As a public school teacher in Japan the past 14 years and the son of educators, I care deeply about education but often find myself questioning the whole System that we use to educate people.

Why, I wonder, in the Information Age is education, especially at the university level, becoming more expensive?

Why are colleges paying millions of dollars to lure top-notch football and basketball coaches…is that REALLY the best use of their money? (I ask this as a former sportswriter who still enjoys watching college athletics)

Why do so many people get college degrees but not jobs to pay for the crazy debts racked up getting those degrees?

Such questions only scratch the surface and this essay by a very advanced future thinker, Elliot Edge, goes deeper and suggests ways we could truly make the Internet a platform to educate the planet and help us ALL.

I have a 13-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter and I often find myself asking why they must spend so much money to get an education when all of this Information is out there.

I suspect much of the problem is related to this winner-take-all, predatory economic system, how it encourages people to look out for their own, how this includes college professors and administrators so they’d be reluctant to give us their “product” for free, lest they be cast into the suffering masses that so many are becoming due to automation and other factors.

Thus, they, and our culture at large, continue to insist students must buy a piece of paper known as a diploma in order to get a good job and avoid the fate of becoming a “deplorable.”

I’m rambling on, but seriously, if we are going to meet the massive, collective challenges of the 21st century, we are gonna have to start thinking about solutions that are focused on raising the prospects of everyone, not just a select few of us.

Anyway, GREAT essay, Elliot. Thanks for sharing it!