Pun Salad

The subtitle is: "Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality". Here they are:

1. Ability varies.

2. Half of the children are below average.

3. Too many people are going to college.

4. America's future depends on how we educate the academically gifted.

Murray lays out his arguments for each of these propositions, then, in a final chapter, presents his guidelines for a reform of America's educational system. His writing is extraordinarily clear, reasonable, and unpretentious. And (for me at least) he's quite convincing.

One of Murray's fat targets is "educational romanticism": an idealized vision of universal educatability married to careful ignorance of contradictory evidence. This vision is present on both the left and right—think "No Child Left Behind".

Although Murray is probably too kind to mention it, there's also often a nasty component of narcissism involved as well: policies advocated and positions taken because they make us feel good about ourselves. When you're congratulating yourself about how compassionate you are, who needs to check on whether you're actually helping anyone?

Predictably, Murray's opponents went apeshit when this book came out late last year. And it's difficult to imagine a college president, for example, agreeing with the "too many people are going to college" proposition. At least not in public. ("We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen!") A decent discussion of the book was held at the Cato Unbound site last year, recommended either before or after you read the book.

I'd like to think that Murray's recommendations had a chance of enactment, but the interests vested in the status quo are huge, and America doesn't seem to currently be in the mood for non-wishful thinking. The best chances for reform seem to lie at the pre-college levels, where "choice" movements are opening up opportunities for escaping from government schools.