Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality
by Charles Murray
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List Price: $24.95
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Manufacturer: Crown Forum
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 370.973
EAN: 9780307405388
ISBN: 0307405389
Label: Crown Forum
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 2008-08-19
Publisher: Crown Forum
Release Date: 2008-08-19
Studio: Crown Forum
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Covers The Basics Well
Comment: The amount of misrepresentation of Murray's views is staggering. People call him an elitist; yet the bulk of the book is devoted to showing how the current education system hurts the less gifted from all angles--especially financially--and detailing how it can help the less gifted more. Then he goes to rip apart the current American elite which, from Murray's account, are a bunch of greedy, foolish, selfish, ignorant, pretentious, and self-important crooks and liars who seem to possess no redeeming qualities other than a nice IQ. (Some elitist!)
The book is intended to cover the basics. The four things that we need to accept before anything else can be done.
1.) People differ in abilities (not just IQ, but the whole Howard Gardner kit-and-kaboodle.
2.) Half of all people (including all children) are below average in any given skill or talent. Goodbye Lake Woebegone
3.) Too many people are going to college. (If everyone goes to college, then everyone will be expected to go, thus making it necessary to spend ungodly amounts of money on these institutions on pain of a professional stigma.)
4.) The future of any society depends on the character of its elites. (Remember them? The greedy, selfish, foolish etc, etc?)
I was considering docking one star for covering only such obvious terrain and leaving out a lot of other problems, but the tone of the reviews changed my mind. Murray was right. The first point of order is to drum these four obvious truths into the heads of those who desperately don't want to hear them. People: IQ does set an upper bound on ability. The point is to help people reach that upper bound, not to pretend that someone with an IQ of 75 who will have trouble with basic algebra is the next Ramanujan. You can't make everybody the best at everything. College--like everything else--is only valuable if it is selective and reflective of a student's desires and abilities (not as a $150,000 receipt); and it is the elites who will run the show, as they have everywhere and always, since the beginning of time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Real Education:Four Simple Truths for Bringinging Schools Back to Reality
Comment: In this book, Charels Murray reveals what we all know and no one really wants to discuss. The education system is broken and we continue to try to fit square pegs into round holes! He may create some controversy in his perspectives, but step back and engage in his thought process and you will see that he is spot on in his views. That should beg the question of what are we getting for the tax dollars invested in the education system.
This is a book that should be read by all educators, all elected officals,and all parents of school age children, it should create a national dialogue on the issues.
This book is extremely readable and very logical.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: "Not All It's Cracked Up to Be"
Comment: Charles Murray writes an awful lot in this book about how we can change the system to make it better, but what we really need is to be increasingly skeptical of one person claiming that they can "make it all better" if we just listen. I urge readers to read very critically and think of the results of not allowing more than the highest 20 percent to attend college. If we really allow Educational Testing Services to produce certification tests for everything instead of allowing people to receive a well-rounded education we are setting ourselves up. There will only be more problems instead of fewer. I again urge the reader to think extremely critically about the potential results here. There are people in German for example, who are not able to go to college even if they can handle the demands and even if they find it enjoyable because they have been sorted into vocational high schools. Really dig down deep into what the results will be before giving up "educational romanticism" entirely (as the author calls it) and really critically think about what will happen if we allow this to be put in place as policy, for example. It may not be so horrible, but we won't know until we get there.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Get to know the real Charles Murray
Comment: Murray is the author of the brilliant WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A LIBERTARIAN. Therefore, one might expect this succinct and fluid little book on education to be a critical analysis of centralized educational schemes coupled with recommendations for more privatization and healthy competition. There is a splash of this, as Murray makes his case against the backdrop of Title I and No Child Left Behind's disappointing results; but REAL EDUCATION is broad in its scope and full of pleasant surprises.
Sadly Murray has been mistreated by his critics since the publication of THE BELL CURVE. Even here I see critics whose review of REAL EDUCATION is more a tirade against demons of their own fabrication than anything Murray has actually written. Firstly, IQ is not something which Murray supports as a way to forcefully fit children to an education program suited to their IQ. Rather, IQ is intended as a means to understand why separations inevitably occur and why not all students will achieve at the same level. It is important to note that these separations are natural and to be expected. It is inherently absurd to assume that all children can be "above average." The vision of Charles Murray is of an education system which is more flexible to the needs of all students; not one which directs a child in some institutionalized way on the basis of testing. This would be an intrusion which any libertarian would find repugnant. His realism about differing intellectual abilities is not the "soft bigotry of low expectations" that some would suggest-a characterization which implies that all should desire and meet the same academic standard-but rather the realistic offering of choices to students at all ends of the intellectual continuum.
If this sounds suspiciously democratic for a man known for touting the importance of IQ and criticizing No Child Left Behind then you have probably read more of his critics than of Charles Murray himself. There is no intent-implied or otherwise-to reshape education in a way that will entrench some privileged status quo. The irony is that the bloated government educational reforms that Murray criticizes stand in stark, totalitarian contrast to the kind of flexible, multi-faceted educational system that Murray proposes.
One of four truths Murray uses to frame his argument is that too many people go to college. At first blush this would seem to be just what his critics expect, a sneering elitism that bemoans the degradation of college by those who are not worthy. Instead Murray saves his contempt for the way our culture has turned higher education into a kind of meaningless ritual, the completion of which all children should aspire to. The social devaluation of the skilled electrician or plumber, or the automobile mechanic who is honest and genuinely skilled at what he does, does a tremendous disservice to those whose capabilities are not academic in the traditional sense. Not only are these trades in demand but a person who is capable can make the sort of money usually associated with a professional degree. (Try finding a competent attorney and then try finding a competent auto mechanic. You're apt to discover that finding the former is much easier though the schooling is far more rigorous.) The cultural assumption that a person's life is lacking if he doesn't get a fluff degree by reading obtuse authors and taking `A Survey Of Modern Film' does that person-and the rest of us-a great disservice.
Again, it cannot be emphasized enough that there is no suggestion that the young person who is more capable of being an electrician than a physician should be "assigned" to his fate. Murray instead desires that we face reality and expect that some will not have the capability, or even the desire, to be academically successful. Hence we should accommodate such instances, as the alternative is to impose upon everyone a singular and unrealistic expectation of higher academic achievement; an expectation that when failed to achieve becomes not only a kind of personal failure but creates unnecessary dissatisfaction for that person upon whom such idealism is imposed. This is not fatalism so much as practical wisdom.
Another one of Murray's four truths is that America's future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. Here again one would expect the kind of sneering elitism and IQ absolutism that Murray has become wrongly known for. Here again his critics are shown to be attacking a caricature of their own creation. In fact, when Murray discusses educating the brightest among us he has in mind clearing the way to a better education not simply for those who are smart but those who are smart and have difficulty achieving to the level they should because of their geographic or economic disadvantage.
Take for example his recommendation for more certification tests like the CPA exam. Murray envisions the ivy league kid going for the same job as the community college or internet course kid; with the ivy leaguer having a relatively low score on a critical certification test while the latter has a high one. Just as an employer can assume that a person who has passed the CPA has a high competency for accounting, so to could the same kind of certification test be used to demonstrate competency in many different fields. This allows the kid with an internet education or an education from a less than stellar institution to earn a spot over his better-situated peers.
Also consider that much of what Murray has to say about educating the brightest minds is about inculcating character. Murray wishes that virtue be taken seriously again and that the "great traditions" be appreciated for their time-tested insights on the human condition. As an example he uses the ethical systems of Aristotle and Confucius. He states: "If your children grow up courageous, temperate, able to think clearly about the consequences of their actions, to be concerned with the welfare of others, with a sense of obligation to set a good example for others in their own behavior and to accord to others their rightful due, do you really care whether they were raised to be good Aristotelians or good Confucians?" The problem, Murray says, is when education teaches nothing of the great traditions. It is a compelling reminder that education should be more than jumping through hoops on the way to a job. It is also about shaping the attitudes and opinions of the nation's future leaders.
However, isn't Murray missing something when he suggests that education is not addressing the great ethical traditions? What about the pervasive morality of multi-culturalism and it's shibboleths of "tolerance" and "diversity"? Though he doesn't address this directly one may well step back and marvel at our current educational monstrosity and it's empty, manifold pretensions. In light of our present situation the idea of reviving Aristotle's cardinal virtues or Confucian philosophy seems not only practical but downright refreshing... even humble.
Again, does this sound odd for the man who is vilified as being a survival-of-the-fittest, IQ-is-destiny elitist? If so you should consider putting away the caricature of Charles Murray and get to know the real man. This book is a great start.
Customer Rating:
Summary: May seem radical in its approach, but its ideas are definitely worth considering
Comment: Education for all is one of the few things that most agree on, but to what extent? "Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality" is a call to revamping how America educates its children. Going on four principles that are bold enough to say that not everyone is going to be capable of becoming a rocket scientist or the next president, it calls for an education which is on level with the people who need it the most, America's academically gifted. "Real Education" may seem radical in its approach, but its ideas are definitely worth considering.
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Editorial Reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Covers The Basics Well
Comment: The amount of misrepresentation of Murray's views is staggering. People call him an elitist; yet the bulk of the book is devoted to showing how the current education system hurts the less gifted from all angles--especially financially--and detailing how it can help the less gifted more. Then he goes to rip apart the current American elite which, from Murray's account, are a bunch of greedy, foolish, selfish, ignorant, pretentious, and self-important crooks and liars who seem to possess no redeeming qualities other than a nice IQ. (Some elitist!)
The book is intended to cover the basics. The four things that we need to accept before anything else can be done.
1.) People differ in abilities (not just IQ, but the whole Howard Gardner kit-and-kaboodle.
2.) Half of all people (including all children) are below average in any given skill or talent. Goodbye Lake Woebegone
3.) Too many people are going to college. (If everyone goes to college, then everyone will be expected to go, thus making it necessary to spend ungodly amounts of money on these institutions on pain of a professional stigma.)
4.) The future of any society depends on the character of its elites. (Remember them? The greedy, selfish, foolish etc, etc?)
I was considering docking one star for covering only such obvious terrain and leaving out a lot of other problems, but the tone of the reviews changed my mind. Murray was right. The first point of order is to drum these four obvious truths into the heads of those who desperately don't want to hear them. People: IQ does set an upper bound on ability. The point is to help people reach that upper bound, not to pretend that someone with an IQ of 75 who will have trouble with basic algebra is the next Ramanujan. You can't make everybody the best at everything. College--like everything else--is only valuable if it is selective and reflective of a student's desires and abilities (not as a $150,000 receipt); and it is the elites who will run the show, as they have everywhere and always, since the beginning of time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Real Education:Four Simple Truths for Bringinging Schools Back to Reality
Comment: In this book, Charels Murray reveals what we all know and no one really wants to discuss. The education system is broken and we continue to try to fit square pegs into round holes! He may create some controversy in his perspectives, but step back and engage in his thought process and you will see that he is spot on in his views. That should beg the question of what are we getting for the tax dollars invested in the education system.
This is a book that should be read by all educators, all elected officals,and all parents of school age children, it should create a national dialogue on the issues.
This book is extremely readable and very logical.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "Not All It's Cracked Up to Be"
Comment: Charles Murray writes an awful lot in this book about how we can change the system to make it better, but what we really need is to be increasingly skeptical of one person claiming that they can "make it all better" if we just listen. I urge readers to read very critically and think of the results of not allowing more than the highest 20 percent to attend college. If we really allow Educational Testing Services to produce certification tests for everything instead of allowing people to receive a well-rounded education we are setting ourselves up. There will only be more problems instead of fewer. I again urge the reader to think extremely critically about the potential results here. There are people in German for example, who are not able to go to college even if they can handle the demands and even if they find it enjoyable because they have been sorted into vocational high schools. Really dig down deep into what the results will be before giving up "educational romanticism" entirely (as the author calls it) and really critically think about what will happen if we allow this to be put in place as policy, for example. It may not be so horrible, but we won't know until we get there.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Get to know the real Charles Murray
Comment: Murray is the author of the brilliant WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A LIBERTARIAN. Therefore, one might expect this succinct and fluid little book on education to be a critical analysis of centralized educational schemes coupled with recommendations for more privatization and healthy competition. There is a splash of this, as Murray makes his case against the backdrop of Title I and No Child Left Behind's disappointing results; but REAL EDUCATION is broad in its scope and full of pleasant surprises.
Sadly Murray has been mistreated by his critics since the publication of THE BELL CURVE. Even here I see critics whose review of REAL EDUCATION is more a tirade against demons of their own fabrication than anything Murray has actually written. Firstly, IQ is not something which Murray supports as a way to forcefully fit children to an education program suited to their IQ. Rather, IQ is intended as a means to understand why separations inevitably occur and why not all students will achieve at the same level. It is important to note that these separations are natural and to be expected. It is inherently absurd to assume that all children can be "above average." The vision of Charles Murray is of an education system which is more flexible to the needs of all students; not one which directs a child in some institutionalized way on the basis of testing. This would be an intrusion which any libertarian would find repugnant. His realism about differing intellectual abilities is not the "soft bigotry of low expectations" that some would suggest-a characterization which implies that all should desire and meet the same academic standard-but rather the realistic offering of choices to students at all ends of the intellectual continuum.
If this sounds suspiciously democratic for a man known for touting the importance of IQ and criticizing No Child Left Behind then you have probably read more of his critics than of Charles Murray himself. There is no intent-implied or otherwise-to reshape education in a way that will entrench some privileged status quo. The irony is that the bloated government educational reforms that Murray criticizes stand in stark, totalitarian contrast to the kind of flexible, multi-faceted educational system that Murray proposes.
One of four truths Murray uses to frame his argument is that too many people go to college. At first blush this would seem to be just what his critics expect, a sneering elitism that bemoans the degradation of college by those who are not worthy. Instead Murray saves his contempt for the way our culture has turned higher education into a kind of meaningless ritual, the completion of which all children should aspire to. The social devaluation of the skilled electrician or plumber, or the automobile mechanic who is honest and genuinely skilled at what he does, does a tremendous disservice to those whose capabilities are not academic in the traditional sense. Not only are these trades in demand but a person who is capable can make the sort of money usually associated with a professional degree. (Try finding a competent attorney and then try finding a competent auto mechanic. You're apt to discover that finding the former is much easier though the schooling is far more rigorous.) The cultural assumption that a person's life is lacking if he doesn't get a fluff degree by reading obtuse authors and taking `A Survey Of Modern Film' does that person-and the rest of us-a great disservice.
Again, it cannot be emphasized enough that there is no suggestion that the young person who is more capable of being an electrician than a physician should be "assigned" to his fate. Murray instead desires that we face reality and expect that some will not have the capability, or even the desire, to be academically successful. Hence we should accommodate such instances, as the alternative is to impose upon everyone a singular and unrealistic expectation of higher academic achievement; an expectation that when failed to achieve becomes not only a kind of personal failure but creates unnecessary dissatisfaction for that person upon whom such idealism is imposed. This is not fatalism so much as practical wisdom.
Another one of Murray's four truths is that America's future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. Here again one would expect the kind of sneering elitism and IQ absolutism that Murray has become wrongly known for. Here again his critics are shown to be attacking a caricature of their own creation. In fact, when Murray discusses educating the brightest among us he has in mind clearing the way to a better education not simply for those who are smart but those who are smart and have difficulty achieving to the level they should because of their geographic or economic disadvantage.
Take for example his recommendation for more certification tests like the CPA exam. Murray envisions the ivy league kid going for the same job as the community college or internet course kid; with the ivy leaguer having a relatively low score on a critical certification test while the latter has a high one. Just as an employer can assume that a person who has passed the CPA has a high competency for accounting, so to could the same kind of certification test be used to demonstrate competency in many different fields. This allows the kid with an internet education or an education from a less than stellar institution to earn a spot over his better-situated peers.
Also consider that much of what Murray has to say about educating the brightest minds is about inculcating character. Murray wishes that virtue be taken seriously again and that the "great traditions" be appreciated for their time-tested insights on the human condition. As an example he uses the ethical systems of Aristotle and Confucius. He states: "If your children grow up courageous, temperate, able to think clearly about the consequences of their actions, to be concerned with the welfare of others, with a sense of obligation to set a good example for others in their own behavior and to accord to others their rightful due, do you really care whether they were raised to be good Aristotelians or good Confucians?" The problem, Murray says, is when education teaches nothing of the great traditions. It is a compelling reminder that education should be more than jumping through hoops on the way to a job. It is also about shaping the attitudes and opinions of the nation's future leaders.
However, isn't Murray missing something when he suggests that education is not addressing the great ethical traditions? What about the pervasive morality of multi-culturalism and it's shibboleths of "tolerance" and "diversity"? Though he doesn't address this directly one may well step back and marvel at our current educational monstrosity and it's empty, manifold pretensions. In light of our present situation the idea of reviving Aristotle's cardinal virtues or Confucian philosophy seems not only practical but downright refreshing... even humble.
Again, does this sound odd for the man who is vilified as being a survival-of-the-fittest, IQ-is-destiny elitist? If so you should consider putting away the caricature of Charles Murray and get to know the real man. This book is a great start.
Customer Rating:
Summary: May seem radical in its approach, but its ideas are definitely worth considering
Comment: Education for all is one of the few things that most agree on, but to what extent? "Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality" is a call to revamping how America educates its children. Going on four principles that are bold enough to say that not everyone is going to be capable of becoming a rocket scientist or the next president, it calls for an education which is on level with the people who need it the most, America's academically gifted. "Real Education" may seem radical in its approach, but its ideas are definitely worth considering.
With four simple truths as his framework, Charles Murray, the bestselling coauthor of The Bell Curve, sweeps away the hypocrisy, wishful thinking, and upside-down priorities that grip America’s educational establishment.
Ability varies. Children differ in their ability to learn academic material. Doing our best for every child requires, above all else, that we embrace that simplest of truths. America’s educational system does its best to ignore it.
Half of the children are below average. Many children cannot learn more than rudimentary reading and math. Real Education reviews what we know about the limits of what schools can do and the results of four decades of policies that require schools to divert huge resources to unattainable goals.
Too many people are going to college. Almost everyone should get training beyond high school, but the number of students who want, need, or can profit from four years of residential education at the college level is a fraction of the number of young people who are struggling to get a degree. We have set up a standard known as the BA, stripped it of its traditional content, and made it an artificial job qualification. Then we stigmatize everyone who doesn’t get one. For most of America’s young people, today’s college system is a punishing anachronism.
America’s future depends on how we educate the academically gifted. An elite already runs the country, whether we like it or not. Since everything we watch, hear, and read is produced by that elite, and since every business and government department is run by that elite, it is time to start thinking about the kind of education needed by the young people who will run the country. The task is not to give them more advanced technical training, but to give them an education that will make them into wiser adults; not to pamper them, but to hold their feet to the fire.
The good news is that change is not only possible but already happening. Real Education describes the technological and economic trends that are creating options for parents who want the right education for their children, teachers who want to be free to teach again, and young people who want to find something they love doing and learn how to do it well. These are the people for whom Real Education was written. It is they, not the politicians or the educational establishment, who will bring American schools back to reality.
Twenty-four years ago, Charles Murray’s Losing Ground changed the way the nation thought about welfare. Real Education is about to do the same thing for America’s schools.
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