> Each field has its own ways of thinking, its own implicit assumptions, its own approaches to things, and so on. ... people who are already familiar with the f

> Each field has its own ways of thinking, its own implicit assumptions, its own approaches to things, and so on. ... people who are already familiar with the field. Agreed. Would you say that sitting in a lecture hall with 300 other people, receiving a boring lecture from a grad student, does a good job of imparting this deep understanding? It seems to me that there are a few dozen people in any given field who have truly meaningful insights to impart. Maybe a tenth of those people are college professors, and some fraction of those bother to teach students, preferring to do research and publish papers to accrue additional clout in the Academia Game. So most college students are actually taught by grad students or Lecturers/adjuncts with mediocre levels of "familiar with the field" knowledge. The ones who were lucky enough to be taught directly by the real experts probably get their money's worth. I don't think most do. I'd rather that the few experts who truly do want to teach students, were hired with tax dollars to create content for study at free virtual universities, and do away with the facsimilies of 'expert instruction' being sold to most students today for $20k+ a year.