Jerry Farber

A collection of counterculture essays by Farber, several about education, but covering a wide range of topics: Capitalism, sexism, drugs, authority and others. The book is charmingly and naively dated in its ideas (almost quaint, but it does give a good sense of the times), but intriguing and worth the trip back in time.

A counterculture explanation and evocation of the education system, in a series of essays. The title one, "The Student as Nigger", postulates that students are "niggers", in the sense that they are treated in the same way (and for the same purposes) as plantation slaves on the 19th century. I got in dutch when I gave a speech and paper on this essay in an education class, not understanding the power that the word had for black people, to the extent that they were unwilling to tolerate its show more usage in any other sense than the racial epithet. Other essays in the book are equally challenging, as for example "A Young Person's Guide to the Grading System", which advocates throwing out the current grading system. The book is definitely a countercultural product of its times, but some of its ideas still hold validity and are worth discussing, as unlikely as this is. show less