Old School

CHARLES MURRAY’S Real Education weighs in at under 200 pages, not counting the notes-it’s no doorstop like the libertarian icon’s The Bell Curve or Human Accomplishment. Nonetheless, it’s heavy on ideas, proposing dramatic policy upheavals from the university system down through elementary school. It is to be hoped that the book will do for education policy what Murray’s 1984 treatise Losing Ground did for welfare reform; it’s an important contribution.

Two fundamental distinctions underlie Murray’s framework. When it comes to higher education, the distinction is between students who go to college for vocational training, and students who go to learn, either for learning’s sake or to lay the foundation for post-graduate study. In K-12 education, the distinction is between learning facts and learning concepts.

About the Author

Robert VerBruggen

Robert VerBruggen is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Featured Tags

Manage following

Charles Murray

Education

CHARLES MURRAY’S Real Education weighs in at under 200 pages, not counting the notes-it’s no doorstop like the libertarian icon’s The Bell Curve or Human Accomplishment. Nonetheless, it’s heavy on ideas, proposing dramatic policy upheavals from the university system down through elementary school. It is to be hoped that the book will do for education policy what Murray’s 1984 treatise Losing Ground did for welfare reform; it’s an important contribution.

Two fundamental distinctions underlie Murray’s framework. When it comes to higher education, the distinction is between students who go to college for vocational training, and students who go to learn, either for learning’s sake or to lay the foundation for post-graduate study. In K-12 education, the distinction is between learning facts and learning concepts.