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I am just now reading "The Education of Henry Adams" for the first time. Published in 1904, it has been proclaimed the greatest book of the century. Hyperbolic as that might be, it is clear that the ills complained of by Adams respecting our educational establishment have only metastasized over the succeeding century.

If our educational institutions fail us, ultimately our culture, our civilization, and our Republican experiment fails.

When I went to school 50 years ago it was considered necessary for students to come together almost in the style of a medieval cloister to rub elbows and sit at the knees of scholars. The intimacy was thought to be indispensable hence the necessity for a "place" of learning, an assumption that goes back to the Middle Ages and even into Greece. Perhaps the Times they are a changing and technology will succeed in reforming an institution which is becoming as stratified as it was in the Middle Ages. There is really no need now to go to a classroom to hear a canned lecture when it is or should be available to all on the Internet, as MIT has done with its curriculum. TTC has put innumerable lectures on audio and videotape in virtually every discipline. There is no need to cloister among the vines of Ivy to see or hear them. Peer review is as easily accomplished through the Internet as by the distribution of mimeograph as was done in my day.

Yes, the times they are a changing and the guild system of our universities must somehow give way.

The intimacy was thought to be indispensable hence the necessity for a "place" of learning, an assumption that goes back to the Middle Ages and even into Greece. Perhaps the Times they are a changing and technology will succeed in reforming an institution which is becoming as stratified as it was in the Middle Ages.

My life in south Knox county was understanding placement and smarts. The first grade met it's first genius.

What you describe is certainly a praiseworthy path toward “democratization” and expansion of educational opportunities (although our society seems to place far more value upon certifications and diplomas than actual mastery).

I will comment however that IMHO ingestion is only one part of a proper education. Discussion and debate with mentors and peers represent an essential and necessary second component to reach true mastery of a subject.

Strictly my opinion, of course.

There is no need to cloister among the vines of Ivy to see or hear them. Peer review is as easily accomplished through the Internet as by the distribution of mimeograph as was done in my day.

Correct. Instruction is free with the caveat that the greatest of teachers should be as rich as rock stars. The key is now credentialing. That comes down to grading papers. Build test centers in strip malls and ship the grading to Bangalore. Shut down the entire K-bachelor degree system for all but post graduate work. I'm tired of paying for a destructive baby-sitting service.