Myths surrounding education

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One of the problems when researching the topic of education is that education generates a lot of myths. I want to do the job of a historian in busting those myths without necessarily depreciating the value of education. This is a necessary contrast to make; however, it may not be important for the reasons people think.

One such myth is that you need education to function in the workforce of the future. Another is that education is required to make a more equal society or, as commonly cited in Britain, education is needed for social mobility.

Education gives everyone the chance to improve themselves and their lives, but it isn’t particularly effective at accomplishing social mobility. This is true for the same reasons that education is not suitable for training people for specific jobs. This is partly because inequality is generated across our entire lives, not just during our school years.

Addressing inequality

Inequality is a tremendous force that operates throughout life and in all societies. The question is whether education can be or should be the principal tool that societies use to combat it.

At a basic level, I believe you want to give all children an equal start in life as much as possible. Education is one tool that works towards this. We also want to prepare young people for the opportunities they might encounter later on. In this way, there’s no doubt that education helps create a more equal society.

Education isn’t everything

Nevertheless, other powerful forces are operating during your school years that, before and after, education cannot neutralise on its own. As a famous sociologist once noted, “Education cannot compensate for society.”

Without a doubt, if you want more equality, you must make society more equal. You have to reduce the disparities of wealth, income, cultural capital, environmental circumstances and discrimination. Education can only skim the surface of some of these issues, while it can’t address others at all.

This is why, when you look at the impact of education on social mobility, you find that typically children from advantaged backgrounds do better than children from less advantaged backgrounds. Privileged children use their educational advantages to intensify their advantage over their lifetimes further. As such, education is not the antidote to inequality.

Misunderstandings surrounding social mobility

In Britain in the 1960s, there was a growing demand for white-collar employees, especially in retail and clerical occupations, which were growing rapidly. In manufacturing, factories required fewer shop floor jobs and more bureaucratic jobs to operate. The education system wasn’t changing as rapidly as the labour market, so employers merely hired people with lower educational qualifications for these higher grade jobs because they had no other option. These newly created white-collar positions were often called “clean jobs”: they were more comfortable, better paid, higher status and considered better than factory floor jobs. Once the shift towards these positions began, parents realised that better education would make their children more competitive for this type of employment.

Indeed, this was the case, and education grew to keep pace with changes in the labour market. Yet, it wasn’t that employers necessarily required better-educated workers; they didn’t. Employers wanted the best workers they could find, and they hired the best regardless of how much education they had.

Specialised versus liberal education

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I grew up in the United States, and I live in the United Kingdom. In other words, I grew up in a very late-specialisation system where students typically do not choose a specialism until nearly the end of university.

As an adult, on the other hand, I live and work in Britain, which has an early-specialisation system. Here, adolescents from the age of 13 are already making choices about their future.

I feel ambivalent between these two systems. Sure enough, I see the value in a broad liberal education that lasts many years. However, I also understand the importance of specialisation.

America or Britain?

My children grew up in Britain. As they approached university age, I told them, “You can go to university in America if you want, and then you don’t have to choose a speciality until the very end. Or, you can stay in Britain and, in which case, the specialisms you’ve already begun to develop will stand you in good stead.”

I had hoped I genuinely wouldn’t care, but I was a little bit relieved when they both chose to stay in Britain. I felt this way because I understand the value of early specialisation, even though it is highly unfashionable.

Eventually, one of my children chose a profession related to his specialism, while the other did not. I think they are much better people for having gained expertise in one subject and delving deeply into its complexities at an early age. I think they’ve benefited from that enormously.

Overall, a good education is one that balances a broad liberal education, like in America, with a highly specialised and more technical education, as many European countries provide.

Meritocracies and equality

There’s a widely held belief in meritocracy – and for a good reason. Meritocratic systems are far better than their predecessors, which were based on hereditary talent and hereditary rule.

The term “meritocracy” wasn’t coined until the end of the 1950s. Nevertheless, the notion that everyone should have an equal opportunity to excel based on their native intelligence and hard work originated in the early 20th century. It was undoubtedly preferable to what came before it. More specifically, it was much better to provide everyone with the educational tools for a better future than to give it to a hereditary group of people who already had them.

Over time, we’ve come to learn that education doesn’t solve all the problems of society. Furthermore, it doesn’t create equality; advantaged people do better than disadvantaged people in education as well as outside of it.

The idea of a meritocracy seems more like an illusion. In other words, it’s merely a new, more palatable justification for people who already have privilege to defend and enhance it.

In a democratic world, a continually improving education system that’s equally available does cancel out some inequalities. However, it’s not the magic bullet that will end all disparities. Other actions outside education must be taken to reduce inequality.

Separating education and meritocracy

A common concern these days is whether or not meritocratic systems are making inequality worse rather than better. I want to separate education and meritocracy. I’d argue for the advantages of equal education but not necessarily claim all benefits should be distributed based on success, which is what meritocracy suggests.

I believe if you make a broader educational system which genuinely caters to a wider variety of talents and interests, that will continue to shore up people’s support for education without privileging a certain kind of talent over others.

Facing the myth

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An antidote to the myth of meritocracy is not less education, but more and better education. We should encourage a more comprehensive array of educational opportunities to suit a wider variety of dispositions. That way, more people can succeed as decisions about hierarchy and status are no longer made on a narrow set of educational criteria.

This is one reason why I think it’s a mistake to privilege subjects like science. Most obviously, it doesn’t benefit the economy. Some people are better at science than others, and those differences tend to follow existing inequalities in our society. More importantly, since there’s no economic reason to favour science skills, it is sending a negative message to young people. Why should we suggest to someone who is better at creative arts that their skills and talents are not equally useful for society and worthy of encouragement?

Discover more about

Misunderstandings surrounding education

Mandler, P. (2020). The Crisis of the Meritocracy: Britain's Transition to Mass Education since the Second World War. Oxford University Press.

Bukodi, E., & Goldthorpe, J.H. (2018). Social Mobility and Education in Britain. Cambridge University Press.

Wolf, A. (2002). Does Education Matter?: Myths about Education and Economic Growth. Penguin Books.

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