A new book just came out by economist Bryan Caplan, called "The Case Against Education". The basic thesis is that school isn't mostly about teaching/learning -

A new book just came out by economist Bryan Caplan, called "The Case Against Education". The basic thesis is that school isn't mostly about teaching/learning - it's mostly about signaling to future employers that you are smart enough (and conformist enough) to get through school. He guesses it's about 80/20 between signaling and actual education. It's interesting to read most discussions of education with that idea in mind - his assumptions solve a lot of puzzles of how/why education works the way that it works.