> Why is the earnings premium of a university degree over 70% in the USA?
This is absolutely not true in general. (It may be true in some select fields.) I understand that about a third of US college graduates are no more employable than if they never went to college, and have significant student debt.
I am an engineer. What I found is that it is the (quality of) your fellow students that is the biggest factor. Also, college (much more than high school) is where you will establish the greatest friendships and important social and professional links that will be with you for the rest of your life.
You took a bit of detour there that had me upset for a moment. :-)
I come from a family of teachers and live in a world of constant learning, so I'm often annoyed at any insinuation that classical or foundational knowledge is less relevant nowadays. I do agree that many institutions don't prepare students for the workplace, but that's not their intention – and I'll reason that it doesn't _need_ to be. That said, trade and craft should be taught more. There is perhaps an imbalance nowadays.
The kind of knowledge I try to invest in is cumulative (mostly).
"Caplan then goes through the latest research on how little we actually _remember_ from school."
My reaction to the above was: Don't confuse what you _remember_ with what you _learn_.
Which agrees with this later sentiment, where the emphasis has now shifted:
"Arold’s study emphasises that what we _learn_ in school is not entirely useless."
Having a toddler at home and living through their amazing process of learning, I'm even more convinced of this statement: We compress knowledge over time and forget the effort it took and the subsequent skills that were developed. Knowing how to calculate a function's limit in math, or reconstructing a historical timeline and discussing the effects of a war, or having learned to play a musical instrument may none directly be things you use in your daily life, but you developed many, many skills along this path. I see our little one learning language: It's easy to assume years from now that language is just a given. It all can look less relevant looking back.
And a lot of learning at school happens outside of the classroom. I've had some tremendous teachers (one that I would put in the category of the Dead Poets Society) and some extraordinarily poor ones.
> Why is the earnings premium of a university degree over 70% in the USA?
This is absolutely not true in general. (It may be true in some select fields.) I understand that about a third of US college graduates are no more employable than if they never went to college, and have significant student debt.
I am an engineer. What I found is that it is the (quality of) your fellow students that is the biggest factor. Also, college (much more than high school) is where you will establish the greatest friendships and important social and professional links that will be with you for the rest of your life.
You took a bit of detour there that had me upset for a moment. :-)
I come from a family of teachers and live in a world of constant learning, so I'm often annoyed at any insinuation that classical or foundational knowledge is less relevant nowadays. I do agree that many institutions don't prepare students for the workplace, but that's not their intention – and I'll reason that it doesn't _need_ to be. That said, trade and craft should be taught more. There is perhaps an imbalance nowadays.
The kind of knowledge I try to invest in is cumulative (mostly).
"Caplan then goes through the latest research on how little we actually _remember_ from school."
My reaction to the above was: Don't confuse what you _remember_ with what you _learn_.
Which agrees with this later sentiment, where the emphasis has now shifted:
"Arold’s study emphasises that what we _learn_ in school is not entirely useless."
Having a toddler at home and living through their amazing process of learning, I'm even more convinced of this statement: We compress knowledge over time and forget the effort it took and the subsequent skills that were developed. Knowing how to calculate a function's limit in math, or reconstructing a historical timeline and discussing the effects of a war, or having learned to play a musical instrument may none directly be things you use in your daily life, but you developed many, many skills along this path. I see our little one learning language: It's easy to assume years from now that language is just a given. It all can look less relevant looking back.
And a lot of learning at school happens outside of the classroom. I've had some tremendous teachers (one that I would put in the category of the Dead Poets Society) and some extraordinarily poor ones.