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Comment by pdonis | Hacker News Reader

Why do you need to pay to go to college to learn the basics of all these subjects? The same information is available for free online.

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Teaching is a deliberate act, and it cannot be replaced by a Google AI summary.

> a Google AI summary

That's not the online material I was referring to. Many universities have their course materials available for free online. Not to mention other online learning sites.

I think the point is that if you’re going to get a degree in mechanical engineering, you need to study differential equation, and if you’re going to have a well-rounded education, you need to study some history. Both were a requirement in the past, but we’re moving more towards only the former being considered important.

The claim I was responding to was that one needs to go to college to get a "well-rounded education". I don't see why: the information is available for free online, and the value add of getting it by paying college professors to "teach" it to you is, IMO, highly questionable.

most teachers these days use google (or another AI) and before AI they just used google. few exceptions of course but on the large you are imagining some utopia education which no longer exists. I pay insane amount of money to send me kid to private school and she still gets more education at home by wide margin than at school

> Teaching is a deliberate act

The issue isn't teaching, it's learning. I don't think it's at all obvious that being taught by college professors is the best way to learn that material.

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