Our major problem with educationism

Why we need to stop overvaluing education

The way we overvalue education in the United States has always fascinated me. On some level, we all know that we were sold major lies about the value of education, but we have a difficult time admitting it. This is a topic that’s extremely personal to me, and I don’t understand why we don’t do a better job acknowledging it. How we view education is creating a larger wealth inequality gap in a variety of ways, and it’s also an extremely unfair metric we use to showcase an individual’s value to society. We also need to recognize that education is often a sign of privilege, and it rarely signifies a person’s actual intelligence.

This topic hasn’t been prominent in my mind for a while, but it crept in my head yesterday, and I haven’t been able to shake it. I have an announcement I’m making next week, and as I outlined what I wanted to say, educationism popped up because of my personal experience.

I love learning about class and status. Originally, I thought this was just something addicts like myself did. In meetings, we often discuss how self-conscious we are walking into a room and constantly compare ourselves to others. “Am I better than or less than this person?”, is a question always running through our heads. Later, I learned this is part of the human experience.

That said, there’s something I say to people that instantly triggers a response in someone’s head. When I tell people that I’m a college dropout who only attended one semester at a junior college, they instantly get an idea of aspects of my personality as well as how intelligent I am.

I hate talking about myself, but I can only speak to my personal experience.

A college degree instantly signals two things: work ethic and intelligence. But for anyone who knows me or is even somewhat familiar with who I am, I don’t think many would say I’m lazy or unintelligent. Due to educationism, this is something I have to prove to people because it’s been drilled in our heads that education means something that it doesn’t necessarily mean.

I read hundreds of non-fiction books each year. I am constantly curious, and I love to learn. I hated school, but when I get to pick the topics, I can’t stop learning. I’ve had a slew of academics on the podcast who are surprised when they find out I don’t have a college education. Oftentimes, I surprise myself when I’m able to keep up with people far more educated than I am or will ever be at this point in my life.

Again, I hate talking about myself, but I want to give you college grads some insight into the life of a person like myself.

Throughout my life, I’ve noticed something else that really bothers me as well, and it has to do with the job market. I work my ass off, and it’s landed me some really good jobs. Due to my lack of a college degree, it’s hard to understand why I can make more money at a job than people who have a degree.

Think about how much money I saved by not going to college. No, I’m not making more than everyone with a college degree. Not by a long shot. But something we’re sold as young people in this country is that to make money, you’ll need this massive amount of debt and piece of paper. Clearly, that isn’t true.

So, why aren’t we acknowledging this? It seems to be hurting everyone involved from the undereducated to the college graduates. First, I think it’s important to start with the dissonance that sets in when this conversation comes up.

“Education is the most important thing ever, and I’ll fight you if you say otherwise!”

I hate talking about this topic, but it’s something that I’m ridiculously passionate about. When I discuss this topic with people who are college-educated, they get pissed. Since I think this is such an important topic, I do it anyways. If I can challenge conspiracy theorists, I have no reason to be afraid of college graduates.

I think this all boils down to cognitive dissonance and identity-protective cognition. Basically, we have a strong idea of who we are, and if new information contradicts that idea of who we believe we are, we get tilted.

I think a good way to explain this is from a marketing research study in the 1970s from Joel Cohen and Marvin Goldberg titled “The Dissonance Model in Post-Decision Product Evaluation”. This piece from Coglode.com does a good job summarizing it and combines it with some of Robert Cialdini’s work:

This built-in mechanism aims to make us feel better about any poor decisions we make. It’s especially the case when we buy something expensive.

Given our emotional investment when preparing to buy something - any research done, our pre-existing brand loyalty and any influential advertising seen - many consumers will refuse to admit, in light of any shortcomings experienced with the product, that their decision was made in poor judgement.

This curious idea stems from the Principle of Commitment. Renowned psychologist Robert Cialdini highlights our deep-seated psychological desire to stay true to that commitment, because it directly relates to our self-image. We therefore attempt to rationalise any product problems seen, justify the choice made and protect our self-image.

College is expensive and it’s a huge commitment. My mom got her Ph.D. almost 20 years ago, so I remember seeing her work her ass off when I was growing up. She was also a full-blown alcoholic at that time (she’s 17 years sober now), so that’s quite the accomplishment. My girlfriend just finished her Master’s degree, and I’ve seen how hard she’s worked as well. Fortunately, my girlfriend already landed an awesome job right after graduation, but she has to think about paying back all of this money in loans.

My mom? Well, 20 years later, and she still owes money. To be fair, though, she’s not great at money management.

Point being I know and you know how much college costs and how much time and dedication it takes. Due to post-purchase dissonance and commitment, people get super irritable about this conversation.

I imagine the inner dialogue, often unconscious, goes something like this:

“I am a smart person who makes good decisions. If college isn’t as important as I was told, this means that I can be deceived, but I’m too smart for that. It also means that I make bad decisions with money and that I don’t spend my time wisely. Actually, it’d mean that I wasted years of my life on something I have to pay back for years to come.

I am not any of these things, therefore this opinion is wrong.”

If this is you, calm down. You’re not dumb, and you didn’t waste your time. So, let’s all take a chill pill.

My girlfriend is a social worker who is helping people at a hospital where most of the patients are poverty-stricken. My mom has been the Clinical Director of a couple drug and alcohol rehabs. These jobs bring them such fulfillment in life, it’d be hard to argue that they wasted their time or that college wasn’t worth it.

Are they underpaid? Absolutely, but that’s a conversation for another day.

I wanted to start here because it’s important to calm the hell down and realize that this issue isn’t necessarily about you and your decisions, it’s about the people who are harmed by the value we put on education.

Now, I want to break down some aspects of the education conversation that are hurting more than helping. Maybe then, we can start addressing this. The fact that so many college-educated people are supposedly liberal and the amount of harm that educationism does is pretty messed up.

The intelligence myth

I was thinking the other day, and I’d love for you to leave a comment if you have an answer to this question: Are the any people considered public intellectuals who are onboard with the idea that IQ is a good gauge of intelligence?

I can’t think of any. Again, I think it’s due to the same issue as the last section. Since we live in a society that values intelligence over so many other things (like not being an asshole), it’s hard to accept that maybe your IQ isn’t all that special.

How we measure intelligence is so confusing to me. I guess a good way to explain this is to tell you how much I hate the gameshow Jeopardy. It’s entertaining, but it feels like it’s warped our brains to equate something arbitrary with intelligence. That arbitrary thing is memory.

I hate to break it to you, but Jeopardy is largely a measure of memory and not intelligence. But for some reason, if someone wins an episode, we think they’re a genius. Are they intelligent, sure. Is the fact that they can remember things a sign of intelligence? Absolutely not.

Do you realize that there are memory competitions? There are people who can memorize the order of cards in a shuffled deck. It’s insane. But how is this a measure of intelligence?

Memory doesn’t immediately mean a person has good logic or reasoning skills. It’s a cool ability, but that’s it. It’s a skill that you can learn. The same goes for Rubiks Cube competitions. This is a very specific skill that doesn’t tell us if this person makes any type of smart decisions outside of that skill.

I think our current education system is why we equate memory with intelligence. “Take this test, but you can’t use notes!” Why? Because they want to see how much you memorized. So, if a kid has a poor memory, they’re not smart? Come on. We both know that’s silly.

How many nights did you spend cramming for a test? How many times did you use flashcards to see how good your memory was? We’re giving people passing or failing grades based on their ability to memorize.

“But Chris, IQ tests don’t just test your memory.” I know, but I had to get that memory rant out of my system.

IQ tests are just evidence that you’re dope at IQ tests. Your IQ score is also very situational as well as a sign of what we value as a society. We can test this by doing a little thought experiment:

A man with a high IQ is driving alone on a highway in the middle of nowhere. His car breaks down. He has zero knowledge of cars but thinks he can figure it out. He pops the hood to take a look around, places his hand on the radiator and burns the shit out of his hand because it’s so damned hot. Then, he starts fiddling with wires and testing things but only makes the problem worse.

A different man is driving alone and the same thing happens. He pops the hood, but he’s a trained mechanic. He avoids the radiator and realizes a spark plug wire came loose. He needs to get up in there, so he places something over the hot area of the car, reaches in, tightens the wire and goes on his way.

Who is smarter? I worked in the car service industry for a long time, and I know a lot of mechanics would laugh at the dumb things Mr. High IQ did.

Is the high IQ guy stupid? No. I’m sure he’d eventually figure it out, and he may even be able to learn how to fix cars if he wanted to. But is the mechanic who fixes cars stupid if he doesn’t have a college degree or has a low IQ? I wouldn’t say so.

Welcome to living in a capitalist society. The only thing that matters is what we collectively value. That can change at any time. Movies and TV shows play this out all the time when you put a really smart person in a bad situation, and they do a lot of really dumb things.

I understand the arguments for IQ and why it matters, so don’t come at me sideways. The point is that we have highly skilled people who dedicated a lot of time to hone their skills, and that also takes intelligence.

College doesn’t make you smart

This is similar but different to the IQ thing. I just wanted to take a moment to point out how many college-educated people do the dumbest things you can imagine.

If you want a million examples of this, just read any book on con artists. Personally, I recommend Maria Konnikova’s book The Confidence Game. There’s one story of a highly intelligent guy who finds himself a beautiful internet girlfriend. She ends up tricking him into smuggling drugs for her, and he gets caught. Even after getting arrested, he still believes the relationship is real.

Aside from the hilarious stories, Konnikova focuses on the psychology of how and why this happens. One big problem is that the educated, and intelligent people in general, are so overconfident that they fall for really dumb things.

I’ve heard people complaining about the rising of all of these shows about bullshit startups like WeWork or Theranos as well as documentaries like the Tinder Swindler and Bad Vegan. I love them for two reasons: I enjoy learning the tricks so I don’t get conned, and I also experience high amounts of schadenfreude seeing how people who went to the best colleges in the country get scammed out of millions. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine.

The stories like this go on and on, but the conspiracies and supernatural beliefs are even more interesting to me. Did you hear about how Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle was tricked into believing fairies existed with some old school photoshop-like trickery from little girls? Harry Hourdini famously had to regularly try to explain to Arthur all the BS he was falling for.

Today, we see this all the time with conspiracy theorists. There are a ridiculous amount of people who believe in the whackiest conspiracy theories that it’s mind blowing. How many believed in QAnon? How many college grads legit still believe the election was stolen? I’m not talking about the grifters, either. I mean the people who actually believe this bullshit.

So, if so many “intelligent” people who graduated college are so easily tricked, why do we assume non-educated people aren’t as intelligent?

Pay to play

The main reason I didn’t go to college was because I couldn’t afford it. I got some government grants, but in order to survive, I needed private loans as well. My parents were terrible with money and had awful credit, so they couldn’t co-sign. When I think about it, I’m actually fortunate that I wasn’t able to take out all of those loans.

This is probably my biggest gripe with educationism. We refuse to admit that college is largely based on how much money your family has, and how much money your family has is usually based on how much money their families have. The Matthew Effect kicks in, and we have more wealthy people getting degrees while others simply can’t afford them.

What’s worse is that my generation has been notoriously screwed with the cost of college versus the availability of high-paying jobs. This has a lot to do with “degree creep”. Since we’ve put so much value on a college degree, it’s starting to mean less and less. You’re no longer that special if you have one.

Aside from the dilution of what a college degree means, just about anyone can get one as long as they can pay. I saw this first-hand while my girlfriend was in her Master’s program, and it only made me more upset about educationism.

I’m an autodidact, and my first interest was mental health and psychology. I read so many damn books on this topic, it’s bonkers. Educating myself about psychology, mental illnesses, medications, therapeutic methods, and everything else helped me a ton working at the rehab. Not only were clients impressed by my knowledge, but so were the clinicians.

My girlfriend is ridiculously smart, but sometimes she’d have me help with some of her papers for school. She’d ask me if I knew of certain studies or would get my opinions on different topics, and I’d sometimes help her with research. I love that stuff. I also edited quite a few of her papers because that’s something else I’ve done for a living along with writing.

Anywho, she’d often show me stuff from her classmates, and sweet Jesus. I don’t have enough time to discuss all of the ridiculous things I saw these students saying or asking. I’m not making fun of their lack of knowledge, either. I’m saying that to be in a Master’s program and not have some of this knowledge is a pretty big red flag about how college is going.

Periodically, I’d ask my girlfriend how many people failed, and she always said that nobody did. As long as you turned in your assignments, you passed. Due to curved grading, laziness or lack of understanding is rarely punished.

This happens throughout K-12 as well. A lot of this has to do with the fact that teachers are evaluated on how well their students do. This is why there have been multiple scandals of teachers and entire schools gaming the system and getting caught.

Then, there’s the fact that your degree doesn’t say anything about how well you did in college. Nobody graduates with a C- minus degree. It’s just a degree. The only time it matters if you did exceptionally well, and then you can put that on a resume. Other than that, someone who barely passed can get the same job as someone at the top.

And people still think we live in a meritocracy.

But back to the original point, college is pay to play. As long as you pay your tuition, there’s a good chance you’re graduating. That means we’re valuing a person’s ability to afford college rather than their intelligence.

Due to educationism, we believe that someone without a degree isn’t intelligent. How whacky is that? Since I didn’t have the money or chose not to take on a tremendous amount of debt, I’m not smart?

Some may even argue that taking on that much debt when college dropouts like myself make more than some people with a degree is not all that smart.

Let’s rethink this

I’m a realist, and I don’t see this changing anytime soon. I mainly wanted to write this because I want you to start rethinking how we view a person’s intelligence and abilities based on their degree.

I started this piece by saying that when I tell people I’m a college dropout, they form an idea of who I am. This isn’t about me, though. This is about the millions of people who provide a ton of value but either can’t go to college or choose not to.

I didn’t even have time to get into how disgusting it is that we’re basically saying that a person born with a disability isn’t as valuable as a human being because of educationism. Back to helping my girlfriend with some of her schoolwork, she did a paper on subminimum wage.

Have you heard of subminimum wage?

Employers are legally allowed to pay disabled people less than minimum wage for the same amount of work. I only recently learned about this, and when I think about it, it makes me feel nauseous and extremely angry. Is this really the type of society we want to live in? Because this is where educationism leads.

Even the most hardcore capitalists gotta admit that this is pretty fucked up.

That’s one good thing that came from Andrew Yang bringing the idea of universal basic income to the public consciousness.

If a woman drops out of college so that her husband can pursue his career while she cares for the children, do we really think she doesn’t provide value? What if that child becomes the person who cures cancer. Does she get the credit or does the college degree?

For those who are college-educated, it’s easy to ignore this conversation. It’s easy to ignore because it pisses the college-educated off, but it’s not their problem. They got the degree. They got the thing that our society values over so much, so they don’t have to worry about it.

And if the college-educated do understand that this is an issue, there’s more of an incentive to not address it. If we address it, that means the thing they paid so much money for is no longer as valuable.

I think this is our biggest challenge, and it’s the same challenge we face with privilege. It’s why I think so many refuse to do anything about it.

Yes, we talk about it. We talk about it a lot. But it’s easier to talk about it because actually doing something about it takes away from those who have it already. That’s never fun.

So, at the very least, if we aren’t going to do something about it, the lease we can do is stop judging people based on whether they have a degree or not.

I have plenty more to say about this, but I got it out of my system for now. If you want to learn more about educationism and a bunch of other problems with our views on education, here are some of my favorite books on the topic:

• The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice by Freddie deBoer

• The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money by Bryan Caplan

• Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs by Lauren Rivera

• The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges - and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates by Daniel Golden

• Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert Frank

• The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? by Michael Sandel

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