“Galactically overrated.” That is how Bryan Caplan, author of the new book The Case Against Education, describes the value of schooling. Learning does not have to bepractical or good for the soul, according to Caplan, but when it “is neither useful nor inspirational,” he says, “how can we call it anything but wasteful?”
If education in the United States is not entirely well, Caplan does an excellent job identifying some of its main symptoms: high drop-out rates, shocking levels of numeric, scientific, and cultural illiteracy as well as a strong preference for credentials over genuine learning. His diagnosis—that students are lazy, teachers are uninspiring, and schools focus way too much on “useless” academic subjects—is provocative, but less helpful. And his remedies—raise college tuition, get rid of subjects such as literature, history and foreign languages, and dramatically ramp up vocational education—are downright misguided.
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