Education, Schooling, and Civilization.

A reflective essay from the Rand 25th Anniversary volume. Education, a lifelong process of self-development, is different from schooling. Both have long upper-class associations, which explains the belief that schooling is education and leads to wealth. Functions performed by American schools include: (1) socialization for social unity; (2) sorting children into future socioeconomic roles; (3) custody (4) knowledge and skills training; (5) encouraging desirable attributes, such as self-reliance and creativity. All are under attack from reformers as joylessly preserving social inequities. The public generally considers the first four adequately performed except for poor and minority youth. Attempts to transform schools are correctly perceived as social revolutions. However, experimentation toward more individualized and accountable schooling will continue. Efforts at compensatory schooling may produce nonscholastic social gains, but there is little evidence to show that compensatory education promotes academic achievement. The mere increase in today's years of schooling will be reflected in the next generation's academic achievement. 11 pp.