ction
             Yet it seems the influence of his father is easier to trace than
             that of his mother. Elsie was more left oriented than William and it
             seems to have made an imprint in Noam within the scope of general
             concern about social issues and politics. But other aspects of Noam's
             education came from going to a Dewyite progressive school (Oak Lane
             Country Day School) that emphasized, as a central concern, the
             individual child's growth and learning. He attended Central High School
             in Philadelphia. When attending high school Noam noticed the emphasis
             placed on grades that wasn't existent during his elementary school days.
             Chomsky has said that attending both types of schools was very
             instructive but has also noted in an interview with James Peck:
             I remember virtually nothing about high school. It's almost an
             absolute blank in my memory apart from the emotional tone, which
             was quite negative...If I think about my experience, there's a
             dark spot there. That's what schooling generally is, I suppose.
             It's a period of regimentation and control, part of which involves
             direct indoctrination, providing a system of false beliefs. But
             more importantly, I think, is the manner and style of preventing
             and blocking independent and creative thinking and imposing
             hierarchies and competitiveness and the need to excel, not in the
             sense of doing as well as you can, but doing better than the next
             Also during the same time Noam has said of being influenced by the
             profuse and intense Jewish intellectual life in New York City. He often
             stopped by the Fourth Avenue second-hand bookshops and the office of the
             anarchist press Freie Arbeiter Stimme. Another frequent stop was at the
             corner of 72nd Street and Broadway. There, stood a newspaper kiosk run
             by his uncle. It didn't sell many papers by Chomsky said that it served
             as a rendezvous for European e...