There’s a lot of talk about how the cost of education is decreasing year over year because of the advances in technology. Free courses, free text
books, free content available from the most prestigious universities in the world, all online, accessible all the time to anyone anywhere.
Josh Catone of Mashable wrote a quick article about how those three forces (free text books, free courses, free course ware) are trending the cost of “education” in the traditional sense towards zero. It makes some sense. But I don’t fully buy it.
There are major advantages to the University structure that contribute to many areas of society other than the preparation of individuals for jobs or civic involvement: economic development, organization of dissenting views/opinions, creation of new technology, centers for investment in research, maintaining thriving university-centered communities, etc. etc.
But mostly I don’t buy it because education has been “free” (as in free speech, not free beer) forever. Honestly, probably the best invention to make learning free was the book (because you didn’t need a storyteller to educate you anymore); then the library made the books freely available to those who wanted them (not that the industrious didn’t find ways to borrow them prior to that). The Mashable article was basically saying that the internet was bring the cost to zero. Um, no. The internet is changing education, but only in efficiency and reach (not necessarily in accessibility).
The fact of the matter is that for advanced nations, the content is reaching new people, while not-as-advanced countries are struggling to get internet (accessibility is still hampered). Not only that but near 100% of the content is in English (another barrier for the least “educated”). It’d be nice to have totally free education and even free college degrees for those that want to pursue them. In some sense that’s already happening and has been happening for 100s of years. Before there were standards and accreditation, men were self-made and educated for free.
Ben Franklin did it as an indentured servant to his brother, reading in his spare moments and writing and practicing using borrowed books. He didn’t go to college but turned out pretty highly regarded. And if you’re thinking, “but that’s just Benjamin Franklin…” then I say this, other less well known men have done the same for generations and made their mark in history with FREE educations (and many more because we so often enforce a price on traditional educational systems, barring them from entry to their own benefit).
Now, I do believe education is much too expensive and increasing unjustly in price year after year. But if you truly want to learn, the options and content are, and always have been, available to you.
Related: if you’re interested in Benjamin Franklin and his life, check out the free ebook from Dailylit.com.