I don't think there's any harm, and I'm happy people are doing things they enjoy. I don't think this project is really comparable to a conventional school, though, so I don't know why the author takes shots at that system (I mean it is obviously a very flawed system, but I don't see what new to learn about it from this experiment).

I mean, no grades, no cost, no degree at the end, four people per 'class' -- is it closer to a conventional university, or a book club? Not to knock book clubs -- they are great (especially if people read the books for once), but they probably won't solve the education system either.

Well, call me crazy, but doesn't that already exist? Free lectures are available in a variety of media and locations in a variety of subjects. Libraries have a ton of content, and often the space available to host talks/lectures. The Internet has pretty much all information you will ever need in one form or another.

If the Catherine Project is indeed just one more form of that kind of decentralized ad-hoc learning, then the only downside is that it'll be just as successful. That is to say, a bunch of random people learning random things without a curriculum. Which is not really "an education", and carries a series of challenges and burdens for a great number (maybe most) of the population, that traditional academia is intended to address.

> I don't understand the skepticism either.

The thread's been jumped on by mysoginistic conservatives?

I’m not seeing the skepticism being referred to but I would imagine this education is feminist and many people have a deep aversion to anything related to that.

The article is not very long. You should at least skim it, if the alternative is jumping to a fairly negative conclusion.