What if:
- you are stuck in a narrow track, needing to find a job to pay off $27,000 in study debt and there are no jobs at all?
- colleges doesn’t provide good education to succeed in a job?
- sacred institutions like university ceases to exist?
- you are allowed to join the real world before getting twenty-two?
- only parents will teach their children how to read and write?
- education becomes too expensive?
- every student has her own teacher in every discipline?
- you can design your own curriculum?
- colleges would replaced by much better and cheaper distant learning systems?
- the mental model of “go-to-school -> get-a-job -> marry -> get a loan for buying a house -> work-harder-and-longer -> get-loan-for-children’s education” doesn’t work any longer to have a satisfying life?
It is significant that Richard Branson when hiring looks mainly for personality and only then to experience. Formal qualifications are the last things he looks at. Every job can to be learnt in three months.
As a good exercise in Thinkibility we suggest you to mention at least fifteen reasons why to go to an institution of higher education. And then every reason ponder over:
A. Why has it to be so? This has to be so, because ….
B. Is it really necessary to do it this way? Are there alternatives?
C. Is this really necessary? Can it be cut?
This creative technique is intended to unearth hidden assumptions. It is known as “Do an ABC” and engineered by Edward de Bono.
Dale J. Stephens, founder of Uncollege just did it. In his fabulous book “Hacking your Education” he ditches the lectures, saved ten of thousands dollars, and learnt more than his peers ever will. You can listen his TEDx talk below.
Dale gives some 40 “Hacks of the Day” which are all clues for a self-directed future of higher education. We made a mind map of it as an overview. The mind map can be downloaded or explored in detail at Biggerplate – he mind map library. Just click on the mind map at the beginning of this post.
We are sure that even you are well educated and did your PhD years and years ago, you will benefit from it.
thinkibility 
200 universities just launched 600 free online courses. Here’s the full list.
https://qz.com/1120344/200-universities-just-launched-600-free-online-courses-heres-the-full-list/
A college degree is valuable, but Elon says…
In a short clip, Elon Musk says that looking for exceptional ability is a better indication of future success. If someone demonstrates a track record of exceptional achievement, it will likely continue into the future.
1. What to study and how to study it are more important than where to study it and for how long.
2. The best teachers are on the Internet. The best books are on the Internet. The best peers are on the Internet.
3. The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.
https://angel.co/newsletters/elon-musk-doesn-t-care-about-your-college-degree-110617?email_uid=375645599&utm_campaign=platform-newsletter-110617&utm_content=view-online&utm_medium=email&utm_source=platform-newsletter&utm_term=
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/boomers-are-blame-aging-america/592336/
But even for workers who don’t need a formal license, barriers to work have grown over time. Jobs that once required a high-school degree now require a college degree. This escalation of credential requirements has created a kind of educational arms race. The rise in collegiate attainment, again, did not begin with Boomers. Rather, the GI Bill, and the explosion in new university chartering that it underwrote, created a new norm of college education for many jobs. With the rising availability of higher education, employers, who tend to be older than their employees, often demand degrees as licenses.