Teachers of useless information often seek refuge in the "learning how to learn" story. But the facts are not on their side. The psychological literature on "fade out" essentially finds that mental atrophy is the rule. You can temporarily raise IQ, but it "fades out" in a few years. Furthermore, the psychological literature on "transference" of learning from one area to another finds surprisingly weak evidence of it. Since education has a long-run effect on earnings, but only a short-run effect on learning ability, we've got to look elsewhere for answers...
Se la scuola insegna cose perlopiù inservibili, se non puo' insegnare ad imparare, a cosa serve? Forse a lanciare segnali.
Cosa significa "lanciare segnali".
Quando regalo un anello di fidanzamento alla mia morosa non lo faccio perchè ci piacciono i brillanti. Infatti, se per qualsiasi ragione il prezzo dei brillanti dovesse crollare, non sarei più interessato ad un anello del genere.
Detto in altri termini:
"Which would do more for your career: A Princeton education, but a Phoenix diploma, or a Princeton diploma, but a Phoenix education?"
