Back to School...

I've been talking about this for awhile now, and, of course,watching the most dedicated staff and students at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH do what they did in the face of losing the very institution they were committed to, well, to say that I was moved to keep on considering the notion of where higher education was heading would be an understatement. Somewhere along the line economics have replaced education, and in that equation we all lose.

I'd like to chase something different in these middle years of a career and life. I want to collect enough credits and certificates of completion to challenge my work against the demands of an education accreditation agency, and earn my own degree, my own way. That's right, my own degree, my own way. Although I finished college what seems like a billion years ago, I believe rather strongly in the notion that all that effort was wasted if you leave it in your past. So, I'm going to piece together a new education, from two dozen institutions...for free...that's right, for free...and then set it proudly at the top of my resume. It'll make for some awesome interview conversations.

Anyone want to join me? We can get t-shirts like this.

I'm convinced that it's the way that education is supposed to be...surely men like Socrates and Plato would be proud. It's all kind of like the University of Phoenix' marketing approach, but not at all like the University of Phoenix. They're making money hand over fist on all this educational inflation too. They've just been smart enough to sell what education is going to look like someday, and we're buying. I'm going to go get my own education. It's never too late, and you're never too old...and maybe, just maybe, it'll be a taste of the world to come. Cherish your institutions now people, because in twenty-five years you won't even recognize them.

I dunno about you, but I think I'm going to start with this, and this, and maybe this too. I'm serious. Who's in?