Because living with other people learning the same material going to the same classes does wonders for motivation and outcomes in general. At least for me.
Exactly. I'd say because:
1. Being there in person creates pressure due to deadlines & not wanting to be embarrassed when the teacher calls on you.
2. Most knowledge is tribal knowledge. Good teachers know their stuff & can relay that you in person. Putting it out on paper can take a zillion pages & can miss the core concept, especially for stuff like music.
3. Networking is a big part of school. I got a really good job thanks to connections I made at school. Internships, jobs, and other resources are available through school relationships.
4. Social interaction is big, especially for projects where you need to bounce ideas off other people.
OP, look at it this way: the Internet has existed publicly for consumers since like 1999. There's an astounding amount of information available. So many colleges & other groups have put their information up & freely available - MIT OpenCourseware, for example. Big list of free online resources here:
http://imgur.com/gallery/VTuIPMt
So why are you not a master of cooking? Why are you not a networking expert? Why don't you understand math at a very high level? All of the information is there...for free...24/7...anything you want, anytime you want. There are no barriers to self-education these days...you can learn anything you want just by flipping on Youtube. Want to build a house? An arcade cabinet? A computer? Anything you want! Or ask yourself, why do you have 1,000+ posts on a forum where they don't even pay you to share your technical knowledge?
The problem boils down to motivation. Very few people are self-motivated to a high degree. The ones who are like that are generally already out making stuff happen in the world: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Henry Ford, the list goes on & on. The combination of high energy & clear focus - along with daily iterative progress - is what makes stuff like that happen. The world is your oyster if you're motivated enough, whether for good (Mother Teresa) or evil (Hitler).
But there's a lot that goes into motivation. You have to feel good enough to keep up that pace all the time, so you need to take care of your body by going to sleep early, eating healthy foods, exercising, and managing your stress levels. You have to have a clear focus to help you make specific progress & get you through the doldrums when you don't feel very excited about whatever you're working on, whether it's education or a job or a project. You basically have to narrow your focus & then be persistent. Arnold made history because he wanted to be basically the biggest guy ever. Kind of a simple meatheaded goal, but he became amazing because he kept himself motivated & made daily progress on what he wanted. So your point about freestyle learning is actually kind of a hidden barrier, despite sounding like great advertising:
With online education, not only am I not bound by rigid sources, I can enter learning mode at will usually anywhere I see fit, at anytime rather than have strict schedules or be tardy or be penalized in any way. Again an online learners are not bound by central places to learn but are decentralized and one might torrent a textbook that someone would traditionally buy.
Anything you want to learn is out there for free. Available right
now. Learning anytime, anywhere doesn't actually work for people (for the majority of people, anyway) because the way we make progress is by being motivated to make progress, and then by being consistent at it. We're creatures of habits; being sporatic doesn't lead to habits & doesn't lead to consistent progress, which means you're not really moving along your educational path unless you set some specific times, dates, and a material path to follow.
It's interesting how the compounding interest adds up too. As of today, I have 31,833 posts here on AT, which is a decently large number (and makes me think I should be doing something else with my time LOL). But - my average daily post count is only 7.8. Hop on at lunch, make a few posts, adds up over time. Same thing happens with anything - learning the guitar, studying computer science, practicing cooking, doing pushups. Over time your knowledge increases & your results increase because you're making steady, consistent progress through habits.
Basically learning in class, in person, works best for most people because most of us are not very self-motivated. We work best around & with other people. If you were highly self-motivated, you would already be out doing stuff & blazing a trail in the world rather than posting on a forum all day long. Based on my postcount, I apparently have
very low self-motivation
😀
Anyway, people make a costly investment into a college education because you need to earn an income for the rest of your life to support yourself & your family, and going to college to get trained for a job that is needed & pays well is a pretty safe bet for most people, especially for the bulk of us who are not self-motivated entrepreneurs & want to go set the world on fire with our talents. And the best way to achieve that college degree is to do it in person, because (1) we're strongly socially motivated (deadlines, peer pressure, working in groups, being around other people, tribal knowledge, etc.), and (2) we're creates of habit (having classes on the same days at the same times creates a routine based on schedule, which helps us make consistent progress).
There's not really any magic to it. Online stuff simply doesn't work for most people because most people are not very motivated by themselves. Some of us are, and some of us do well with that. Some of us do VERY well with it & become the Doogie Howsers of the world. The rest of us have to deal with our innate limitations, which is why online schools haven't taken over brick & mortar schools yet - it all boils down to human nature.
