Modern Colleges

Here we go again, insisting that college educations are crucial to the coming generations. But, then, we try so very hard to make getting a college education so very easy. Let's do a four-year degree in three years--or two or even one, say some radio ads. Let's do online "virtual" courses. Let's let high school kids get college credit. And on and on....

Now there might well be some good online courses. But it seems to me that, although students should be able to take some of them, overall, they need to have personal confrontation with a professor/instructor. I keep going back to teachers in my bldg all taking the same online course and, meeting several times a week, then doing their work together.

If a college education is being "dumbed down" (and I can't imagine anyone, anywhere arguing it isn't), why is it so important, vital? Instead of colleges and universities, shouldn't we just expand high schools for another couple of years? It would be cheaper (a much more important factor than "it's for the kids") and colleges/universities wouldn't be further degraded (dumbed down).

Surely, no one will listen to that. After all, the "education-types" are in charge.