Since I’ve been reading The Republic with my children this summer and idly following the discussions of how colleges and universities should function during covid, I should write on education.
In a brief form, suitable for Twitter:
1. Moral. Bravery.
2. Physical. Self-diagnosis.
3. Liberal. Homer.
4. Vocational. Spreadsheets.
5. Logical. Euclidean geometry.
6. Skills. Filing
7. Polite. What to wear to a funeral.
At greater length;
1. Moral education. Teach the student to be brave, just, temperate, prudent, hopeful, loving, and pious.
2. Physical education. Teach the student to take care of his body: exercise, dexterity, moderation, skills such as swimming, self-diagnosis.
3. Liberal education. Teach the student the classics that he should know in order to be a cultivated member of his society.
4. Vocational education. Teach the student skills that will help him get a job and do it well.
5. Logical education. Teach the student to think.
6. Skills education. Teach the student skills useful in all aspects of life: foreign languages, computer coding, writing, speaking, reading, filing.
8. Polite education. Teach the student manners: to cover his nose when he sneezes, what fork to use, what type of suit to wear to an interview and what type to the office (Dress for Success), and how to ask a girl out on a date.
These forms of education overlap, but not as much as you might think.
A brilliant, profitable, practical idea discussed in Business Insider:
Two Princeton grads have come up with an idea to “unbundle” the college experience from physical colleges: having students take their remote classes from hotels in Arkansas and Hawaii.
It’s called The U Experience, and it’s buying out two hotels this fall to house students from different schools in a “bubble.”
This idea will kill the university as we know it. The implication is that guys like this will run the college experience, unbundling it from the providers of the coursework. They will good at running hotels and the practical stuff– much better than some failed law professor who’s been bumped upstairs to be college president– and they will contract with eminent scholars and good teachers who will deliver the booklearning. I should join them.