Education is an IQ test Updated +Created
The goal of our broken educational system is not to teach.
It is simply a test of who can learn the most in the least amount of time.
What is being learnt is of little importance. it doesn't matter if it is useful or beautiful things.
The useless exams are set exactly at a difficulty level that produces a normal distribution of grades:
  • too hard and everyone gets 0, so you can't split people well
  • too easy and everyone gets 100, so you can't split them well either
The difficulty is just set for your particular group of students.
As Elon Musk put it:
I think college is basically for fun and to prove that you can do your chores, but they're not for learning
University Updated +Created
One major issue is that teachers don't have the right incentive to, nor are selected to, teach well. Thus the existence of Rate My Professors! But we can do better...
Which is why Ciro Santilli wants to destroy its current format with OurBigBook.com. He believes that we can find a more efficient organization to achieve both the social and research functions of university, by first doing as much as possible online
Ciro's university experiences are mentioned at: Ciro Santilli's formal education.