, who states blatantly this purpose of schooling.
It's interesting because back then, the architects of the education system (some were corporate barons like the Rockefellers) supported, and discussed it honestly, education for the purpose of creating sheepish workers. More recently, the education reformers and advocates (the more progressive ones, anyway) think they're helping students, trying to design schools to be more friendly and to work better for students, but really they're helping students adjust to this system that cannot be reformed, thereby setting the students on the path desired by the elites. It's similar to how unions act as a recuperating tool, convincing workers they can get their fair share of the pie, while still being exploited by capitalists and participating capitalist production.
and this apparently is what i want to do, since i want to teach. i knew before, especially after reading Jensen and this zine, why school is wrong. so it will be difficult come to terms with my possible role in this whole mess. i convince myself that i will encourage students to question authority, question me, question the system, question their roles in the system and whether they have to participate. but maybe in allowing a place for them to vent their frustrations at the school system, and helping them know they're not alone and not crazy, maybe they'll feel less angsty and more comfortable in school and later stop questioning and just get absorbed into the system.
damn, this is quite a conundrum. and i don't necessarily want to encourage them to drop out, either, although this works for some people, it may not for everyone, and what if there's an underprivileged student who drops out by my unwitting encouragement and realizes that although even with an education they'd have less opportunities than more privileged sectors of society, they'd be even more screwed without a completed education. but maybe they'd be freer.
well, i need to read more books for answers, like bell hooks, although i know that books won't give me answers. they'll help, but i gotta figure this shit out in real life, on my own, with friends, in my community. fortunately, i have anarchist friends who are into teaching. we've talked about opening a free "school", which would consist of true learning and education in a natural setting, not schooling inside a prison. well, we'll see what happens.
November 3, 2021
poor argumentation
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews