What we learn in school

Something more than nothing

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Here’s what I remember from school: In grade six I made the mistake of writing on a science test that the male form of a chicken is a crow. In a grade four test,I wrote that the invasive plant species growing on the Berg River is “Etc.” (No one had told me etc. stands for et cetera.) Somewhere in high school history, we learned about Stalin’s five-year plans. I specifically remember the word ‘Yekaterinburg’. In matric, we read Bonga in Afrikaans First Language, mostly because the teacher involved was also Paarl Gym’s first rugby team coach. I still have no idea what the story is about. (Bonga, Wikipedia tells me, is about the conflict between the African tribes and Christianity in nineteenth-century Mozambique.) Somewhere in science class, I learned that ‘magnesium burns with a blinding white light’.

That’s basically the sum of what I learned in school.

Now, the reader might wonder about the counterfactual reality: Would I have been able to read, write, do arithmetic, and know that Egypt is an African country if I hadn’t gone to school? Would I have been able to go to university, study economics, and now teach others about the reasons why some countries are rich and others poor?

Maybe not.

But there’s a good chance, writes the libertarian economist Bryan Caplan, professor of economics at George Mason University, that much of what I learned in school is absolutely useless. And because it costs time and (state) money to keep children in school, it’s not just useless, but also extremely expensive, a burden on society. There’s far too much education, Caplan explains in his book The Case Against Education.

Of course, says Caplan, we learn something in school, especially reading, writing, and arithmetic. But there’s a lot that we learn that is completely unnecessary:

Think about all the classes you ever took. How many failed to teach you any useful skills? The lessons you’ll never need to know after graduation start in kindergarten. Elementary schools teach more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. They also require history, social studies, music, art, and physical education. Middle and high schools add higher mathematics, classic literature, and foreign languages – vital for ahandful of budding scientists, authors, and translators, irrelevant for everyone else. Most college majors don’t even pretend to teach job skills. If you apply your knowledge of Roman history, Shakespeare, real analysis, or philosophy of mind on the job, you have an odd job.

Caplan then goes through the latest research on how little we actually remember from school. Americans typically have four years of high school history, but test them as adults, and they have no idea about even the basic facts of history. I can attest to this: In my second-year class, I test students’ geography knowledge at the start of every year. I show them a map of Africa and ask them to name the marked countries. It’s usually countries like Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal – and maybe one ‘difficult’ one like Mauritania. The average? 1 out of 5. Every year, for a decade now. Thirty per cent of the class do not know where Botswana is on a map. Let’s not forget: these are the crème de la crème of students in South Africa. They just don’t know basic things.

Caplan speaks to this knowledge decay:

Extensive research on ‘summer learning loss’ compares students’ scores at the beginning of the next school year. The average student intellectually regresses roughly one full month during a three-month summer vacation. The older the students, the steeper their decline. For reading, to take the clearest case, first- and second-graders actually slightly improve over the summer. By the time students are in middle school, however, one summer vacation wipes out over three months of reading proficiency.

But here’s Caplan’s dilemma: Why is the earnings premium of a university degree over 70% in the USA? Put differently, why do people with degrees earn so much more than those without? Even high school graduates earn more than those without a high school diploma. Surely, this is enough proof that education does indeed add value, that what you learn in school and university makes you more productive?

Wait a minute, says Caplan. It’s not the content that’s important. No, a qualification is merely a signal that students send to prospective employers that they are smart and can work hard. Caplan explains:

Even if what a student learned in school is utterly useless, employers will happily pay extra if their scholastic achievement provides information about their productivity. Suppose your law firm wants a summer associate. A law student with a PhD in philosophy from Stanford applies. What do you infer? The applicant is probably brilliant, diligent, and willing to tolerate serious boredom. If you’re looking for that kind of worker – and what employer isn’t? – you’ll make a generous offer. You could readily do so knowing full well that nothing the philosopher learned at Stanford applies on the job.

In short: educational qualifications are merely a signal of our inherent abilities and character.

There’s no doubt in my mind that there is much truth to Caplan’s argument. But I don’t agree with everything. I think, for example, that it’s also important to consider what the alternative to school is. For Caplan, it’s play. It makes sense if teenagers can ‘play’ in a safe environment, especially in nature, but most children in South Africa, without school, would become easy prey for criminals in unsafe townships; school provides a safe space for many and, for a few, a chance at a better life. A better school system – note: not more resources – could achieve even more.

And then there’s also a new study on what we learn—and remember—in high school biology. Benjamin Arold’s ‘Evolution vs. Creationism in the Classroom: The Lasting Effects of Science Education’ uses the staggered introduction of science curricula across different U.S. states to determine the causal impact of evolution instruction on students’ knowledge, beliefs, and life choices. He finds, firstly, that an increase in evolution content in biology classes leads to an increase in knowledge about evolution among students; perhaps not a startlingly interesting result, but in light of Caplan’s critique, also not insignificant. Importantly, this knowledge remains intact as these students become adults. And this is significant: 79% more of those who received the full curriculum on evolution ‘believe’ in evolution compared to those who did not learn about evolution in biology class. Interestingly, this knowledge of evolution has no effect on these adults’ religiosity and does not influence their political affiliations either.

Lastly, Arold compares the career choices of those who were exposed to evolution instruction with those who were not. High school students with comprehensive exposure are much more likely to pursue careers in the life sciences, particularly in biology.

Arold’s study emphasises that what we learn in school is not entirely useless. We may not remember the facts, and perhaps our matric marks are merely a signal to employers and universities about our abilities rather than our knowledge. Yet, let’s also remember that what we gain in those classrooms – the exposure to new ideas – can influence our lives in ways we may never realise.

This is an edited and translated version of my monthly column, Agterstories, on Litnet. Amid the decline of serious, balanced opinions globally and the reduction of Afrikaans in higher functions in South Africa, LitNet seeks to offer a space for those interested in current events and critical thinking. The images for this post were created using Midjourney v6.