An Education Debate for the Books | Hacker News Reader

An Education Debate for the Books

washingtonpost.com

7 pointsmattmcknight7 comments

A liberal education is great, but you don't need to attend an obsolete, inflexible university and pay through the nose to get one.

Ask yourself this question: If, after you finish your college program, you will not receive proof of having obtained a degree, would you still pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for your "education"? I suspect, for most people, the answer is no.

So we have two functions here:

1) Education 2) Credentialing

We should think about them individually instead of just pretending they're the same.

If you're going to get a liberal arts education and are self-motivated and dislike cancerous bureaucracy, St. John's Annapolis is a great place to do it. Committed faculty and students make all the difference.

I agree. It's really easy to overlook how important peer-effects are.

St. Johns College in Santa Fe, NM (their second campus) is an awesome school; I've met a number of interesting and intelligent people there.

My best friend's step-father was also a professor there, an absurdly smart dude.

I am, however, pre-disposed to the autodidactic route; while University/College is a fun idea, nothing beats the satisfaction gained from self directed learning.

A liberal arts education seems worthwhile, but also quite possible to pursue without a status-seeking payment of $50k per year for a degree. What exactly are you paying for- most of the great books are free with your library card.

You're paying for some external motivation, for one thing. The pace of learning in a typical university is pretty fast. You'd need a whole lot of self-motivation in order to learn as much, and as fast on your own as you'd learn at a university.

Another thing you get at a university is teachers (hopefully great ones, if you're lucky enough and have chosen well). Great teachers can not only explain things in ways that make learning easier than learning from books, but they can inspire as well. Many of the interests that I have now I credit to having some great teachers (though great books count for a lot as well).

Then there's the fact that you can't really ask questions of a book. Books are just not very interactive, despite some of them containing questions/answers for the student.

At a university you also get a community of peers that can both inspire and help you as you work towards a common goal.

This is not to mention the social opportunities you'll get at a university that all but the most social people will never dream of getting if they're stuck at home all the time reading books. Many friendships are formed at universities that last a lifetime.

And if it's cost that worries you, consider going to a university abroad. They tend to be much cheaper than US universities. If you only speak English, you should be pleased to learn that many foreign universities are growingly switching to a curriculum taught in English. If you know a foreign language, all the better. You'll get to practice it and get exposed to a whole new culture. Of course, sometimes the high cost of a US university might be worth it, but other times foreign universities offer just as good or better education for a much, much lower price.

So I'd think twice before rejecting school for home-study. It can be done, if you're very self-motivated. But you're going to be giving up all sorts of advantages that schools offer.

I guess my point was more around the return on investment- not a point against universities in general, but a point against paying a lot of money for a subject where the proof that you have learned something is simply not there with a degree. I claim that most of the benefits to oneself from a liberal arts education can be garnered without the fee.

"You're paying for some external motivation, for one thing." What is the external motivation- that I have sunk $50k into the year of school so I should try learn more? That I will get a bad grade? I think it still takes self motivation to learn.

I am not for home study, but a liberal arts education is sometimes more of a dilettante's dalliance than a useful economic move. The status associated with such a degree appears to be dropping, and hopefully the price will follow.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com