[EternalFury]

If anything in any country should be free, it should be education. And, obviously, the administration of education should never be a for-profit venture.

Valuing democracy and being able to select sensible leaders depends on it.

[gruez]

>If anything in any country should be free, it should be education.

I can't tell you're being serious or you're being hyperbolic for the sake of defending education. Most people, given the choice would rather get free food, water, or healthcare.

[manquer]

Where I come [1] from, they would prefer education over everything else .

Material benefits or wealth can be stolen away on the whim of the stronger party, as history has proven over and over again.

No one can steal my education however.

—-

[1] This is a thing both the strong and weaker groups understood very well for over 3000 years. Who could learn which skills and therefore do what job is what the caste system was all about .

Teachers were and are considered only step below God, your teachers commands supersede even those of parents . Stories like those of ekalavya are venerated for a reason.

The power of knowledge and education was well understood and also closely guarded to create and manage oppression for thousands of years

[userbinator]

If anything in any country should be free, it should be education.

It's called The Internet.

[berkes]

There's so much that you cannot learn from the Internet, but must practiced, coached, steered, etc. That needs fysical things to interact with. That need teams, colleagues, or other humans.

People who think you can learn "everything" from the Internet have a very limited view of "everything". And could probably learn about the world by going out there ;)

[userbinator]

I've learned a lot more from YouTube videos than anything else, and even without archive.org there's all the other shadow libraries I can get books from.

But sure, keep telling yourself that your overpriced "education" is worth anything in this era of truly massive information access.

[berkes]

Amongst all the things I have learned last decades is Beekeeping.

Yes, I watched online video. Read books, blogs etc.

But the true learning was done as apprentice with a few experienced beekeepers.

Beekeeping is only a part theory. There's a big part of practice. From training precise and calm hand movements to how to properly tucking in your vest to listening, feeling, and reading bees mood.

My point isn't that education should be expensive (my beekeeping journey cost me less than a few hundred Euro). But that education is far more than just putting theory in a brain.

Other examples are sports, art, crafts, cooking, music, acting, dancing, maintenance, building, gardening etc. lots of stuff that you can start in through YouTube. But that, in the end, requires fysical training, experience, and therefore at least guidance from experienced humans.

[endemic]

autodidacts existed before youtube

[johnnyanmac]

Ahh yes, the internet. Teaching babies about cursed Elsa, young children about alternative history, frustrated young men to blame women and minorities for their problem, and women that they will never be pretty enough without consuming product. Oh and the practically unlimited porn along all stages.

Crassness aside.

1. the internet is getting more and more pay walls too. So proper education isn't even free on the internet without months of curation.

2. People who make this claim must not have seen studies about homseschooled kids. That social element in being around a group of peers is crucial development that you can't really simulate anywhere else (without again, a crap ton of money for camps or something). Especially these days when everything is trying to isolate off.

[apples_oranges]

there's perhaps something to be said for this argument: if you paid a lot of money for something you might be more motivated to use it wisely.

Also I can now get on the Internet and research jet engines or kidney transplants, but unless someone makes me learn the whole curriculum around it and then tests me to check if I understand, it's not worth much.

[userbinator]

and then tests me to check if I understand

That's what interviews are for.

[_proofs]

yeah, and also one's personal responsibility to make sure they are indeed learning and practicing.

implying i need to be dependent on a school to help me retain learning is a concept that is foreign to me. if i had that kind of dependency in my learning life, i'd be unemployed.

[f6v]

It’s never free. People in Europe say it is when they want to take a jab at the USA. But the reality is that earning potential is severely limited in Europe. And let’s not pretend that every degree obtained is beneficial to society. People get degrees with no marketable skills all the time. And the losses are distributed among all the taxpayers.

[EternalFury]

It costs someone something, but no one their freedom. Mass ignorance is the opposite.

As for degrees with no use, pretty sure these are the byproducts of education for profit, with heavy marketing passing as administrative expense.

Maybe you could divide the system in two halves: 1) Of national interest, 2) Discretionary.

As for earning potential, it has nothing to do with free education, as so many high-earners in the US were educated by such systems.

[f6v]

It’s not free, it’s paid by my taxes. I don’t get why you keep calling it that. That’s why we get paid less in the EU: subsidizing everything for everyone.