Decoupling College

Garett Jones has an interesting idea: separate out the different parts of the college experience and think about how to do each in the best way. That nobody has thought about this shows how uncreative colleges and professors are (including me). Most college education goes on outside the classroom. Components of a college education include:
.
1. Listening to lectures
.
2. Class discussion.
.
3. Office hours with professors. Broadly speaking,this might be said to include Oxford-style tutorials.
.
4. Doing problem sets, writing term papers, etc.
.
5. Living with random other young people. The valuable parts of this include living with weird and repugnant people as well as with lifelong friends.
.
6. Learning how to do your own laundry.
.
7. Learning how not to get drunk, prostitute your body, overdose on drugs, sleep all day, etc.
.
8. Talking about ideas with other young people who are not taking the same classes as you.
.
9. Talking about ideas with people who *are* taking the same class as you.
.
10. Being assigned carefull selected books and reading them.
.
11. Engaging in extracurriculars such as drama, debate, political activity, sports, singing, playing instruments, and so forth.
.
12. Finding a wife or husband.
.
13. Learning how to tie a necktie; to know what “business casual” means; when not to belch, etc.

These can be decoupled. Some of them are complements, but some are independent and some are substitutes. In Singapore, I learn now in the covid-19 epidemic, there are workers’ dormitories— rooms full of bunkbeds for young people that have group social activities.