The Case Against Education

Provocatively subtitled 'why the education system is a waste of time and money', this radical and subversive book makes the case for cutting rather than increasing education funding; it stimulates new lines of thinking on the topic, where most people instinctively feel we need more rather than less education. The author writes as an economist, distinguishing between the selfish and social benefits of education and arguing that while the case for the first is strong, the case for social benefits is dubious as so much time is expended on subjects not relevant to the workplace, the content which is forgotten by most people - and indeed bores the majority at the time. His central contention is that the main role of education is in fact signalling intelligence, work ethic or productivity, desire to please and conformity - good graduates exhibit these qualities desirable to employers and are rewarded accordingly, although over time the education premium declines while the ability premium increases.

The liberal ideal is well expressed in a quotation by a former president of Harvard when he says that education is a special, deeply political, almost sacred civic activity conveying a set of convictions about how most nobly to live in the world. Caplan argues that this is seldom realised in the existing system, and even the best lecturers like Steven Pinker find the hall half empty after a few weeks. He defines himself as a cynical idealist - he is cynical about students, remarking that the vast majority are philistines and cannot be inspired with a lasting love of ideas about culture; in addition, most teachers are uninspiring. And education as a whole is overrated: 'academic success is a great way to get a good job, but a poor way to learn how to do a good job.' Rather than more education - although he does feel that we underrate the vocational - Caplan recommends that adulthood should start earlier. And he is surely right that surplus and debt-ridden graduates lead to credential inflation and what he calls malemployment where over-qualified people are working in coffee shops. This contrarian book requires us to re-examine our habitual assumptions about education.