The Cult of Smart

May 11, 2020
DeBoer, an academic assessment manager at Brooklyn College, indicts America’s education system and the capitalist meritocracy it undergirds in this provocative yet muddled debut. Public schools don’t ensure equality of opportunity or outcomes, deBoer explains, because they reward the talented few and punish the less academically gifted. Yet genetic inheritance largely determines intelligence, deBoer contends, meaning that “different students have profoundly different levels of underlying ability.” Until educators acknowledge this range of cognitive potential and reframe classroom methods accordingly, he writes, Americans will be poorly served by reforms, such as charter schools and standardized testing, that blame teachers for student failure, and by the bipartisan consensus that education is the “great economic leveler.” DeBoer hedges against the risk of racial bias by insisting that he’s talking about “individual differences, not group differences” when it comes to intelligence levels, but his analysis of the supporting evidence is shallow, and his policy suggestions, including universal health care and free college, have more to do with “remak society from top to bottom” than fixing the specific problem of how to teach to varying cognitive abilities. Still, this passionate plea to reconsider “what it means to be a worthwhile person” gives policymakers and educators much to think about.

June 1, 2020

In his first book, acclaimed progressive essayist deBoer shares his uniquely informed insights into America's education system, including what works and what is broken. Growing up in an academic family and eventually joining academia himself, deBoer asserts that schools are "engines of inequality" whose purpose is to feed graduates into a "system of meritocratic capitalism." One repeated criticism is that schools fail to acknowledge variances in students' cognitive abilities. The author provides a thorough review of topics that may (or may not) contribute to academic success, such as school quality and choice, race and ethnicity, the home environment, and genetics. Additionally, he describes education research and funding and previous attempts to overhaul the education system, as well as plenty of opportunities for possible reform, not all of which are related to education. The book is unapologetically left-leaning and reads like an essay, yet all statistics and claims shared are supported by credible sources and case studies for those wishing to dig further. VERDICT A solid addition for those dismayed by the inequities of the education system and looking to effect change.--Jennifer Clifton, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis

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