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I was both validated and distressed by this book: validated because I agree that the value of school comes not from its usefulness but from the signals it sends, and distressed because I disagree with his interpretation of what those signals mean. Like Caplan, I believe our obsession with academic success is toxic, both for individuals and society. I see academic credentials as a perverse currency, necessary for gaining acceptance in a culture that believes they have real value. But inflation is rendering them less and less valuable, requiring more and more education for those who want to distinguish themselves from those below. And that's part of the problem - the goal of education is almost always to distinguish oneself from those below while gaining acceptance from those above. It is the engine of a hierarchical culture that conditions belonging on judgment of worth. It is an incredibly inefficient and oppressive system for transferring real knowledge and skills that monopolizes our lives with counter productive behavioral conditioning and questionable moral assumptions.
My discomfort with Bryan Caplan's interpretation of this problem is that he manages to tear apart the system, something I see as necessary, while preserving the status of the most academically accomplished as innately more intelligent, something I see as unforgivable. He managed to shore up the value of his own signal while tearing down the system it's based on. I'm appalled that people will take his statistics and his interpretation as evidence that college is appropriate for those intelligent enough to benefit from "transformative education" while vocational training is appropriate for everyone else.
I've come to believe that most academic success is based on our need for respect and belonging. The people who get the furthest are the most motivated for its stamp of approval, and the most appalled at "ignorance". They tend to come from homes where education is framed as society's savior, and mistake its enormous reach as a sign of its benevolence. At least Caplan counters that old myth. The education system is filled with people who want good, meaningful lives and can't quite figure out what's missing. What's missing is a structure that supports the democratic ideals it claims to teach. Structurally, it's a self-serving, coercive system that claims a moral authority it has no right to, and serves goals it can't achieve. A compulsory system in which each of us is working to raise our status relative to the whole has division and inequality woven into its very fabric. A compulsory system that judges worth while constricting behavior prevents more growth than it fosters.
That it focuses its judgments on a narrow band of intellectual abilities is a problem, but expanding its realm to vocational training, without removing its compulsion, just expands the scope of its damage. I agree with many of the damning facts Caplan exposes, but his interpretation is mired in the same screwed up measurement of human value that keeps the system running.
- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (January 30, 2018)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0691174652
- ISBN-13: 978-0691174655
- Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Customer Reviews: 146 customer ratings
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#315,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #600 in Education Reform & Policy
- #72 in Vocational Education
- #877 in Education Administration (Books)
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