No, that's good info, thanks for writing it up. Speaking for myself, I did city college then transferred to UC. The difference in the quality of education was

No, that's good info, thanks for writing it up. Speaking for myself, I did city college then transferred to UC. The difference in the quality of education was minimal, but the difference in the quality of the students was pretty significant. Even then, there were many very intelligent people who could get good grades but seemed to be going through the motions and learning at a pretty superficial level. I think there are a few things that benefit a society as a whole: roads/power/infrastructure, fire/police depts, arguably healthcare, arguably a standing military, others--I think education is definitely one of those. Education can mean different things to different people, but I tend to think of it as the ability to efficiently obtain the information/expertise necessary to pursue large goals. For example, if I want to build a new kind of car, there's all kinds of stuff I need to learn. Traditionally, I might go to a university known for doing good car research and I might learn enough to get a degree. The knowledge I've acquired in the pursuit of this degree does not necessarily represent the optimal knowledge mix for achieving my goals. Therefore, I've always viewed 'school' in general as a subpar use of my time--probably why I did so crappy in school. Instead, I've been interested in the minimum viable education needed to achieve my specific goals. This doesn't mean a superficial study of the topics, it means narrowing the focus to the areas that are key for accomplishing specific goals. MOOCs seem to be a great way to do this--a happy medium between a linear education and random internet research. An additional benefit is that it can bring high quality education to the whole world for little to no marginal cost. Like I said, I think education lifts all boats, and this applies to educating the world as a whole also. The world will still need teachers, but it will be less of them, as you suggest.