I think soon, maybe in the next 20 (or sooner!) years, classroom education will become obsolete. The availability of information within reach, in the comforts of our home through the internet is realistically practical and modern. Classroom education will either be a choice, or worst will be the only option, considering that funding the educational system is becoming to be a big burden year in and year out. It has nothing to do as to who is at the helm of administration. This is the outcome of modernization and advancement of high-tech. Call it the "Century of Gadgets."
The world we live in is beginning to have more and more calamities and disasters. Tsunami in the Far East, flooding and tornadoes in the Mid-West, earthquake in South America, etc. Most recently, we watched the movie-like transmission of earthquake in Japan unfolding right in front of us. Then, the inevitable nuclear power plant leakage whose irreparable damage to the Japanese people will be seen in generations to come. These calamities are beyond whatever advancement, modernism and high-tech can control. They are tragic events nobody can decipher as yet. Is this the stage when we contemplate . . . and, believe in God?
Whatever advancement we are enjoying is not the outcome of a sudden discovery. The human mind have thought and perceived of everything in stages. In the beginning it was always somebody's dream. First, it was a ridiculous idea! When their backs were turned there were varied comments - scathing, painful, loathsome, funny - "he must be nuts," "something is wrong with his coconut," and a lot more unprintable remarks. The foresight of thinkers are not to be entertained by ordinary people of common intelligence. What they can see possible is beyond the mainstream comprehension.
Later, when the idea has gone to the stages of transformation and has manifested into reality, the reaction is, "OH'S and AH'S." The inconceivable become conceivable! It is a fact!
Railroad, telephone, airplane, television, cell phone, internet, etc., not to mention about cloning, laser operations, botox and cell/genes' reconstruction were just but dreams and ideas. Yet, we are lucky enough to see the unfolding of these dreams and ideas. Now, the modern generation conceives ideas and dreams of these "thinkers and dreamers" through the movies. Everything is possible, yet we can not stop the calamities and wreckage caused by our environment.
I was educated in the era of typewriters and telex machines. The transformation from the manual typewriter to electric and then to computer was such a fast pace that a lot of those in their 50's still find it awkward to accept a DROID as a gift from their children. They feel so behind and out-dated.
"What, this telephone can take pictures? It can send letters! It can take recordings?"
Just to mention the few functions of a Droid. Mention the multi-function and they will be so overwhelmingly compromised! LOST!
Why then does one have to go to the classroom where there is only a limited source of information? Why do I have to wake up early, dress appropriately for school, waste gasoline and compel either of my parents to drop me in school when in the comforts of my home i can be self-educated at my own time. A place where I am not exposed to strangers and my parents will be able to save more money for maintaining our family by saving on car maintenance, clothing allowances, etc. I can find all the information from the internet. Just with a click of a finger!
