Indoctrination

Locaux 42 by 42Born2Code

A new technology school in Paris may point the way to a new model of higher education. 42.fr is a school devised by technology businessmen who have little respect for the current traditional university system. It will accept students on the basis of a series of qualifying exams. The exams are geared to test for talent and potential in the computer-tech field. It is a private school which will offer considerable financial aid to students. 

Old educational models are designed to develop an elite of masters and doctors. It evolved out of the European guild system, which was beholding to the beneficence of local gentry and nobility. Top-down control of the population's education was a basic agenda item in the development of European guilds and universities. Eventually, revolutionary educators, like the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), opened the doors of education to the general population through qualifying examinations. Usually this process was associated with parishes and tutoring priest who would in turn recommend students of merit to take entry examinations. 

Even with the opening of universities to the occasional poorer student, the Catholic Church rigorously controlled higher education for centuries. The Reformation changed this somewhat, however the wealthy were still given preference for admission. Legacy admission, facilitated admission based on a lineage of previous graduates from the same (wealthy) family, still exists today in elite universities in Europe and the United States. 

Our higher education system has been drastically altered by the evolution of electronic campuses. Chain-store education, like that offered by University of Phoenix, has mimicked the standard university model. The result is less than progressive. Chain-store grads find it harder to compete in the workplace, where provenance from an established university with a real campus trumps for good reason. Recent revelations have made it clear that the on line university may at its core be a slick way to raid government funds for higher education at the expense of both taxpayer and student.

The doctorate is an award which verifies the recipient's indoctrination in the status quo of his/her subject. This is a double-edged sword. Experts with doctorates are repositories of history of their subject's development. This is an important cultural asset. Just repeating history is unproductive, whether it is in science or humanities. So, it is the job of the doctors to scope out rehashing and distinguish it from innovation. Unfortunately, the system does not always deliver on this promise.

It is encouraging to me to see out-of-the-box educational institutions emerging in direct challenge to the standard campus. This is the kind of revolution which the truly intelligent foster for the good of the species. Like their Jesuit forebears, these French IT moguls are challenging social and intellectual norms to the benefit of brilliant students who may not get a break in the traditional university. It is rational. It is scientific. It is revolutionary. It is egalitarian. It is essentially humanist as I see that quality in the human species.