Paragraph of the Day: Charles Murray on College
I don’t agree with a fair amount of what Murray has to say in his series on the subject of intelligence, the ability of the average person to take on difficult learning tasks, and the implications for education policy. I think he sells a lot of people short.
But there is no denying the fundamental correctness of this paragraph about colleges in Part II:
Advances in technology are making the brick-and-mortar facility increasingly irrelevant. Research resources on the Internet will soon make the college library unnecessary. Lecture courses taught by first-rate professors are already available on CDs and DVDs for many subjects, and online methods to make courses interactive between professors and students are evolving. Advances in computer simulation are expanding the technical skills that can be taught without having to gather students together in a laboratory or shop. These and other developments are all still near the bottom of steep growth curves. The cost of effective training will fall for everyone who is willing to give up the trappings of a campus. As the cost of college continues to rise, the choice to give up those trappings will become easier.
