Against Higher Education By James Reed

     Each day I seek out any articles attacking the universities, which have become my special bee in the bonnet. Political correctness insanity is easy to find, as libtardism is everywhere, but those seeing an intrinsic fault in higher education are harder to come by. Education is the cult of our age, and few question the worth of a degree. But, there are some who do:
  https://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2018/05/30/against-higher-education-n2485356

“Today, all Americans are told, “Go to college!” President Obama said, “College graduation has never been more valuable.” But economist Bryan Caplan says that most people shouldn’t go. “How many thousands of hours did you spend in classes studying subjects that you never thought about again?” he asks. Lots, in my case. At Princeton, I learned to live with strangers, play cards and chase women, but I slept through boring lectures, which were most of them. At least tuition was only $2,000. Now it’s almost $50,000. “People usually just want to talk about the tuition, which is a big deal, but there’s also all the years that people spend in school when they could have been doing something else,” points out Caplan in my new YouTube video. “If you just take a look at the faces of students, it’s obvious that they’re bored,” he says. “People are there primarily in order to get a good job.”

That sounds like a good reason to go to college. But Caplan, in his new book, The Case Against Education, argues that there’s little connection between what we absorb in college and our ability to do a job. “It’s totally true that when people get fancier degrees their income generally goes up,” concedes Caplan, but “the reason why this is happening is not that college pours tons of job skills into you. The reason is ... a diploma is a signaling device.” It tells employers that you were smart enough to get through college. But when most everyone goes to college, says Caplan, “You just raise the bar. Imagine you’re at a concert, and you want to see better. Stand up and of course you’ll see better. But if everyone stands up, you just block each other’s views.” That’s why today, he says, high-end waiters are expected to have college degrees. “You aren’t saying: you, individual, don’t go to college,” I interjected.”You’re saying we as a country are suckers to subsidize it.” “Exactly,” replied Caplan.

“Just because it is lucrative for an individual doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for a country.” Caplan says if students really want to learn, they can do it without incurring tuition debt. “If you want to go to Princeton, you don’t have to apply,” he points out. “Just move to the town and start attending classes.” That’s generally true. At most schools you can crash college lectures for free. But almost no one does that. “In people’s bones, they realize that what really counts is that diploma,” concludes Caplan. Because that diploma is now usually subsidized by taxpayers, college costs more. Tuition has risen at triple the rate of inflation. It’s not clear students learn more for their extra tuition, but colleges’ facilities sure have gotten fancier. They compete by offering things like luxurious swimming pools and gourmet dining. That probably won’t help you get a job. “If you’re doing computer science or electrical engineering, then you probably are actually learning a bunch of useful skills,” Caplan says. But students now often major in abstract topics like social justice, diversity studies, multicultural studies.”

     The article goes further, quoting Caplan as saying that a study has shown that one third of people attending university, have learnt virtually nothing after four years study. That seems paradoxical, but we need to remember here that most students, even in sciences, just study to pass exams and not to master the subject matter. Who can remember their high school mathematics, after say 50 years? Or, even one year? I know only one brilliant person, who did recall his high school maths after 40 years, and  was motivated to restudy maths because his son needed help to get into first year engineering, and he did not enrol in any courses, merely sat in on them. Most importantly, he made use of the free course material on the web, especially on YouTube. But, there now is free material from top US universities, available to anyone with a computer with internet. How good is that? There is already an on-line university, far better than the bricks and mortar towers of political correctness.

     Here is the Wiki on Professor Caplan:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Caplan

     He is an open borders advocate, but is good on attacking the universities. His recent book on this topic is The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money, (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2018). The summary of the book on Amazon.com is:

“Why we need to stop wasting public funds on education. Despite being immensely popular--and immensely lucrative―education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students’ skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity―in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee. Learn why students hunt for easy As and casually forget most of what they learn after the final exam, why decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for the average worker but instead in runaway credential inflation, how employers reward workers for costly schooling they rarely if ever use, and why cutting education spending is the best remedy.

Caplan draws on the latest social science to show how the labor market values grades over knowledge, and why the more education your rivals have, the more you need to impress employers. He explains why graduation is our society’s top conformity signal, and why even the most useless degrees can certify employability. He advocates two major policy responses. The first is educational austerity. Government needs to sharply cut education funding to curb this wasteful rat race. The second is more vocational education, because practical skills are more socially valuable than teaching students how to outshine their peers. Romantic notions about education being “good for the soul” must yield to careful research and common sense.”

     I hope to save up enough money by cutting out a few meals to be able to buy this book, and do a long review of it in the future. I even printed off the Amazon page so I can see it each day when I clean my teeth.