Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
1–10 of 548 posts
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#2Surely it still is the great equalizer. Everyone I know claiming to be educated is certainly the same.
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#3[deleted]
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#4This one seems kind of tough to quickly summarize, since it covers so much. I guess the final paragraph does a decent job:
Education, training in cognitive and noncognitive skills, nutrition, health care and parenting are all among the building blocks of human capital, and evidence suggests that continuing investments that combat economic hardship among whites and minorities — and which help defuse debilitating conflicts over values, culture and race — stand the best chance of reversing the disarray and inequality that plague our political system and our social order.
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#5[deleted]
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#6This one seems kind of tough to quickly summarize, since it covers so much. I guess the final paragraph does a decent job: Education, training in cognitive and noncognitive skills, nutrition, health care and parenting are all among the building blocks of human capital, and evidence suggests that continuing investments that combat economic hardship among whites and minorities — and which help defuse debilitating confl…
Sounds amazing. So the group of kids with 70% fatherless can achieve the same as the group of kids with 30% fatherless! Wow.
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#7Two parts:
First, I think the ability to DO THINGS is the great equalizer at this point. Being a do-er lifts you out of poverty (or at least out of poverty's worst resting state). Being a do-er expands your network. Being a do-er prolongs your life (people with jobs/daily activities tend to live longer healthier lives). The best part about this is that technology has made it easier to become a do-er. You don't need as much specialized education or tools, and trial and error is free.
Secondly, education's place as the great economic equalizer has weakened because we have weakened the education. In public schools (the most widely used education institutions in the US), kids are just shoveled through. Why? We put an emphasis on standardized testing and graduation rates while also chronically underfunding schools. That leads us to lower quality/quantity of teachers who are told to march to the drum of hitting numbers. The emphasis on "just graduating" pushes teachers to push kids through, event when they have not actually learned anything. That same philosophy then propagates to college, where TA's want to research for their Masters/PHDs, not teach. You then get a "working class" with no real skills/education/ambition... they do not "do", which leads back to my first comment.
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#8Education is a multiplier of IQ, not an equalizer. Many people, although policymakers won't admit it, don't have the IQ to study at the high school level, for example learning algebra. Even more people don't have the IQ to study at the college level, for example studying calculus and writing a coherent, footnoted term paper. And only a small fraction of the population has the IQ to do significant research and earn a PhD. Charles Murray has discussed the IQ prerequisites of educational levels in his book Real Education.
The article says, "In the U.S., the big achievement gaps across lines of race or social class open up very early, before kindergarten, rather than during college."
Race and class differentials on IQ tests have been well documented but are in Paul Graham's category of What You Can't Say.
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#9It still is, but you no longer get educated at school ;)
Re: Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’?
#10Two parts: First, I think the ability to DO THINGS is the great equalizer at this point. Being a do-er lifts you out of poverty (or at least out of poverty's worst resting state). Being a do-er expands your network. Being a do-er prolongs your life (people with jobs/daily activities tend to live longer healthier lives). The best part about this is that technology has made it easier to become a do-er. You don't need a…
> while also chronically underfunding schools
Schools are not underfunded in the U.S., they waste money. Big difference.