The tomorrow of education.

This month, we hired a couple of Assistant Producers in our NY studio.   Both interviewed well, with fairly impressive degrees, so we were pleased to offer them contracts.   After less than two weeks, we had to fire both of them due to jaw-droppingly unprofessional behaviour: one decided that 'work' was a philosophically subjective term that he could, and should, define himself; the other decided she was a creative expert at 22 years old, and proceeded to inform us of how we need to run the company.  This is, supposedly, during a recession.

In a separate observation, I recently read that over the last 30 years, the cost of a college degree in America has risen by over 500% compared to inflation.  The average college education in America will cost $80,000 over four years, but frankly, that's including a lot of colleges where the degree is as valuable as used toilet paper.  For any decent college, you're looking at $40k a year, once you factor in room and board, etc.  Great Britain is heading the same the way.  And unlike primary and secondary school fees, there are very few degrees that will actually benefit a student financially.

It's an old observation, but universities don't produce great workers.  Personally, I'm a college dropout, get to run a pretty decent little business, and I don't see how my two and a half years at a pretty decent university helped me any more than a 3-month spring break would've done.  Obviously, there are plenty of great workers with degrees, but I think they would have been great workers without the degree.  College seems to blunt work ethic, instead of sharpening it.  Unless you're going to be a surgeon or a lawyer (which of course requires 4 more years of education, so potentially $400,000 in various expenses), I don't see the value.

I'm so skeptical about college I've told my children that when they turn eighteen they'll have a choice.  They can get a job (I still don't know why my generation was discouraged from this).  They can start a business (with me as the seed investor).  Or, they can go to college... provided they have a real passion for their intended major, get straight A's, and can make a business case for it, too - I certainly won't be funding any 'English Literature' or 'Media Studies' degrees.

That might seem draconian, but I'm not the only one that sees the need for change. There is a revolution taking place in education, with the emphasis on providing more for less.  Technology could change education the way it's changed so many other things in our lives.

I've recently watched several clips which suggest the tomorrow of education could, and should, be very different from today.  This little blog is meant to introduce those clips.

The first is about the Khan Academy, and if you have a child who is between 8 and 18, and if you aren't using the Khan Academy website to help them with their homework, you need to watch this clip immediately. 

The second is about Coursera, which is providing online courses from the world's best professors at universities like Stanford, Princeton,  Duke, UC Berkeley, and others... for free!!!  These aren't just videos of college courses, you take tests and, in some cases, get college credit for them, too.  Watch this clip and it explains everything.  "And then like, yo dude, if you wanna hang in class this fall, I'm taking this class at Duke University!" 

Finally, there is this story about the entrepreneur who is paying promising young people a $100,000 salary NOT to finish their degree, and to come work for him instead.  Unfortunately, you need to be in the states or have an ISP blocker to watch the video, but the article is pretty good, too.

So maybe I won't have to give my kids that choice.  Maybe they'll be able to get a job or start up a company, and take online courses at night which allows them to get a degree from Princeton in their spare time.  That way when they tell someone how to run a company when they're 22, they'll be doing so with a bit of experience!