> There are many very successful self-educated people in the world.
How is this relevant? There always have been and always will be. The education system wasn’t designed for auto-didacts. They will thrive no matter the system. It is for the average worker bee to make sure they aren’t stuck with limited capability/mobility, which is bad for society. The question nowadays is related to whether the education system is too old to train the average worker for modern jobs as opposed to the old Prussian factory style education.
Education reform through technology hit a plateau early. MOOCs seem to have bad engagement metrics, so they suffer from the same problems that the worst in-person schools have. Few companies use online certificates as a stronger signal than branded, accredited 4-year university degrees.
I would argue that YouTube has been as much of a curse as a blessing. For those individuals with any non-trivial amount of gullibility, they can easily fall down a rabbit hole of false facts. Finding rigorously verified facts is more difficult, but still possible. I would have a really hard time hiring someone who believed the world was flat because they learned it dozens of videos on YouTube; that is a signal of high motivation but an inability to filter signal from the noise.
I agree that really reforming education will involve all of the tough things in your last paragraph. But you didn’t once mention parents in your comment, which is really interesting. I haven’t seen a movement of homeschooling which is much different from the anti-secular Christians have been pushing for decades.
Charter schools seem to be a mixed bag. Their biggest feature seems to be that they select their pupils/families (selective admissions, expulsion, etc). It will be interesting to see if any charter companies can grow to a national scale and keep high quality teaching results.
