[ExI] "Dumbing Us Down" by John Taylor Gatto

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Jul 9, 2018, at 1:25 PM, Edward Haigh <eh at edwardhaigh.com> wrote:
> 
> "The Case against Education" by Bryan Caplan has a similar argument that schooling should stop after the Three R's, but this education would still be state led and compulsory. 
> 
> Most of his arguments are based on human capital vs human signalling (e.g, would you rather hire someone who has a degree from Berkeley but didn't really bother with learning, or someone without a degree but attended Berkeleys lectures for free for four years). 
> 
> He also argues that the amount of stuff people forget from when they leave school is so large that we may as well not bother teaching them in the first place. Based mainly on results of surveys of Americans being asked basic maths and history questions - such as on the civil war. 
> 
> I think he is a bit too extreme with how far he takes his argument but I do recommend his book. 

Thanks! I hope to read Caplan’s book soon. I’ve heard an interview with him where he made a good consequentialist case IMO. Of course, it wasn’t a debate. (I believe he homeschools too, but he and his wife are obviously not your average couple in terms of educational and intellectual background.)

Regards,

Dan
   Sample my Kindle books at:
http://author.to/DanUst

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