An Open Letter to Educators Critique

In his YouTube video entitled “An Open Letter to Educators,” college drop-out Dan Brown challenges the relevancy of institutionalized education in the information age.  He argues that institutionalized education has failed to adapt to the modern age and therefore “will die and should die.”

        While Brown makes valid observations with respect to the increased availability of information, brought on primarily by the increased popularity and availability of the internet, his theory is largely premised on his own personal experiences with institutionalized education.    Brown assumes that his own personal negative experiences at the University of Nebraska are duplicated at every other institution of higher learning and with every other individual.  Even if Brown’s personal experience with institutionalized education is accurate and not exaggerated, his argument is flawed in that he narrow-mindedly assumes the same is true with other institutions, individuals, professors, and courses of study.  

        Brown states he dropped out of college because “his schooling was interfering with his education.”  Institutionalized education, however, provides individuals with an experience that cannot be replicated by simply conducting Google searches.  Institutionalized education provides broad-based learning, which exposes students to topics that they may have had no interest in or have known nothing about.  What the student does with the information she receives in these classes is what she makes of it.  Even facts recited in a lecture, devoid of any interaction between students and a professor, could spark an interest in a topic that the student may have never had before.  

        Furthermore, institutionalized education provides the structure and standards to assess an individual’s mastery of certain subject matter.  The student receives a grade, either passes or fails a course, accumulates credits, and ultimately – if successful – receives a diploma at the completion of her studies.  That diploma is more than an expensive piece of paper.  It evidences that the graduate had the discipline, tenancy, and work ethic to complete a lengthy course of study.  Moreover, a diploma from an accredited educational institution is a necessity to obtain professional licensure.  It is impossible today for one to become a doctor, nurse, engineer, or lawyer through self-study or through Brown’s preferred method of “Googling.”  Brown would likely argue that this is because institutionalized education maintains a stranglehold to make a profit.  But study in a traditional educational institution assures that uniform standards are met.  You can’t become a surgeon by simply conducting Google searches, and you shouldn’t.