Interdisciplinary Studies

I don't know if you all remember this, but way, way back when we were discussing The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I argued that anarchy was not an effective discipline for a university, and students with no rules would choose to learn less than their counterparts with innumerable tests and guidelines.

I want to go ahead and strongly disagree with myself. After our theological, political, sociological, linguistic, and mathematical debate on Thursday, I think that a wide-open anarchical learning system would have incredibly good results. Students would have to be provided with a lot of support, but it's amazing to imagine what would happen if everyone were permitted to pursue their own interests from very early on. People would have their first specialization by the age of 15, and keep picking up things for the rest of their lives. There'd be no stigma against math or economics or science as being "too hard": those who chose to study such areas would relish the challenge or find it easy. Likewise, all knowledge could be valued for itself, so there'd be no looking down on such "useless" subjects as English or philosophy (or science fiction): minds fine-tuned to learn and guide themselves would soon search out a job suited to their unique talents, or teach themselves the rules of any job they liked.

Sure some people would miss out on what our culture considers "basic skills." Some people would have below-average reading skills. Others would be lacking in math abilities. But I think that if we had a culture where anyone could learn whatever they wanted, everything would eventually work out. If math is considered a basic requirement to society, a math-less person who encountered trouble in daily life would find someone to teach them math to overcome that problem. People would learn about not only what interested them, but what related to their daily lives: a diabetic might be an expert on chemical engineering, but also on diabetes; a champion swimmer could quote you Shakespeare and explain the physics of a body moving through water.

And in this utopian anarchist learning-oriented society, people would do a lot of sitting around and talking. The popular novels of the day would be enjoyed not just for their stories, but for the quality of their writing, how they relate to world politics, and what they say about human nature. Groups of students from this society would hold regular discussion groups, their topics moving from religion to politics to trigonometry to the nature of reality as the mood struck them.

And this class has already had a taste of just how cool that would be.