Especially “2) The social aspect of school is, in my opinion, more important than the education delivered.”

I think there exists much data that suggests that the marginal value add of education has always negligible for a mass market. The inability to recognize this inconvenient truth makes it very hard for educators to take a clear look at how to get to efficient delivery of education services.

My take is that the truly disruptive force is a new reality for what a “family” means. As it continues to be possible for women to earn their own incomes, this is a secular trend. As new forms of accommodation to this reality emerge education can move forward to a new value add – actually helping teaching masses of people to think.

It’s a new task that will require new forms of much more efficient staffing, and much less value created by the legacy physical plant. As the Vice President said about Health Care, it’s a BFD.

1) Lots of parents would withdraw their kids from school if they had the money to do so. With primary education being a substitute for daycare for many, there is a great disincentive for parents to get out of the system.

2) The social aspect of school is, in my opinion, more important than the education delivered. Some home schooled children have a different way of working with others, mostly because they have been socialized in a different way. That’s not to say that all home schooled children are awkward socially, but for some this is an additional challenge. Now, with the web becoming much more social, I wonder if the web can support that? Or will it be different?

Once again, I refer your readers to http://bit.ly/bMHHlV to read a quite thorough and thoughtful treatise on these issues originally published in 1996.

The real threat is the unknown. I don’t think any words can mitigate that threat for parents who see that the present approach, with all of it’s problems, is the safest way to go.

The more plausible path, I think, is to focus at the bottom of the pyramid. For them the threat is crystal clear. At Bottom of the Pyramid dropout factories in the States, it can be literally a matter of life or prison.

Even if any particular kid doesn’t wind up dead or in jail the threat of the possiblity is real to every parent in those communities.

My point is that in the face of that threat and now with the new government focus at the BoP, the most likely place for Tipping Point growth is precisely in Detroit, Baltimore, Newark South Central Los Angeles, and the 5000 indentified drop out factories in the States.

The problem at the top and middle of the pyramid is that the safe way thing to do is what was done before. It’s only natural. In the States the natural space for DIY U and others to grow to the strength needed to re invent education is probably at the HS dropout factories and the community colleges. It’s pretty clear that what they are doing is not working while the costs continue to grow.

The reality is that at the very, very top of the pyramid we find rigorous homeschooling, wonderful private schools and other ways to ensure that kids get just the right edu to live good lives. I think it’s fair to say that the top tier colleges also provide an pretty good environment.

The problem is the 85% of “higher Ed” that charges top tier prices while delivering little more than training for most of their students. An interesting vision of how this might play out is described by the National Association of Scholars at http://ilnk.me/NAS

The pontentially good news is that the Obama education policy seems to be focused precisely at the 5000 hs dropout factories and Community Colleges in the States