On Mar 26, 2014, at 5:01 PM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote: > > College no doubt is overrated in terms of how well it educates its graduates > on average, but > has any mass institution in history ever done any better?
It's curious how these discussions tend to wander. I believe this one started from the putatively self-evident 'fact' that 'investing in education' reduces inequality. Whether any 'mass institution has done better' is kind of a meaningless question since compulsory mass credentialing is an extremely recent phenomenon. In other words, there are no comparables. But whether or not the question is answerable -- and, I should say, regardless how we answer it if so -- the US credentialling and indoctrination sector presents an extraordinarily dismal picture. In fact, under some lights, it rather resembles a penumbra of the enforcement and incarceration sector. > > Surely it is a much better way to spend society's resources than the > military, for-profit healthcare or just about any other government budget > item? Oh, I don't know. There's a lot to be said for garbage collection, and the buoying of navigation channels. Not to mention GPS. The comparands suggested in Raghu's question give the game away, really. Imagine a poor guy in the dungeons of the Inquisition, with Dominicans idly tearing out bits of his flesh with red-hot pincers. The patient exhibits a certain inclination to protest. The head Dominican tut-tuts and tells him, "Just be glad we're not *Jesuits*." _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
