Most people use the words “schooling” and “education” interchangeably. If someone went to college and has degrees, he or she is considered “educated.” This use of the words is understandable. And in general, we can refer to school as a place that provides an education.

But let us be careful in using the word “education.” Many schools today provide no such thing. There are many schools today that teach people sheer folly. They may require lots of reading, but they teach students lies. Politically correct lies.

Universities today are the model for such folly. Outside of a handful of conservative schools, the majority of American universities has adopted a leftist agenda. They have overthrown the subjects of the past for a newer and better “wisdom.”

We have more people today with college degrees than ever before, and pundits therefore refer to us as the most “educated” society in history. But this is far from the truth. We are only the most “schooled” society in history. We no longer study the classical languages, logic, and history. Most universities no longer require Western civilization courses to graduate but instead substitute women's studies or some other nonsense. Universities focus on job training and no longer train students in the liberal arts as they formerly did.

In fact, the universities have dumbed down their curricula so that more people can attend. Instead of high school providing a general education for all with college for the top 10 to 20%, we want everyone to go to college. But not everyone is fit for college. It is not that we are getting smarter; it is that they are lowering the bar. Just look at the work of those who received university degrees during the generation of the Founding Fathers. They put the average college graduate today to shame.

So we go to more school than ever before, yet we know far less than those with fewer degrees from the 1700s. Colleges today teach most people very little of importance. And many unschooled persons demonstrate extensive learning, usually from the habit of reading.

So let me ask the question—how are we better “educated” than previous societies?

The answer is that we are not. Further, we are all the dumber for believing we are. We are so uneducated that we don’t even know we are. We have produced a generation of "educated idiots."

Schooling does not equal education. And it is time we stop confusing these terms.