Nobody here but us chickens

I came across an article recently that posited that education does not add to people's skills and abilities. I suppose this is just a variation on the old "nature-nurture" argument leaning towards the nature, or perhaps indicting the nurture. While I think the point is overstated, I do think it has a kernel of truth in that college may not really focus on or be really good at developing critical skills. The recent clamor for outcomes assessment is an attempt to address this to some degree, perhaps, but outcomes assessment is so incredibly flawed in so many ways (a subject for another day) that it is next to useless, save the old "raising consciousness" (there's a particularly noxious phrase from my youth) effect.

While whether education appreciably adds to people's skills is debatable, from my perspective what college is really good at is sorting people. I personally loathe having to evaluate performances and assign grades, but I'm supposed to do so, so I do. I think that grading, in terms of education, is a waste of everyone's time and effort. It's all about sorting. At a minimum, those with degrees are sorted from those without degrees. Those with more capabilities within certain disciplines are sorted from those with lesser capabilities. As instructors we are really just grading eggs. For the consumers of eggs, we determine which eggs are consumable, and which eggs are better than others. We might clean, polish, package, and help bring those eggs to market, but we are hardly the chickens in creating those eggs.

That we focus on a body of inert "facts" instead of developing more valuable skills (communication, critical thinking, etc.) is such a hackneyed discussion that it is now a straw man argument. Rather, the interesting point is whether we provide a forum for individuals to demonstrate their capabilities rather than truly augmenting those capabilities. Are we really increasing anyone's "intelligence" in a meaningful way? Even regarding those critical skills, are we really improving abilities to acquire and apply knowledge/skills, for instance, or simply allowing for the demonstration of those abilities and then sorting accordingly.