The advancement of a society is directly proportional to the access of education of members of that society.
No one disputes the value of an education, but what is changing with no discussion is the definition of what an education is, and how it is to be achieved.
Conventional Wisdom is a mass-media manufactured myth which is that an education involves academics in an ivory tower determining who passes and who fails, but what is really going on is that the illusion of an education has been foisted upon an unsuspecting public and paid for by the taxpayers.
Basic questions regarding the educational course are completely ignored, such as how well suited and qualified the individual is, and how the investment in their education will pay off, but the entirety of the financial liability has been overinflated and forced upon the American taxpayer. We are paying for the sub-standard indoctrination of people that are not qualified for college in a traditional sense, and who's quality of life, productive ability and financial status has not been improved once they have attained "educated" status.
It's a myth; created to make colleges make money. Much like the myth of "Home Ownership" as some kind of developmental milestone on the path to "living the American Dream". Some people don't belong in college; they aren't smart enough. And some people shouldn't "own" a house; they are crappy neighbors and drive down the property values of everyone around them. Yet the taxpayers are funding both stupidly wasteful endeavors and to what result? Unemployment at 18%, most of whom are standing around waiting for a government job, and a housing crisis that has yet to destroy the US economy. Bank of America's "toxic assets" will either be paid-for by the US taxpayer or will send B of A into bankruptcy.
All of this is the result of the same delusional thinking force fed into the American consciousness by the mass-media. And it's all false, these supposed "cultural values" that people have been indoctrinated into believing in.
What's true is the internet. The educational opportunities available to anyone with $40.00 a month to spend on high-speed internet make the greatest library on the planet 20 years ago pale in comparison. People don't have just one professor available and a couple of TA's, they have the publicly available and documented works hundreds if not thousands of highly-trained experts as far away as the next Google window.
So. Redefine the word "education" as it's former definition is completely useless. Also redefine the societal need for colleges as they are monuments to the dinosaurs made from the decaying remains of fossilized books. The only pupose physical colleges serve is to provide economic sustenance to a class of people that are incapable of producing anything of value, that someone else would want to pay for. The faster we knock them down, pave over them and turn them into strip malls, the better off we all will be.
