Education vs. Training

Gordon Gekko of the Taxman blog recently posted an article about a recent college graduate’s frustration at lack of employment opportunities, and his equally resentful reply

As I read this point-counterpoint, it really drove home to me the observation that we really don’t have an education system today. Rather, what we have is a schooling system designed to be more about training.

What’s the difference you ask?

Well, imagine you had a daughter. Would you prefer that she receive sex education, or sex training?

Of course, the system of government-run education has always been about molding otherwise freethinking, independent children into compliant, dumbed-down producers and consumers in an industrial society. It has never been about creating a critical, reflective, enlightened society. Fundamentally, we go to school to learn a trade, not to think with any depth or creativity. I can certainly understand the frustration of the student, as well as the resentment of Gordon Gekko. I think Gekko perceives this difference a little more than our young friend.

But I think we need to call a spade, a spade, here. Let’s quit referring to socialized schooling as "education". If you want more education, let’s separate school and state, and let the market provide more alternatives and varieties of schooling methods, and watch as they blossom in more efficient manner.