We Are Less Educated Than We Think

More people than ever have a bachelor’s degree. But the content, rigor, and quality of college education has changed dramatically.

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Much has been written about the education divide in American politics: Those with college degrees tend to see the world in ways that those without do not. But I think there is more to the social effects of American higher education than simply whether or not one has a degree. The meaning of a college degree has changed over time in ways that may explain why our elites are consistently so much less than we hope for.

In 1940, just 4.6 percent of the U.S. population had a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Today, the number is 37.5 percent. Politicians celebrate the growth of higher education as proof that we are smarter, more learned, and readier for the information economy than ever. But the content, rigor, and quality of that education has changed dramatically. Grade inflation, the disappearance of a meaningful core curriculum, and the rise of vocational training means that a bachelor’s degree does not mean what it used to mean. Having a college degree in 2021 is drastically different than having a college degree in 1921.

To get a college degree 100 years ago, students had to master Latin, Western history, rhetoric, English literature, higher mathematics, and a smattering of theology and philosophy. This was considered to be a classical liberal arts education. The point, ideally, was to immerse a student in a breadth and variety of subjects to encourage broad-mindedness, liberality, imagination, intellectual flexibility, and critical judgment. With roots as far back as ancient Greece, the liberal arts were believed to be essential for the growth of leaders, thinkers, and creators. 

Today, students get almost none of that content. Student activists revolted against the classics in the 1960s, believing them to be irrelevant and racist. They demanded fundamental changes to make college curricula more relevant and representative—and they won. While broadening the canon held promise, reforms generally subtracted more than they added and threw the entire idea of a canon into question. Today students get, at most, a mere sampling of a classical liberal arts education. The most popular majors are business, health, engineering, medicine, computer science, communications and journalism, and (decreasingly) education. In other words, they are job training programs rather than courses of study in the liberal arts. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “ But another solution that is for everyone is for all of us to practice recognizing our own ignorance and to temper our conversation accordingly. ”

    In other words, Socratic humility. I like it. Sadly, I fall far short of it myself all too often.

    Paul, what specific advice do you have for a relatively recent (less and less each year) college graduate with an engineering degree he doesn’t use who wants to further his education in ways that will combat the educated-fool/Dunning-Kruger effect? I read widely (including many of the Great Books) and try to use podcasts and courses to further my education. But I don’t want to go back to grad school.

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  2. Frederick F

    My “core curricula” in my BA was largely a repeat of high school courses, but worse. I CLEPed out of as many as I could. My 400-level major courses were all intro courses. Compared to high school, I probably got dumber. Fully accredited. It was online (sadface) but I was able to rush through in two years with all the CLEPs I took.
    I loved my English MA, though, and that’s where I felt I finally got a real education and training. I’ve always been a bit of an autodidact, but there’s real value in studying beneath professors and becoming “institutionalized.”
    Also, I’ve helped a faculty member create educational materials for MBA courses. Those business degrees are…overvalued.

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    Victor

    This is a comment n argument. It is also an argument most often made without evidence. It seems self evident to us older folks that curricula are changing and this must be bad. Look at all the fuzzy-minded gender studies grads, and the vocationally minded kids learning business and computers.

    But we weren't so smart either, and our best and brightest have objectively done a poor job of local and national leadership, judging by the results.

    I would argue further that a basic understanding of computers is more essential to good citizenship than is Greek and Latin.

    To me, the biggest problem we face is the lack of intellectual humility that drives people like the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. And many if not most of these folks do not have a college degree to explain their unmerited confidence. What they do have is a right-wing propaganda machine which has been working overtime the last 30 years to undermine the whole idea of expertise and tear down higher education.



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    Peter

    This problem starts early, and only blossoms in college.
    I’ve taught middle school math to an urban (Black and Brown, working class) demographic for 26 years. I’m a Boomer, that age where you had to demonstrate mastery of what you were taught(why students rue my class when in it but value it years later). The students we get are less and less knowledgeable, expect to be spoon-fed learning vs. earning it, and expect to get grades from simply turning in work or “extra credit.” Too many of my education colleagues are complicit in this crime, and in affluent communities I hear it’s almost expected. The real reason out here in CA we’ve eliminated the SAT as a college entrance requirement isn’t for “equity” as it’s meant today, but to limit the Asians/high performing immigrants who crush the SAT and thus limit the slots the affluent/connected ’think belong to them at USC, Stanford, UCLA and Berkeley.
    An urban meme is the kid who talks trash in a classroom until they have to read something out loud. Our so-called college educated youth personify this meme: They can create YouTube channels, but make a cohesive, persuasive argument, or even assemble a shelf from IKEA, and you got nothing.
    I’m more proud of my non-college educated former students now entrepreneurs/creatives than this faux-educated college class.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Abuladeen

    "But the content, rigor, and quality of college education has changed dramatically." Plural subject, plural verb please. Not a great look at the head of a piece about education.

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  6. Avatar photo
    David Eggleston

    Hear! Hear! I’ve always learned more by extracurricular reading than I have in classes, and that goes back to prep school thirty-five years ago. This situation is not new.

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    Emilyasbenson

    My husband and I met in the early-mid '00s while getting just the sort of rigorous classical education describes at Patrick Henry College. We read works ranging from The Odyssey to Waiting for Godot, Socrates to Nietzsche, Biology, Physics, Theology, Philosophy, Metaphysics, minimum two years of History, Music Appreciation, Law, and more. It prepared me well for any of life that has come my way since then, but it also gave me a deep sense of both humility and gratitude. I ended up there after trying a semester at my local state university, a depressing waste of time and money where I paid thousands of dollars to attend canned PowerPoint lectures delivered by bored adjuncts and ignorant grad students. It was enough to convict me that I should look into smaller private schools where people were serious about being there to learn I ended up at Patrick Henry in its early years and did not regret it.

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  8. CatoTheElder

    I fully and completely agree. And then some, so to speak. There's an ancillary problem of note, too: that it's very hard to persuade most people that by missing out on a core of classical education (even a modernized version of one), they've simply not obtained both very important knowledge and very important skills of thought, perception, and expression. But the ship has not only sailed, it has struck the rocks and sank.

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    Dusty

    I don't know if our generation holds some excessive level of arrogance/ignorance combination. I mean, historically speaking we're not far removed from the religious wars of Europe. In those wars, very philosophical and nuanced doctrinal differences were fought over in the most brutal of ways by largely illiterate armies. Do we really think all those soldiers had well-developed and elaborate views on, say, predestination? I'm sure one could find countless similar analogies throughout history.

    I'm a fan of the liberal arts tradition, having been a history major myself. I wouldn't say my undergraduate program "immersed" me in topics outside my major, but it certainly exposed me to and challenged me in areas of science, mathematics, art, and economics.

    But, I also see the value of more vocational-focused programs. I also completed an MBA and that program taught me a different way of looking at the world and shaped my approach to many aspects of business and public life. At work I find myself surrounded by engineers - a place I never thought I'd end up - and I'm sure their educational experiences shaped them in different ways.

    Perhaps it's that MBA program speaking, but to me this all speaks of choice, preferences, fit, and the marketplace. Yes, the liberal arts have fallen out of favor in many circles, but they're not extinct. And they're not all woke. There are plenty of excellent liberal arts schools and programs out there. There are also excellent tech, business, and art schools. Students should feel free to choose the school and the program based off their interests and talents.

    As a society, it doesn't have to be an either/or choice. It can be, and very much is, an "all of the above." And then let free people choose what's best for them.

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  10. Donald H Waters

    Yes, the Great Books. 50 years ago my parents bought the 'Great Books' published by the Encyclopedia Britannica. Reading them has brought a much a clearer understanding of modern culture. It hasn't reduced my ignorance much, but my thinking has evolved over the decades and my appreciation of my ignorance of much what I thought I understood has tempered my speech. One could do worse.

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