The Case Against Education: Book Review

Introduction 

Most people have similar views of education: “Education helps you learn useful skills!” “Education teaches you how to think!” “Education makes you into a better person!” Your teachers, parents, and role models likely tell you this everyday. I call this the human capital model of education. 

I propose another model of education. It teaches you some useful skills, the three Rs( Reading, writing, and arithmetic), but the majority of the value of education comes through signaling. Colleges and future employers look at your grades to determine if you are intelligent, hardworking, and conformist. Model students with high grades, perfect attendance, and no disciplinary records probably have all of these attractive traits. I call this the signaling model of education.

More precisely, I believe that 20% of the value of education is through building human capital, and the other 80% comes from signaling. It is important to note I believe that school does teach you some useful skills, but the majority of school is useless. In short, education primarily helps sort bad workers from good workers, not build skills. 

As a result of the signal, employers are willing to pay much more to people with degrees and higher gpas. High school graduates make about $6,000 more than dropouts. Bachelor’s degree graduates make $20,000 more than high school graduates. Even for low skilled jobs a large education premium appears. Similar drastic results show up with high school GPA.

Bryan Caplan Case Against Education

The classic explanation of this phenomenon is the human capital model. Education teaches new skills, which are rewarded in the job market. However, there are many problems with the Human Capital Model of Learning 

Evidence against the Human Capital Model of Learning

1. The Curriculum is filled with fluff. 

Figure 2.1: Average Years of Coursework Passed by High School Graduates (2005) Source: Snyder and Dillow 2011, pp. 228–30, 642. “Years of coursework” is measured in Carnegie units. One Carnegie unit is 120 hours of class time over the course of a year. To get credit for a class, students need at least a D.

Figure 2.2: Math Coursework Passed by High School Graduates (2005) Source: Snyder and Dillow 2011, p. 234.

The majority of classes high schoolers take have no real world application such as the arts, foreign languages, and social studies. The classes with some practical application are still filled with fluff. In English classes students spend time analyzing Shakespeare and reading poems, instead of learning how to write technical papers or work emails. In math classes, we teach students useless proofs in geometry. Even in college people choose majors with little real world relevance. The most common degrees are in the liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities. Computer science and engineering are about 10% of degrees. Yet employer’s pay large premiums for education. Why? The signal you provide from finishing all this education is more important than what you actually learn. 

2. School teaches a little more than nothing  

Although students learn some useful things during school, Students mostly learn to regurgitate information on the exam, then quickly forget everything. Most students do not truly learn and fail to retain crucial skills and knowledge into adulthood. Most adults would fail basic tests on math, science, history, and foreign language. 

Adults know barely anything about civics: 

Since the answers are multiple choice we must adjust “% Who Answer Correctly” to “% Who Really Know”:, as some people would guess and get the correct answer. 

Adults know barely anything about science: 

Adults know barely anything about math: 

Customers at Mcdonald’s didn’t know the ⅓ pounder burger was larger than the ¼ pounder. Furthermore, Less than 1% of adults have claimed to learn a foriegn language well in school. The average American adult spends 13 years in school and retains very little. This is because the signal you provide from finishing all this education is more important than what you actually learn. 

3. School doesn't teach you how to think. 

Most people would agree adults forget most of the facts they learn in school. They counter, school teaches people how to think! Or it builds mental muscles! For example, history class can teach critical thinking; a science class can teach logic. 

However, the established educational psychologists who specialize in “transfer of learning” have measured the hidden intellectual benefits of education for over a century. They find nothing. Educational psychologists Perkins and Salomon write, “Besides just plain forgetting, people commonly fail to marshal what they know effectively in situations outside the classroom or in other classes in different disciplines. The bridge from school to beyond or from this subject to that other is a bridge too far.” 

In short, you only learn what you practice. Learning chemistry improves only deterministic thinking, since the rules of chemistry are deterministic. Learning economics improves only statistical thinking, since theorems of economics are all statistical. Learning Latin helps you learn romance languages, but does not help you learn all other languages. Learning one subject generally does not help you learn another subject(math is an exception). 

Even if you do learn something, you probably won’t be able to apply it outside of the classroom. It is one thing to learn statistics, and another to use statistics to make decisions in real life. It is one thing to learn about logical fallacies, and another to use them to analyze newspapers you read. School doesn't teach you to take abstract knowledge and utilize it in real life. 

However, some would say just the exposure of the knowledge is worth it. For example, people say education can teach appreciation for high culture such as Shakespeare, Poetry, and Art. However, the evidence shows school does the exact opposite. Students assigned summer reading, read for fun less Students who receive grades/rewards for art are less creative. Also, you can just ask people if English class instilled a love of reading in them. I would guess most would say the exact opposite. Further, school fails to expose students to most potential jobs(trades, hospitality, service), and instead only exposes them to a small minority of white collar jobs. 

Despite learning nearly nothing in school, employers pay a handsome premium for those with more education. Why? Because the higher grades and education show you are intelligent, hardworking, and conformist. You will learn the stuff you need to know on the job. 

Evidence for the Signaling Model 

1. Testing conformity and conscientiousness  

It is tough for employers to find out if applicants are hardworking. In interviews people state their biggest flaw is working too hard. If a job is on the line, employers will work as hard as possible, then slack once their job is secured. Degrees and grades signal students hard work. Toiling away studying, completing projects, and going to class shows the applicant's work ethic. Equally important is that the applicant is conformist. The employee must be able to follow directions of the boss without complaints. Students who have 4.0 gpas probably do exactly what is told by teachers, and will do the same on the job. However, other than education it is hard to screen for these traits. 

2. People don’t care about learning. 

When classes are canceled students jump for joy. If they cared about learning instead of grades, they would be glum. Students love to take easy classes to get an A on their transcript, but are turned off by hard teachers who teach them skills. Employers will not know if the teacher is easy or hard, so the A will look the same with an easy teacher with much less work. 

3. Sheepskin Effect 

The 12th year of education(last year of highschool) and the 16th year(last year of college) education pay much more than a normal year.  Graduating highschool and highschool shows employers you take social norms seriously and have the brains and work ethic to comply. As a result, employers pay a premium for degrees. 

“High school graduation has a big spike: twelfth grade pays more than grades 9, 10, and 11 combined. In percentage terms, the average study finds graduation year is worth 3.4 regular years.“- Bryan Caplan Case Against Education. 

“Senior year of college pays over twice as much as freshman, sophomore, and junior years combined. In percentage terms, the average study finds graduation year is worth 6.7 regular years.” - Bryan Caplan Case Against Education. 

The human capital model of education would predict each year of high school and each year of college would cause similar increases in pay, as useful skills are taught each year. This does not occur, however. 

Conclusion 

I am sure some of you disagree about what percent of education is signaling and what percent building human capital. That is great. I hope I convinced you at least that signaling is an important part of education. 

Once again buy this great book: Bryan Caplan’s Case Against Education