albert rogers

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since April 25, 2000

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April 25, 2000, on Tuition-free MIT:
I've read about half of the comments, and it seems that few realise the difference between an education and a diploma. For instance, the idea that publicly-funded education, at any level, benefits only the recipient of the education, is wrong if the education is something useful like engineering or literacy or music. If it's merely the ability to do what Bill Gates is good at, then by all means charge a fortune. Better yet, if someone shows high aptitude, lock him up. A really good engineer (software or hardware), or a really good doctor, or a first class physicist or novelist or dramatist or teacher, does it for the joy of the subject. You need only pay them the respect they deserve, and enough money to live on and not be sneered at by their neighbours. So educate them for free, and you get more out of it than you put in.