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parrhesia  1yr ago (sotonye.substack.com)   2349 thread views

Most Education is Wasteful and Immoral

sotonye.substack.com

SS: I make a case for drastically cutting back on education. I argue that education doesn’t achieve its desired goals. The material is irrelevant and students forget much of the material. Most information taught in schools is quickly accessible with a smartphone. Education might be warranted if it boosted cognitive ability but it appears to be increasing IQ scores rather than actual ability to think.

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This is the Freddie + Caplan argument. Agree. For those who lack the aptitude and or drive, education is just busywork or daycare that at best only instills basic skills. Anything beyond just reading and writing does not stick: hence, poor outcomes on general knowledge tests. Nothing learned after 8th grade is of any use for most people, either because it's not needed or it will be forgotten anyway. I remember reading Shakespeare in high school; don't remember any of it. World history was sorta useful but I could have learned that on my own. Education is just a signal for the ability to be compliant and sit still, and some baseline competence.

For those who lack the aptitude and or drive, education is just busywork or daycare that at best only instills basic skills.

It's also useless for many who have the aptitude and the drive.

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