A Real College Student’s Take on Murray’s ‘Real Education’

I was two years into college when I picked up the book “Real Education” by the much-maligned conservative Charles Murray. Even after the roughly 17 years since its publication, I found that the book surprisingly offered an educational perspective more conducive to student success than the more recent “College for All” movement I was surrounded by growing up. 

 In his book, Murray centers his discussion around four educational truths:

·       Academic ability varies.

·       Half of the students will always be below average.

·       Too many people are going to college, and many are suffering because of it.

·       America’s future depends on how we educate those who do belong in college.

Murray is aware that these statements cannot be said in polite company. His four truths have prompted many of his critics to accuse them of containing  “unvarnished elitism,” which is of course unacceptable for those who think college is for everyone. 

However, if we define elitism as the unjust preference of a select few as opposed to concern for the good of all, I found Murray’s perspective far from elitist.

For example, one of his points that particularly struck me was that we have subconsciously (and unjustly) made the bachelor’s degree the “symbol of first-class citizenship.” And as every high school senior knows, he’s quite right. 

For the past several decades, educators, guidance counselors, politicians, and parents alike have marketed the bachelor’s degree as the guarantee of success in the workplace and a rite of passage into the real world, regardless of the individual needs and desires of the student in question.

The result is that many college students are simply not ready for college-level work. For example, I have watched many of my classmates struggle to read basic words, identify the subject and predicate of a sentence, or write a short essay without AI. Much of freshman (and even sophomore) year is consequently spent teaching students basic reading and writing skills that should have been acquired during or before high school, reflecting an overall lowering of academic standards in higher education. 

Another result is that alternatives to four-year colleges have become undervalued. In trying to herd as many young adults through college as possible, we have not-so-subliminally told them that different career pathways (like trade schools, apprenticeships, or simply entering the workforce immediately upon graduating high school) are inherently inferior to getting a bachelor’s degree.

However, this raises a question: if a university education should not be every student’s pathway toward well-paying, meaningful work, what is a university’s true purpose?

This leads me to another of Murray’s points in “Real Education”that I found particularly compelling, which is that universities need to revive the classical liberal arts tradition.

Why?

Rather than serving a purely utilitarian purpose, a college-level liberal education seeks to educate the whole human person (mind, body, and spirit) and render him more able to use his freedom well (hence the use of the word “liberal,” which has the same root word as “liberty”). This is typically done through rigorous instruction in grammar, logic, and rhetoric (the “trivium”), as well as arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy (the “quadrivium”). It also often includes studying the works of great Western thinkers and encourages the pursuit of truth for truth’s sake.

As someone who attends a liberal arts university, it was refreshing to see someone as practical as Murray show support for such an educational model.

Unfortunately, it is a model that is often criticized as impractical and elitist. But these same critics fail to understand both Murray and the purpose behind a liberal education.

A university’s duty is not merely to train students to be good lawyers, doctors, or engineers, but also to be good citizens and ultimately good human beings. As Murray points out, many of the nation’s top students are already smart, but they need to learn to be wise. Having talent does not mean one knows how to use that talent for good and virtuous purposes, which is where genuine, liberal education comes in.

What Murray’s “Real Education” demonstrates is that the real elitism is found in trying to make college the default path for every high school graduate, since this both devalues and degrades alternative career paths and blue-collar jobs that many students might find fulfilling. 

Murray’s book still shows us how we can change our mindset to address the unique needs of every student, without pressuring them to accept a narrowly defined idea of what real education and real success look like.

Anna Blubaugh is currently a junior at the University of St. Thomas, where she is majoring in history and double minoring in political science and data analytics. Thomas Lindsay, Ph.D., is the Higher Education Policy Director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Next Generation Texas.