The Case against Education

by Bryan Caplan

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Initial Thoughts: I don't disagree with Caplan's points about credential inflation and education often being a matter of "signalling" skills rather than a matter of learning useful things (or even non-useful things). However, the book is so repetitive and unclearly structured that I can't give this as many stars as I want to for its thought-provoking ideas. Read his article "What Is College Good For?" in the Atlantic instead of the book, and you'll get the ideas far more succinctly.

*As a side note, I would point out that Caplan cites an enormous amount of studies from people in various fields to support his claims. He does lay out sort of sample scenarios to make points, but I disagree with anyone whose issue with the book is that it is too "anecdotal." Obviously, no one has to agree with Caplan's points, but I think suggesting that the book isn't based in research, as some reviewers have done, is odd.