I just got an advance copy of Charles Murray’s new book Real Education, which is to be released August 19 by Crown Forum. I have just started reading it, and the book looks like a greatly needed challenge to what Murray calls our “educational romanticism.”

Of particular interest to PBC readers will be his third chapter, “Too Many People Are Going to College.” Exactly! He writes, “One of the most damaging messages of educational romanticism has been that everyone should go to college.”

Murray also discusses the dumbing-down problem: “If surviving to a diploma is the definition of ‘cope with college-level material,’ then almost anyone can do it if he shops for easy courses in an easy major at an easy college.”

I’ll have a full review of the book before long.