Henry Giroux and Kerry T. Burch: Corporate Transformation of School Knowledge and the Mass Production of Idiocy

Giroux, Henry. Stealing Innocence: Youth, Corporate Power, and the Politics of Culture. New York: Palgrave, 2000: 173.

... schools are being transformed into commercial rather than public spheres as students become subject to the whims and practices of marketers whose agenda has nothing to do with critical learning and a great deal to do with restructuring civic life in the image of market culture. Civic courage--upholding the most basic non-commercial principles of democracy--as a defining principle of society is devalued as corporate power transforms school knowledge.

Kerry T. Burch. Eros as the Educational Principle of Democracy. New York: Peter Lang, 2000: 197.

... nowadays, most schools are not producing critically reflective democratic citizens; they are far more engaged in the mass production of idiocy. I use this phrase with precision: the ancient Greek etymology of idios refers to a ‘purely private person,’ one who could participate in the polis as a citizen, but did not.