I had lunch with my teenage son today and we were talking about colleges. His school, like many other high schools, stresses how hard it is to get into a 4 year University, how intense the competition is. He knows that his parents both went to community college and  then finished at FSU, so his question for me was "why is it so important to start at a 4 year University?" He would prefer to just plan on going to a community college first.

As we talked I told him one thing that I suspect no other parent would tell their child. I told him I am not real sure how important a college education is going to be in a few years.

I have met many people in recent years who did not finish college, but were very educated based on the resources that are available to them. We talked about one of my favorite movies, Good Will Hunting and one of my favorite lines;

"you dropped 150 grand on a f***in' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!"

Such a great movie....

Tonight I was catching up on this past week's episodes of The Daily Show. On Wednesday night Jon Stewart interviewed an African man, William Kamkwamba who had to drop out of school because his family could not afford to send him. However he hung out at the library and there he came across a book that had a diagram of a windmill, which he studied and then built in front of his house. Toward the end of the interview William Kamkwamba talks about how when he was "discovered" and brought to speak at a conference, someone showed him the Internet and told him about Google. When he googled "windmill" he saw thousands of resources and he said "where was this google when I was building my windmill."

So, above are two examples referencing a desire to learn and a library...one in poverty stricken Africa!

The reality is kids want to learn, and they are natural explorers.

My question is how are schools supposed to capture and keep the attention of kids who have the world at their finger tips. Most children today can learn anything they want to learn, dive deep into topics of interest or browse a variety of topics. They are exposed to information that is entertaining, engaging, and thought-provoking. It is true they are exposed to all kinds of information that is not accurate as well...but have we as parents and educators taught them the critical thinking skills needed to be able to recognize what is accurate and what needs to be researched a little more?

Will kids, who will have an unimaginable amount of resources at their finger tips in the next few years when my son starts college, will they really see a point in dropping 150 grand on a education they can get for free off of the web?

I guess it depends on of schools will be able to keep up in the information age.