Saturday, June 29, 2019

Ave, John Pepple!

John Pepple just posted "Is College Obsolete?"—in which he linked to a YouTube video by entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David, who rakes the US education system over the coals, accusing it of being both a scam and a dinosaur that's unable to change with the times quickly enough to remain relevant. The video that Pepple linked to led me to a second Bet-David video; the two vids function as a pair, and both are worth watching. Instapundit has been beating the same drum about the obsolescence and scamminess of academe for a while, now, and I've become increasingly convinced that, if I were ever to have kids, I wouldn't put them through college at all: it'd be trade schools and workshops for them, giving them a chance to learn real skills and to stay at the forefront of technological evolution.



Bet-David isn't going to appeal to everyone. His videos are slick (except for the noisy way he inhales through his nose!), and they have the slimy feel of infomercials. But Bet-David isn't selling you anything, except to plug one or two of his other videos, so I'm convinced his motivation for ranting about education is from a sincerely activist perspective. I'm sold. Too bad these vids didn't come out when I was in high school.
"You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda' got for a buck-fifty in late charges at the public library."
—Will Hunting, Good Will Hunting, 1997



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