(02-06-2019, 11:43 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: I agree - the whole "education" sector is in a yuge Crisis, and might implode. Better go to Khan academy and such.
I discussed this idea earlier for a different aspect, largely content. I remain satisfied that for most smart kids between ages 18 and 22, a solid liberal education is the best possible use for their time. The old small liberal-arts school that operated at modest cost due to limited specialists (the professor taught at most three books) and small scale. There was no need for a big, expensive bureaucracy, a research lab, a library full of specialized publications in multiple fields, or semi-professional sports facilities. Like many other institutions, big colleges are trying to expand -- and crowd out alternatives, such as those colleges that have 'failed' to grow.
Cost is important in a time of widespread economic distress, and the old liberal arts school was not particularly expensive. Many were operated by churches that could be expected to offer some intellectual safety. Kids would learn about Jefferson but not Marx. The style of teaching was much as in high school, only at a slightly-more sophisticated level.
Liberal-arts schooling was elite in the sense that not every kid can use it. For some youth who would be perfectly satisfied with the entertainment on the idiot screen, the content of liberal-arts schooling is nearly 'pearls before swine'.
We are in a Crisis Era, and overpriced luxuries will be vulnerable. Bang for the buck is a legitimate concern for people under economic distress.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.