What Have I been missing?
I'd read about The Bell Curve but long forgotten the controversy that book sparked which suggested there is something definable as "intelligence" which determined an individual's fate, almost magically, like the sword in the stone myth--certain people are simply gifted.
But Charles Murray is not a name I knew, until I read his OP Ed piece "Narrowing the New Class Divide" in yesterday's New York Times.
I'm now reading his stuff, googling like mad, linking and it's pretty clear there are large areas where we disagree, but I'm reminded of those Venn diagrams I used to play with in school, with the areas of overlap--there are some areas where I couldn't agree more and where Murray shines a light where light really needs to be intensely shined.
What he does say which seems eminently reasonable:
1. People have different abilities,
2.Half of the children are below average,
3. Too many people are going to college,
4. It's important to rigorously educate the academically gifted.
5. The goal of secondary school and college educations ought to be redefined.
6. credit should be given to anyone who is good at what he or she does, not just those who have earned a bachelor's degree.
7. The B.A. bubble ought to be pricked: This degree has become an arbitrary ticket to higher earning jobs and it has over the past generation become educationally meaningless. He notes we do not need education to change much of this toxic effect because there is a Supreme Court ruling (which I am looking for) which says employers cannot use scores on standardized tests to choose among job applicants without demonstrating a tight link between the tests and actual job requirements. (This may be connected to the New Haven firefighters exam.)
Those are points I can applaud.
He also thinks government should do as little as possible and stay out of the way of every decision as it relates to the citizen's life, with respect to labor, regulation of industry; that's his dark side.
But allow me to tell two stories which illustrate the importance of what he is saying:
A welder who worked at a General Electric airplane engine plant got to be a superior welder. This sort of welding is not the sort of thing your father did in the garage; this is very high tech stuff and the science and skill and learning required are impressive, or the airplane falls out of the sky. After several years, he was not only doing his own work but managing a whole subdivision of welders and the management called him into the office and told him it was time he moved up to a management level position. Fine, he said. But a week later they got back to him: No promotion because he had not gone to college and had no B.A. "I was a real star based on what I did and what I knew, but I didn't have that sheepskin," he said. "What exactly does that sheepskin mean, in my world?" This is not government doing something really stupid; this is the vaunted private sector shooting itself in the foot. I've heard similar stories frequently among the factory workers, the shipyard workers who work on the nuclear submarines in the Portsmouth Ship yard. It breeds justifiable resentment. Why should I not benefit from my own learning and hard work and some frat boy who spent four years drinking on a fraternity porch is given the prize?
The other story comes from my own experience as an employer. When I had one employee, she performed the tasks I needed done and she did her best. When I had two employees, fights started about who would do what, and why did I have to file the charts when Donna had nothing to do? I learned from this employees do not always put the job first; their personalities sometimes get in the way and when there is more than one employee, people start asking why they should work hard when they see others not doing as much.
Unions often find themselves in the line of fire, and sometimes for understandable reasons: At one New York hospital it takes 30 minutes to clean an operating room to be ready for the next surgery; at another, it takes an hour. The hospital where the union insists on giving employees an hour between cases can do only half the number of surgeries daily and loses money. The union claims it's workers are overburdened having to wield mops and pails so quickly; the non unionized hospital has no trouble cleaning more quickly and has no trouble meeting budget.
As my father used to say, "I'm all for the workers, but these guys are not working."
Mr. Murray will provide much fodder for my cannons. Stay tuned.
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