Smarten Up, America

MIT is now giving away education. Well, sort of. I don't think you can work on and complete a degree program over the web, but the course selection looks pretty cool. I'm thinking about going through a couple of courses because I hate the feeling that I have forgotten everything I used to know. You may know the feeling I mean... it starts by thinking "teevee has destroyed my brain!" And it just goes from there.

My nephew, Adam, is a pretty smart kid, and I think it would be interesting to see what a child's mind would do with actual knowledge instead of the fluffy, cartoonish "lite" knowledge kids usually get in school. Why not learn calculus before you lose the capacity to retain it.

As an adult, I learned that higher level mathematics is really important in functional life, and I wished I'd studied harder. It's unfortunate that the light bulb came on for me well after my college years were over.

In any case, I'm going to check it out. If this project does anything to stop the tide of dumbing down that's happened over my lifetime, I'll be grateful.

This is what the Internet was supposed to do. Well, this and blogging.

I feel better about the future than I have in a long time. Maybe that's pie-eyed of me, but... it's something.

before - after