# The Case Against Education  ## Metadata - Author: [[Bryan Caplan]] - Full Title: The Case Against Education - Category: #books ## Highlights - If suspected conformists make more money, and conformists are more likely to have crew cuts, crew cuts pay. They pay even if you’re a rebel at heart: the rebellious worker with a crew cut impersonates a conformist. ([Location 406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=406)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The road to academic success is paved with the trinity of intelligence, conscientiousness, and conformity.22 The stronger your academic record, the greater employers’ confidence you have the whole package. ([Location 472](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=472)) - Tags: [[pink]] [[favorite]] - that education signals more than intelligence. Most of the model’s friends learned this lesson long ago. Kenneth Arrow, as usual, knew it from the start. “Higher Education as a Filter” calls education a signal of ability, and explicitly states that ability depends on “socialization” as well as intelligence.30 Or as Peter Wiles succinctly said one year later, “What employers need is intelligent conformism, or great independence and originality within a narrow range.” ([Location 558](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=558)) - Tags: [[pink]] - It does not suffice to give everyone a test and hire people with the highest scores. . . . Doing well on a test is no guarantee of perseverance. The signal must be costly and grueling, otherwise it fails to sort out the best job candidates. ([Location 577](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=577)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The best education in the world is already free. All complaints about elite colleges’ impossible admissions and insane tuition are flatly mistaken. Fact: anyone can study at Princeton for free. While tuition is over $45,000 a year,42 anyone can show up and start attending classes. No one will stop you. No one will challenge you. No one will make you feel unwelcome. Gorge yourself at Princeton’s all-you-can-eat buffet of the mind. Colleges do not card. I have seen this with my own eyes at schools around the country. ([Location 629](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=629)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Knowledge of statistics, in contrast, is useful whether or not you go to college. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman shows that statistical illiteracy underpins many foolish real-world choices. ([Location 775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=775)) - Tags: [[pink]] - By and large, college science teaches students what to think about topics on the syllabus, not how to think about the world. ([Location 1239](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=1239)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Teachers’ plea that “we’re mediocre at teaching what we measure, but great at teaching what we don’t measure” is comically convenient. When someone insists their product has big, hard-to-see benefits, you should be dubious by default—especially when the easy-to-see benefits are small. ([Location 1332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=1332)) - Tags: [[orange]] - Maybe education raises IQ because education is a diluted form of IQ test preparation. As psychologist Stephen Ceci explains: It is through direct forms of instruction . . . that children learn the answers to many of the questions that appear on a popular IQ (and other aptitude) tests. For example, within a given grade level there is a correlation between the total number of hours of schooling a child receives and scores on verbal and mathematical aptitude tests. Similarly, there are negative correlations between the total number of teacher or student absences and scores on such tests. Also, quantitative and language-related scores are strongly correlated with the length of the school day and with the actual amount of time on task, beginning in first grade. So it makes intuitive sense that much of the knowledge that aptitude tests, including IQ, tap is accumulated through direct encounters with the educational system. Answers to questions on the WISC-R, such as “In what continent is Egypt?”; “Who wrote Hamlet?”; “What is the boiling point of water?”; and “How many miles is New York from L.A.?” are probably learned through direct teaching methods. Teachers may not be aware that they are teaching answers to questions on IQ tests, but this is precisely what they are doing in their history, reading, literature, geography, and math classes. ([Location 1365](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=1365)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Reformers tend to see summer learning loss as an argument for year-round school. If summer makes students stupid, let’s abolish summer. The flaw in their thinking: everyone graduates eventually. Once you graduate, you’re no longer in school—and learning loss kicks in. To quote “Tiger Mother” Amy Chua, “Every day you don’t practice is a day that you’re getting worse.” ([Location 1406](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=1406)) - Tags: [[pink]] - school inculcates many attitudes that, regardless of their moral worth, impede on-the-job success. If you’re preparing kids for their adult roles, a year of work experience instills more suitable discipline and socialization than a year of school. ([Location 1460](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=1460)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Most of what schools teach has no value in the labor market. Students fail to learn most of what they’re taught. Adults forget most of what they learn. When you mention these awkward facts, educators speak to you of miracles: studying anything makes you better at everything. ([Location 1519](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=1519)) - Tags: [[pink]] [[favorite]] - Human capital purists often protest, “Why on earth do workers signal ability with a four-year degree instead of a three-hour IQ test?” My response: employers reasonably fear high-IQ, low-education applicants’ low conscientiousness and conformity. Other critics of the education industry, however, have a more streamlined response: American employers rely on educational credentials rather than IQ tests because IQ tests are effectively illegal. Thanks to the landmark 1971 Griggs vs. Duke Power case, later codified in the 1991 Civil Rights Act, anyone who hires by IQ risks pricey lawsuits. Why? Because IQ tests have a “disparate impact” on black and Hispanic applicants. ([Location 1915](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=1915)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Challenge the data all you like. Correct for brains, motivation, family background, choice of major, and beyond. The education premium will shrink before your eyes. Yet the shrinking stops long before the education premium disappears. Vocational majors are especially lucrative, but even archaeology degrees boost your income by 25%. ([Location 2039](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=2039)) - Tags: [[pink]] - years.46 In other words: to win your rightful place in the world, you must either enter the labor force and work for a decade-plus, or graduate from a four-year college. Somber news for “diamonds in the rough” whose skills surpass their credentials. ([Location 2349](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=2349)) - Tags: [[pink]] - 46 In other words: to win your rightful place in the world, you must either enter the labor force and work for a decade-plus, or graduate from a four-year college. Somber news for “diamonds in the rough” whose skills surpass their credentials. ([Location 2350](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=2350)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Two research teams confirm the U.S. has one of the highest—if not the highest—college premiums in the developed ([Location 2430](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=2430)) - Tags: [[pink]] - “When countries get richer, they consume more schooling.” Almost everyone buys reverse causation at the personal level. Why do the rich spend more money on fancy prep schools and bloated college tuition? Because the rich have more money to spend. ([Location 2473](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=2473)) - Tags: [[pink]] - but total education spending far surpasses total military spending. For the 2010–11 school year, education was 7.5% of the American economy, versus 4.7% for defense. Spending came to over $1.1 trillion on education, and a bit over $700 billion on defense. Schools overtook the military back in 1972 and sharply widened their lead after the Cold War. ([Location 3894](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=3894)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. —Mark Twain ([Location 4139](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=4139)) - Tags: [[pink]] - For a rising generation of technophiles, however, the debate is over. They’re convinced our education bubble is ready to burst, starting with higher education.46 Why now? Because today’s Internet teaches more effectively than old-school schools for a fraction of the cost. Online competition has already crushed traditional record companies, newspapers, and retailers. Brick-and-mortar schools are next in line. ([Location 4215](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=4215)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Why would the false become popular in the first place? Because human beings don’t like expressing—or believing—ugly truths. Instead, we gravitate—in word and thought—to views that “sound good.” Psychologists call this Social Desirability Bias.50 “There’s no such thing as a stupid child” sounds better than “10% of children are stupid.” “We will win the War on Terror” sounds better than “There’s a 50% chance the War on Terror reduces terrorism, a 30% chance it makes no difference, and a 20% chance ([Location 4277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=4277)) - Tags: [[pink]] - doubt that eager students, passionate educators, and wise deciders are hopelessly outnumbered. Meritorious education survives but does not thrive. ([Location 5018](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=5018)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The point of vocational education, in contrast, isn’t to brainwash kids to serve their corporate paymasters. It’s to teach kids marketable skills so employers court them. ([Location 5450](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=5450)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Signaling makes me pessimistic about online education as a business model, but I’m one of online education’s biggest fans. Never mind the future. Online education has already made enlightenment virtually free for anyone with an Internet connection. This is a sci-fi triumph of the human mind. GILLIAN: [disgruntled] So online education wins a moral victory, but traditional schools stay the dominant business model. ([Location 5560](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B076ZY8S8J&location=5560)) - Tags: [[pink]]