If you single-mindedly focus on graduates’ paychecks, education turns lead into gold. Waiters walk in; economic consultants walk out. For teachers, it’s so tempting to take credit—to gaze on our former students in their mortarboards and gloat, “I amaze even myself.” If teachers were honest with ourselves, we would be slower to self-congratulate. Do we really transform waiters into economic consultants—or merely evaluate whether waiters have the right stuff to be economic consultants?
