What children learn at school is terribly imporant. Politicians tell us this, so it must be so. A great deal of taxpayers money is spent on schools, and when parents pay for private education the sums they are prepared to spend are extremely high.
Most things people value highly are subject to rapid innovation. Mobile phones, movies, cars, holidays, food. The quality of these goods and services benefit from the strong competition with the result that strong gains are obtained. But it's not the case with school. The same subjects are taught, in much the same way, perhaps now with an 'interactive' whiteboard taking the place of a blackboard. Teachers may be more smartly dress
ed, but they teach the same things in much the same way, with pupils failing to reach any higher standard, certainly if university tutors are to be believed.
The other thing is that there is very little global convergence. British children continue to study geography and French long after the point when it's clear that they have any great relevance to modern society. They no doubt study the Born-Haber process and electrolytic production of aluminium in Chemistry. The only conclusion I can come to is that whoever consumes what it is that teachers produce are not really very bothered about the ostensible product.
What then explains the high value placed on education? The only conclusion I can come to is that it is largely a positional good. Knowledge in itself is valueless, whereas an Oxbridge degree is of great value. This certainly is consistent with the fact that there is very little variation of graduate pay by subject studied.
The conclusion of all this: focus on passing exams and study what interests you!
After I wrote this I came across Rory Sutherlands article about various things, but in particular about what parents really want from schools: "What they want is a system that will give their children an advantage in securing a place at that small number of universities from which a 2:1 might get their CV to one of the seven law firms or banks for whom it has been their dream to work since age 13. " You can read the rest here. It is a rather bleak article and suggests a reason why British children are probably the most miserable in the world.
References
UK accused of failing children (BBC).
Most things people value highly are subject to rapid innovation. Mobile phones, movies, cars, holidays, food. The quality of these goods and services benefit from the strong competition with the result that strong gains are obtained. But it's not the case with school. The same subjects are taught, in much the same way, perhaps now with an 'interactive' whiteboard taking the place of a blackboard. Teachers may be more smartly dress
Image by ttelyob via Flickr
The other thing is that there is very little global convergence. British children continue to study geography and French long after the point when it's clear that they have any great relevance to modern society. They no doubt study the Born-Haber process and electrolytic production of aluminium in Chemistry. The only conclusion I can come to is that whoever consumes what it is that teachers produce are not really very bothered about the ostensible product.
What then explains the high value placed on education? The only conclusion I can come to is that it is largely a positional good. Knowledge in itself is valueless, whereas an Oxbridge degree is of great value. This certainly is consistent with the fact that there is very little variation of graduate pay by subject studied.
The conclusion of all this: focus on passing exams and study what interests you!
After I wrote this I came across Rory Sutherlands article about various things, but in particular about what parents really want from schools: "What they want is a system that will give their children an advantage in securing a place at that small number of universities from which a 2:1 might get their CV to one of the seven law firms or banks for whom it has been their dream to work since age 13. " You can read the rest here. It is a rather bleak article and suggests a reason why British children are probably the most miserable in the world.
References
UK accused of failing children (BBC).
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