Gradually, then Suddenly

Gradually

Change happens gradually, then suddenly. Like an ice cube melting, far more is going on out of site as we watch it gradually start to change, and then all of a sudden its gone.

Universities have that feel about them. Like all large organisation they want to manage change, and do so on their own terms. Trouble is, change isn't listening.

When I went to University, admittedly and long time ago, around 2% of us did. It was free. You got a good education, and provided you behaved you got a degree which gave you a choice of jobs.

A few decades later, more than half of young people go to University. It costs them an arm and half a leg to get a degree that is not guaranteed to get them a job. Along the way, we have industrialised education, measured it out of experience and joy and created a whole new class of tenured, highly paid CEO equivalents who have liitle to do with the spirit of education.

When I went to Uni, what we learned had a decent half life - at least enough to get starte…