This was an email to a young friend who will soon graduate from high school and would like to be away from home while in college:
Next year may be the first year for a reasonably priced superior college education.
What makes a superior college education?
A curriculum that is grounded in the most important body of accumulated human knowledge. The Great Books at Chicago fit that definition. It also included up-to-date material in all fields. Importantly, it used all original documents. I learned to always go to original documents for the rest of my life: I read Newton's own writing and Leibnitz as well. I have never used textbooks that are the mishmass of summaries by middleweight minds. I've been hired to update textbooks, on occasion, and can testify to their pablum quality.
Most of my courses were discussion groups run by bright faculty who understood the word 'facilitate.' One only learns when one has to clearly express an idea and when that idea can be challenged by others. Discussion is the way to learn, deeply and creatively.
The student body was large enough for me to find many like-minded students to talk with, study with, play with and learn from. There were 400 undergraduates. More than enough, and diverse too, from many countries and backgrounds. Opera fanatics to rodeo riders.
Being a university noted for scholarship, my friends were very bright, some were weird and a percentage were friends for decades after school. From them, I learned a great deal. Learning was over the pool table, in the art studio, at the 'Old Doc' film club and at meals. Even on a ski trip with a bunch of grad student neurologists.
There were also a few extraordinary faculty. My favorite was Niels Bohr who taught me that physics was a series of constants, most discovered by mechanical researchers or technicians. Physics is the explanation of what the technical people discovered. He proved his point.
Within a year or two, we shall have a few great universities because of online classes.
Online classes allow you to learn from the best at your own pace. But it can't happen in isolation. Classes need to be built around discussion groups.
There will be small campuses, 400-700 students, in decent locations with low costs, adequate labs and live-in facilities.
Keep your eyes out. We'll see them soon.