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Jun 25, 2022Liked by Ives Parr

Hindsight is 20/20 and it's only later in life that we have the ability to understand why reading the classic books was important, for example, and what moral or life lessons were displayed there. Modern education is somewhat broken worldwide, it's an excessively simple input and output process with little regard for individual variation on how students retain and absorb knowledge. The huge explosion in homeschooling in the past few years is an example of how parents are responding to a need for a different approach in education.

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I whole heartedly agree. I really recommend people read Caplan's "The Case Against Education". I was spending a lot of time with him while he was writing it, and even I was shocked at how damning the case really was. He could almost be accused of soft pedaling his findings in day to day conversation.

I think Adam Smith had about the right of it when he wrote on it. Compulsory zero price schooling to teach reading, writing and basic numeracy, up until what we would probably call grade 4. Enough that people can function but only such that they can function. I personally might argue for more of the Amish standard of 8th grade education, although I would wager the average Amish 8th grader could beat the pants off the average "English"* 8th grader on standardized tests.

In either case, we could spend a lot less time wasting kids' time in schools if we focused more on specific skills then let them either join the workforce or decide to pursue more advanced studies or trades. If the Amish can leave school at 8th grade and get an apprenticeship, then a few years later run their own families and businesses, they must be on to something. We English graduate kids from who can't hold a candle to that.

* All non-Amish in Pennsylvania are called English.

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The Amish deliberately stunt the education of their children. Like some other religious groups, most notably Ultra-Orthodox Jews, they have discovered that this helps them to retain members.

The little education they get, wholly inadequate for a skilled worker in the modern economy, is forced upon them by the government. Without it, I wonder what brilliant ideas they might get: Perhaps women should not be educated at all?

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I disagree. I see the Amish as vastly more functional than the nonAmish (“English “) on average. They run their own businesses, multiple in many cases, and the youth are doing jobs well that no English kids their age could handle. Sure, they aren’t putting out software engineers or nuclear physicists but then damned near no other group is either, and we can just barely produce functional workers with K-12, or even college grads.

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Forgive the self advertisement but I have written a book on this topic which AFAIK is the definitive reference manual for this stuff. I recommend you check it out. It's on libgen and Amazon titled "An Empirical Introduction to Youth".

As you have discovered, people aren't exactly consistent when it comes to the ascendant ideology and its relation to the norms of youth. At the core this is because they "believe" in the myth of the teen brain, ie that the brain develops until 25. In my book I thoroughly review the literature and show that that is not true; it actually matures about 10 years earlier.

I also investigate the US education system and found that it is essentially its own power center seeking to expand itself at the expense of other sections of the elite -- namely the economic elite. The key way this is done is through deception since they are basically professional thinkers. Thus the false consensus on the teen brain emerged from foundation (especially MacArthur, which is controlled by universitariat) funding, what might be unconscious bias in service of material interests, and a healthy dose of convenient stupidity. The 25 number emerged from a guy named Jay Giedd who had a horrible habit of speculating in the media as if it was fact -- he guessed the number 25 in a Time article about a study of his that found nothing and only went up to the age of 21. The number stuck around, in my book I show how the "consensus" is a telephone game and how it appears that researchers primarily read news articles and don't read actually studies. Jay Giedd for instance wrote an essay for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy arguing for the teen brain in which every single citation was false. For example, he claimed the cerebellum grows into the teen years and this impacts cognitive coordination. He cited some rat study IIRC and a later study found that the cerebellum stops growing at 12 and shrinks until the end of life like the rest of the brain. All 30 something citations are like this.

Popular beliefs about education and adolescence have no relation to reality and are the product of professional thinkers serving their class interest with misleading and ultimately false claims about these two things.

I also examine the amount of socially optimal education as to measure the extent of the rot. I find that 97.8% of manhours spent in high school is a waste which continues only for the benefit of teachers, their unions, education corporations, and ultimately university interests, at the massive expense of youth, their families, and the working community. Consequently high schools should be shut down. Psychometrics reveal that about 20% of people are benefited by higher education, so they should go to colleges after 8th grade. Everyone else should get internships/apprenticeships and ultimatetly jobs.

Ultimately I think it is really worth reading this book -- I see it as relatively impossible to argue for a better youth while thinking that it's possible that the brain matures until 25, the education system exists because that's just the optimal amount of education, people think these things because there is a compelling case for them, etc.

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author

I think I largely agree with what you are saying. Are you familiar with the work of Robert Epstein?

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Yes, I recommend his book and Caplan's on the back of mine. I liked his book, especially the original survey he did showing how restricted youth are compared to felons and soldiers, but I did think the book was way overboard on anecdotes. He didn't address the teen brain myth (he actually has a 2007 Scientific American essay about it but doesn't look at any data, just cites Ancient Youth which heavily contributed to the first chapter of my book) and only cites a few studies on working memory and some quotes on IQ (not data!).

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Jun 25, 2022Liked by Ives Parr

I was home schooled and after I knew enough math and consistently outscored public school kids on standard testing my parents just dropped me off at the library on their way to work and picked me up on their way home. I got into Columbia.

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Jun 25, 2022Liked by Ives Parr

I tend to agree with most of the sentiment here, but we do force adults into education. Specifically I can think of court-mandated schooling, like having to go to driver's education after speeding offenses. Maybe these are pretty minor compared to a standard liberal arts curriculum, but it does set a bit of precedent.

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author

Yes, good point.

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Occasionally, the US decides that some of its citizens are going to learn how to be soldiers. Basic training does involve learning (some) math, geography, first aid, etc.

The UK decided in WW2 that some of its lucky citizens were going to learn how to be coal miners too. Not a trade most want, but society does enjoy having coal.

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Much of the world has been challenging formal education, noting that most of the value of formal education comes from the credential and the socialization rather than from the actual skills which themselves are generally not used. Most famous leaders of the tech revolution, like Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg were college drop outs. Elon Musk disparages excessive focus on formal credentials. Also, most K-12 students frequently challenge "when the heck will we need to use this?". There has been a growing populist revolution on the issue. There has been broad appetite for reform, but they are pulling in different directions, and there isn't broad consensus about exactly what to do. DeSantis has advanced strong policy proposals in the area. I applaud Bryan Caplan's arguments on the issue. I purchased and read "The Case Against Education". But saying that Caplan is making rare points, or is a rare critic, is not remotely true. Almost everyone has some criticism of the education system. Also, Caplan's central policy proposal is simply cease funding education hasn't persuaded anyone. Even Caplan's close peers, like Tyler Cowen and Edward Glaeser, aren't the slightest bit convinced that government should cut funding to higher ed; they actually advocate the opposite.

Secondly, this author questions why children are coerced to attend school and pursue hobbies like piano and baseball. That sounds like a question from someone who has never raised children. Am I wrong? Parents spend money and effort getting kids into hobbies because it's healthy for kids. What's the alternative? Leaving them at home on iPads all day? For adults, and older kids, let them choose for themselves. Younger kids really expect to have activities provided for them. School is largely done to benefit adults and let them do adult jobs.

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