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by userbinator 479 days ago
If anything in any country should be free, it should be education.

It's called The Internet.

3 comments

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 ;)

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.

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.

autodidacts existed before youtube
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.

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.

and then tests me to check if I understand

That's what interviews are for.

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.