This whole thing feels like a solution to a problem that's already been solved. If students want to decide where to go to school based on academic strength rather than the gym facilities and sports teams, they are already free to do so. I know a lot of students who would rather stay home and read than party all night, so that's what they do. Attaining the mind-oriented domestic life described later is mostly a matter of finding the right people to live with.
Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
11–20 of 51 posts
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#12Why would anybody want to copy an education system that arguably set Europe back 1000 years?
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#13http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Springs_College
I got a mailing from them way back when I was graduating high school. I looked at it over and over, but was never bold enough to actually apply to such a non-traditional school. I think that was a big mistake on my part. Still think about that choice on a regular basis, many years later.
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#14I think we can all agree at least that the current 'college experience' goes a little to far in the other extreme. I'd argue that at this point its actually a step backward from adulthood.
High school student:
-Wakes up at 6am, Juggles school, extracurriculars, home responsibilities, social life, holds a part-time job
college student:
-Doesn't change out of pajamas until it's time to go to the bar.
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#15http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Springs_College
Berea is another: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berea_College
My brother looked at it - was quite attractive but didn't have his specific field of interest.
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#16Why would anybody want to copy an education system that arguably set Europe back 1000 years?
Well, how about the one that preserved knowledge through the dark ages then?
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#17I have, on occasion, wanted to start a monastic order of really well dressed physicists. So many scientists are so poorly dressed, I just want to start an order where you must be impeccably dressed in an expensive suit and tie at all times.
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#18...good luck? Engineering school makes even the most dedicated student wonder why they're even bothering at times. And now you'll take away getting laid, fucking off, bitching, and Starcraft. And you'll have them do additional manual labor on top of that. I think part of the reason these monasteries have such sterling reputations is cause we never hear about the failures. No one really bothered recording the number o…
"What would it be like if college students felt that they were called to a vocation rather than simply getting their tickets stamped so they can get middle-class jobs, if they are lucky?" You're not going to spawn Zuckberg, Obama, or the next cure for cancer and you'll fall behind China and India, while your kids wonder why they never got a shot at being the world leaders of tomorrow.
Now I don't mean to say that there isn't value in learning for it's own sake- there is. You don't need to reshape education to do that though. Every student today has the ability to make these choices- like icegreentea said, they choose not to because they don't think it's valuable.
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#19http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem
Thanks for posting this, I was about to. Also, I have the domain http://mathic.org, if anyone is interested in setting something up.
Re: Is it time to return to the medieval way of life on college campuses?
#20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem
One thing that the Cartasian maths did in Anathem was to effectively provide a civilization insurance policy by preserving knowledge, and a scientific mindset, through extended dark ages.
In you look around and wonder what would happen if there was a general collapse of civil society you do have to wonder who and where the bodies of knowledge that we have collected over the last few thousand years would be preserved (right back to things like the Homeric epics - which have made it through two long dark ages).