If you ask most people, they’ll tell you they don’t have a great opinion of the current educational system. You’ll hear the same thing from people in the U.S., India, and other developed nations. Some third world countries are often struggling just to feed everyone. They don’t have the time or money to devote to providing an eduction. What’s worse is that educational expenses are rising. It’s harder than ever to afford a good education, further widening the gap between the privileged and the poor.
The One Laptop Per Child, OLPC, project is a good start, it puts a computer in the hands of children who might otherwise never have been able to afford one. But it’s not enough, not by itself, besides having access to the Internet, the children of the world need a place to go where they can learn. They need a way to learn without teachers, if necessary, and get documentation of their efforts, so they can get jobs. They need a free university on the Internet. For lack of a better name, I call it the University of the World.
Our world faces some difficult challenges. The best way to meet them successfully, is with the best educated generation in history. We need to utilize the incredible improvements in communication technology to spread knowledge as widely as possible.
It’s possible that something like this could be started as a small project, but I doubt it. To really work, it needs some serious backing, both in money and political willpower. Universities around the world should be encouraged to donate resources to the project. MIT posting it’s curriculum on the Internet is an example of what I’m talking about, even if it doesn’t go far enough. Companies like Microsoft, Google, Ford, Exxon/Mobile, and others should be encouraged to invest in the effort. They’ll benefit by later being able to hire better educated people.
It will be important that everyone be able to get access to the school. That means companies like Microsoft, Google, and Cisco will have to refrain from helping countries limit the access of their citizens to this educational resource. If you really want to spread Democracy and Freedom around the world, education is still the best and safest way around.
One of the best prophylactics known to sociologists is education. The higher the educational level of a young woman, the less likely she is to have an unwanted pregnancy. A better educated public is more likely to heed the advice of health service workers working to stop the spread of deadly diseases like HIV.
A well-educated public is also less likely to be fooled by devious politicians, companies, and political groups. If the U.S. had an educational system that was more up-to-date, not one designed to serve best the needs of an agricultural society, then perhaps we wouldn’t have the current atmosphere of anti-intellectualism and maybe we’d have made a better choice in 2000 and 2004. Think of how different the world would be without the terrible mistakes made by the current administration.
There are dangers in establishing such a school. There will be people who will want control of it, so they can decide what will be taught. Others will be determined to limit who can be taught, using national security as an excuse.
I’m hopeful that someone, somewhere, will find the resources to start this project and see it through to it’s completion. Until that happens, I hope individual schools and governments will work to build smaller versions of this idea in order to make education more accessible to the people in their communities.
