I’m puzzled by a comment in Bill Keller’s cautionary Op-Ed piece in the New York Times yesterday about the likely near-future proliferation of online higher education. It’s the following line that irks me:

“And it’s not at all clear that online students learn the most important lesson of all: how to keep learning.”

College–on campus or online–is a good place to learn. If you want to be a professional (e.g., neurosurgeon, district court judge), it’s obviously essential. But one thing it’s not needed for is to teach people how to keep learning. Because of the Internet there’s more (and more vital) information available to people than at any time in the history of humankind. All it takes to become smart today is a basic education and the will to learn. The main thing is to not wait for the delivery of information through someone else’s “channel” (which might not be the best or deepest kind of info), but instead to seek it out. That only requires common sense, not an uncommon education. And considering how many unsophisticated thinkers emerge with college diplomas, it’s better to be an autodidact with a curious mind than a college graduate without one.•