Quote

The educational system is pretty much geared to passing the next exam. You're educated to pass tests and not to understand.

Noam Chomsky

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Noam Chomsky
Age: 95
Born: 1928
Born: December 7
Anthropologist
Computer Scientist
Historian
Human Rights Activist
Linguist
Media Critic
Opinion Journalist
Pedagogue
Philosopher
East Oak Lane
Philadelphia
Avram Noam Chomsky
A. Noam Chomsky
Chomsky
Much
Educated
Passing
Tests
Pass
Pretty
Geared
System
Exam
Understand
Passings
Next
Educational

More quotes by Noam Chomsky

Image
[Donald] Trump has been very inconsistent on many things on Twitter he's been all over the place, but some of it is very consistent. That is: Do nothing about climate change except make it worse. And he's not just speaking for himself, but for the whole Republican Party, the whole leadership. It's already had impact, it will have worse impact.
Noam Chomsky
Image
It's true that language is in a sense linear but that is as obvious as perceptual space is three-dimensional.
Noam Chomsky
Image
Palestinians have no wealth or power.
Noam Chomsky
Image
The threat and use of violence is stimulating nuclear proliferation along with jihadi terrorism.
Noam Chomsky
Image
The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.
Noam Chomsky
Image
To object that the facts about human nature set limits on our ability to change the world and ourselves makes about as much sense as the lament that our lack of wings sets limits on our ability to 'fly' as far as eagles under our own power.
Noam Chomsky
Image
There certainly are those who worship the state much as divinities are worshipped. Not just the state but even leaders.
Noam Chomsky
Image
Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.
Noam Chomsky
Image
Before the 1970s, banks were banks. They did what banks were supposed to do in a state capitalist economy: they took unused funds from your bank account, for example, and transferred them to some potentially useful purpose like helping a family buy a home or send a kid to college.
Noam Chomsky
Image
It makes sense for societies to make education compulsory for children. Children are vulnerable. They can't make decisions. But the decisions can't all be left in the hands of the parents. They can be irresponsible too.
Noam Chomsky
Image
The structure of language determines not only thought, but reality itself.
Noam Chomsky
Image
I am not too happy with terms like “the left”, to be honest. And I don’t use it much….if by “the left” you mean people who are committed to peace and justice and freedom and so on, there can’t be elements of the left opposed to workers’ movement, at least under that definition.
Noam Chomsky
Image
History records endless struggles to enlarge those realms, inspiring ones it also records painful reversals and setbacks.
Noam Chomsky
Image
The invasion of Panama, what was that? The U.S. killed, according to the Panamanians, 3,000 civilians. Maybe they're right. We don't investigate our own crimes, so nobody knows.
Noam Chomsky
Image
I just don't care about popular culture. It looks to me pointless and superficial. If I had free time I'd rather read a 19th century novel.
Noam Chomsky
Image
Industrial production of meat makes a huge contribution to global warming.
Noam Chomsky
Image
We had one or another form of state capitalism during an extremely brief period of human history, which tells us essentially nothing about human nature. If you look at human societies and human interactions, you can find anything. You find selfishness, you find altruism, you find sympathy.
Noam Chomsky
Image
The term intellectual is used conventionally to refer to people who happen to have unusual opportunities in this regard, and as always, opportunity confers moral responsibility.
Noam Chomsky
Image
International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn't pay his protection money. You have to have obedience otherwise the idea can spread that you don't have to listen to the orders and it can spread to important places.
Noam Chomsky
Image
There is always room for Gramsci's optimism of the will.
Noam Chomsky