A D.I.Y. Eduction

“The problem with D.I.Y. education is not only that it’s parasitic on existing universities, but more importantly, that very few human beings are good parasites. It’s not how we’re wired, most of us. And even those who are wired that way could stand to be reminded that they don’t know as much as they think they do, and that wiser people than us have walked the earth. Which leads me to the most important point of all, one that, alas, can’t often be brought cold into these conversations. It has a back story, as it were; a history that by and large we’ve chosen to forget. … Formal education depends on the vibrancy of some concept of authority.”