The
New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Summary of the book (probably from the book’s jacket cover):
Economist Herb Stein famously said that something that can't
go on forever, won't. For decades now, America
In The New School, Glenn Harlan Reynolds explains how parents, students and educators can, and must, reclaim and remake American education. Already, Reynolds explains, many Americans are abandoning traditional education for new models. Many are going to charter schools or private schools, but others are going another step beyond and making the leap to online education—over 1.8 million K-12 students already.
The New School does not prescribe a one-size-fits-all solution for education. Americans require a diverse system of innovative approaches—each suited to a family’s needs and spending potential. But with the profusion of online education, school choice, and even a return to alternatives like apprenticeships and on the job training, Americans hold the power to lower costs and improve outcomes from the ground up.
In The New School, Glenn Harlan Reynolds explains how parents, students and educators can, and must, reclaim and remake American education. Already, Reynolds explains, many Americans are abandoning traditional education for new models. Many are going to charter schools or private schools, but others are going another step beyond and making the leap to online education—over 1.8 million K-12 students already.
The New School does not prescribe a one-size-fits-all solution for education. Americans require a diverse system of innovative approaches—each suited to a family’s needs and spending potential. But with the profusion of online education, school choice, and even a return to alternatives like apprenticeships and on the job training, Americans hold the power to lower costs and improve outcomes from the ground up.
Customer reviews:
5
Stars
Heh.
A blogger known for his brevity produces a substantive view of both K-12 and
higher education -- in 103 pages.
I had read both of his Broadside books. Between that and reading Instapundit, many of the ideas in The New School are familiar. But I would still highly recommend buying a copy for yourself and one to pass around to parents you know and any open minded teachers.
Reynolds is an expert on the topic as he is Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee, married to PhD Psychologist Dr. Helen Smith, yet the perspective of New School is much more about his role as a consumer of education for their daughter and for the bloggers' desire to assemble elements into social and political patterns. The joy of the book is its academic cred without the academic's diffidence (or turgid prose...)
I don't think I need post a spoiler alert that there are problems in education. But it is a huge, complicated, interconnected system with the distortions of more than a hundred years of government involvement. It is easy to choose one failed facet (for me it is Teachers' Unions) to hang all the deficiencies upon. New School broadens the concerns and adds significant new concepts.
Reynolds's Instapundit writings cherish modernity, and the "New" part of the "The New School" is to rescue 21st Century students from a 19th Century Prussian model which was imported to train good 20th Century factory workers.
"On his return, [Horace] Mann extolled the Prussian model in his seventh annual report. This met with some resistance, as "critics accused him of wanting to establish a 'Prussian-style tyranny' in the schools, arguing that the Prussian model was based on a presumption that the government was wiser than the citizenry, while inAmerica
Reynolds helpfully points out the Mann's children were homeschooled. But sitting still, forming orderly lines, and moving with bells prepared students for factory work. How much of that transfers to your job?
Another key insight is the comparison to a financial bubble. Consumers are so certain of a return that they use easy credit to pay ever escalating prices without carefully assessing the future value of the asset. Sound like anything? A story you heard? Bueller?
The escalating prices are never spent on instruction. Climbing walls, fancy dining halls take a byte, but the real culprit is administration which is more likely to impede instruction with paperwork and regulation. As the crown jewelCalifornia University
system faces severe cuts, it seems "diversity" is untouchable:
"University
of California
Not that my personal bête-noir comes out well:
"For a long time, the providers of education at all levels have enjoyed a sort of guildlike monopoly. And as economist John Hicks notes, as quoted earlier, "The best of all monopoly profits is a quiet life." Alas, the lives of education providers are likely to be less quiet and comfortable than they have been. When education was in the hands of guilds made up of educators, as it has largely been for over a century, educators unsurprisingly took advantage of their control to arrange things to their liking. That will change significantly in the years to come.
Neither higher education nor K-12 schooling will remain in the hands of the guilds in the future, though we can expect a significant rear-guard action on their part. But the vulnerability they face is that it will become easier and easier for people to avoid the guilds entirely thanks to the new alternatives that technology (and other changes -- but mostly technology) has made possible."
Here's hoping! TheNew
School
I had read both of his Broadside books. Between that and reading Instapundit, many of the ideas in The New School are familiar. But I would still highly recommend buying a copy for yourself and one to pass around to parents you know and any open minded teachers.
Reynolds is an expert on the topic as he is Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee, married to PhD Psychologist Dr. Helen Smith, yet the perspective of New School is much more about his role as a consumer of education for their daughter and for the bloggers' desire to assemble elements into social and political patterns. The joy of the book is its academic cred without the academic's diffidence (or turgid prose...)
I don't think I need post a spoiler alert that there are problems in education. But it is a huge, complicated, interconnected system with the distortions of more than a hundred years of government involvement. It is easy to choose one failed facet (for me it is Teachers' Unions) to hang all the deficiencies upon. New School broadens the concerns and adds significant new concepts.
Reynolds's Instapundit writings cherish modernity, and the "New" part of the "The New School" is to rescue 21st Century students from a 19th Century Prussian model which was imported to train good 20th Century factory workers.
"On his return, [Horace] Mann extolled the Prussian model in his seventh annual report. This met with some resistance, as "critics accused him of wanting to establish a 'Prussian-style tyranny' in the schools, arguing that the Prussian model was based on a presumption that the government was wiser than the citizenry, while in
Reynolds helpfully points out the Mann's children were homeschooled. But sitting still, forming orderly lines, and moving with bells prepared students for factory work. How much of that transfers to your job?
Another key insight is the comparison to a financial bubble. Consumers are so certain of a return that they use easy credit to pay ever escalating prices without carefully assessing the future value of the asset. Sound like anything? A story you heard? Bueller?
The escalating prices are never spent on instruction. Climbing walls, fancy dining halls take a byte, but the real culprit is administration which is more likely to impede instruction with paperwork and regulation. As the crown jewel
"
Not that my personal bête-noir comes out well:
"For a long time, the providers of education at all levels have enjoyed a sort of guildlike monopoly. And as economist John Hicks notes, as quoted earlier, "The best of all monopoly profits is a quiet life." Alas, the lives of education providers are likely to be less quiet and comfortable than they have been. When education was in the hands of guilds made up of educators, as it has largely been for over a century, educators unsurprisingly took advantage of their control to arrange things to their liking. That will change significantly in the years to come.
Neither higher education nor K-12 schooling will remain in the hands of the guilds in the future, though we can expect a significant rear-guard action on their part. But the vulnerability they face is that it will become easier and easier for people to avoid the guilds entirely thanks to the new alternatives that technology (and other changes -- but mostly technology) has made possible."
Here's hoping! The
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
4 Stars
Glenn
Harlan Reynolds, founder of Instapundit and writer of two other (brief) books
on the necessity of education reform, has written a more comprehensive book
explaining the how, why, and (kind of) the what next of the education bubble.
Unlike some pundits, Reynolds suggests that there is a bubble not just in
higher education, but in k-12 education too: a perfect storm of education
becoming more expensive, the (economic) value of diplomas and degrees
declining, and the technology that makes creating and using new educational
forms more and more viable. As Reynolds likes to put it (in the words of
economist Herbert Stein), "If something cannot go on forever, it will
stop." And that is what he sees for both higher education and k-12.
Simply put, the education bubble - like any bubble - bursts when the cost of an investment begins to outweigh the likely return on investment. And, at this point, the cost of college degrees is proving to outweigh the rise in earning potential one gets by getting one. (And if anything, some have argued that increases in earning potential of college degrees owes more to the value of the certification - the degree itself - than the skills gained in obtaining the degree. So, what happens when employers start to question whether they are putting inflated value on the piece of paper and start hiring more people without degrees? Can you hear the bubble bursting?)
Oh, you say; well, education should be about personal growth and not increasing one's future earning potential? Well, sure, but not when it carries a five-figure price tag! (How many consumer services carry that steep a price... and still have willing consumers?) Or, maybe the government should subsidize more? Well, the problem is that like when anything is subsidized, the most likely result is that costs rise to absorb the subsidy. And if we start thinking the rising expenses and diminishing returns of k-12 education isn't terribly problematic because it is tax funded, then it is best to remember who is paying those taxes; answer: all of us. And how is it that we are teaching young people in the 21st century with a public school system that, very sadly, hasn't adapted terribly much in terms of teaching methods from its 19th century roots? Is that sustainable? If something can't go on forever....
The first half of the book or so is devoted to explaining why these bubbles in higher education and k-12 have formed and providing evidence that they've formed (and that more and more people are looking for ways to bypass traditional educational channels, often with the help of technology). The second half or so is a fairly vague outline of what Reynolds thinks will happen next. In fairness, Reynolds is vague because he (correctly) notes that no one really knows what will happen next, and the best we can do is to have some broad ideas of what might have to happen next. Vaguely, Reynolds suggests that both new forms of (what we now know as) k-12 and higher education will have to be less expensive and more adaptable to individuals, and probably something that embraces new technologies in a way that neither existing higher or k-12 education seems terribly interested in doing. (Reynolds seems quite taken by the idea - at least for higher education - that universities maintain their certification and degree-granting role while becoming more open about allowing students to learn materials on their own or at their own speed, possibly even without taking classes in favor of self-study.)
Those who have read Reynold's other books on education will find little new here, and as I mention, Reynolds's prescriptions and predictions are somewhat vague; while that may be disappointing in some way, it is also to his credit. Where Reynolds shines is in explaining (with a fair degree of historical accuracy, I think) the k-12 and higher education bubble and the evidence that it is either bursting already or, where it isn't, it will soon burst. And, also to his credit, he describes all this with a surprising tone of optimism (even though he is an academic).... which gives me (also an academic) a bit of hope that, if we all read and play our cards right, we can come through all of this with something better and stronger than what came before.
Simply put, the education bubble - like any bubble - bursts when the cost of an investment begins to outweigh the likely return on investment. And, at this point, the cost of college degrees is proving to outweigh the rise in earning potential one gets by getting one. (And if anything, some have argued that increases in earning potential of college degrees owes more to the value of the certification - the degree itself - than the skills gained in obtaining the degree. So, what happens when employers start to question whether they are putting inflated value on the piece of paper and start hiring more people without degrees? Can you hear the bubble bursting?)
Oh, you say; well, education should be about personal growth and not increasing one's future earning potential? Well, sure, but not when it carries a five-figure price tag! (How many consumer services carry that steep a price... and still have willing consumers?) Or, maybe the government should subsidize more? Well, the problem is that like when anything is subsidized, the most likely result is that costs rise to absorb the subsidy. And if we start thinking the rising expenses and diminishing returns of k-12 education isn't terribly problematic because it is tax funded, then it is best to remember who is paying those taxes; answer: all of us. And how is it that we are teaching young people in the 21st century with a public school system that, very sadly, hasn't adapted terribly much in terms of teaching methods from its 19th century roots? Is that sustainable? If something can't go on forever....
The first half of the book or so is devoted to explaining why these bubbles in higher education and k-12 have formed and providing evidence that they've formed (and that more and more people are looking for ways to bypass traditional educational channels, often with the help of technology). The second half or so is a fairly vague outline of what Reynolds thinks will happen next. In fairness, Reynolds is vague because he (correctly) notes that no one really knows what will happen next, and the best we can do is to have some broad ideas of what might have to happen next. Vaguely, Reynolds suggests that both new forms of (what we now know as) k-12 and higher education will have to be less expensive and more adaptable to individuals, and probably something that embraces new technologies in a way that neither existing higher or k-12 education seems terribly interested in doing. (Reynolds seems quite taken by the idea - at least for higher education - that universities maintain their certification and degree-granting role while becoming more open about allowing students to learn materials on their own or at their own speed, possibly even without taking classes in favor of self-study.)
Those who have read Reynold's other books on education will find little new here, and as I mention, Reynolds's prescriptions and predictions are somewhat vague; while that may be disappointing in some way, it is also to his credit. Where Reynolds shines is in explaining (with a fair degree of historical accuracy, I think) the k-12 and higher education bubble and the evidence that it is either bursting already or, where it isn't, it will soon burst. And, also to his credit, he describes all this with a surprising tone of optimism (even though he is an academic).... which gives me (also an academic) a bit of hope that, if we all read and play our cards right, we can come through all of this with something better and stronger than what came before.
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