The education panacea

This book debunks hyped-up education. It debunks President Obama’s idea that the best way Americans can compete in a global economy is to prolong their educations. Presumably, they will improve their thinking processes and be more likely to invent products that people will use in the future. We can trade those new products with China to bring our trade back into balance.

The first fly in this ointment is that the most successful inventors seem to be persons of limited education - Thomas Edison had only three months of formal schooling - or college dropouts like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. People invent not because they were taught to do so but because of an innate interest in certain activities plus the incentive and time to pursue that interest.

Another variation on the theme is what New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently told the nation’s governors. He said that today’s college graduates could not expect to find jobs but would have to create their own by finding niche for themselves somewhere or going the extra mile in terms of effort and creativity. Politicians like to hear such things because it relieves them of the necessity to do something about the unemployment problem.

This book is going to make certain persons angry so I will stop here. If you want to be angered, read the book.