On education, and the grief I feel missing last class

So, I missed the last discussion session of the semester, for reasons of.. well - for reasons of it being the end of the semester and having to choose between missing a class session or perhaps failing another class for not having a project finished. Not an excuse, but a reason -- and not a decision I relished making, either.

Well, today I ran into PTJ in TDR, and was informed that the class I missed was the MOST INCREDIBLE CLASS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. I was really jealous -- it sounded right up my alley - intensely abstract intellectual discussion, an entire class striving together in the search of higher meaning. Not to mention, I loved the book. Well, we accept the consequences of our decisions.

Anyway, I'd like to springboard off of Anne's discussion of "interdisciplinary studies" -- I'm guessing this was delved deeply into during class, and I regret missing the discussion. At the risk of making a point that has already been debated and cast aside as silly:

It's really interesting to consider the proposed pedagogical system in contrast with our own. Especially taking into account the important role that mandatory education plays in our progressive (which I mean in the progress towards more advanced and efficient civilization, not a socially just one, etc) capitalist society, which is such a clear descendant of the Protestant Work Ethic dynamic which played such an important part in our discussion of Manifest Destiny. Imagine, for a second, that there was no societal coercion for getting an education. Jobs didn't require diplomas, nobody was judging you based on your formalized acquisition of skills and knowledge. Think of what percentage of your peers might never have set foot inside a classroom (and yes, obviously that's kind of Anne's point -- who needs classrooms?)

But also think what percentage of people who are currently working as chemists might never have discovered the field at all. I personally love chemistry, but would never have gotten beyond the most rudimentary understanding of it if I hadn't been coerced to by college admissions standards. I didn't ultimately choose chemistry as my professional paths, but I can imagine many who might have discovered the subject in much the same way and ended up pursuing it.

All this aside, my ultimate point is that I think mandatory education plays an enormous part in our system of social progression, and it's very interesting to consider what an alternative might do -- would it be more efficient because people are connecting one-on-one with their passions? Or would it just promote sloth and anti-intellectualism because the human race naturally tends towards these things, and we need institutionalized imposition of knowledge to overcome it?