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Re:The Unexotic Underclass by trevelyan on Friday September 05, 2014 @04:06PM (#8275996)
I was thinking more of adult education, the same principle applies to children. Socrates had the example that if schoolboys could choose their teachers, they would elect the pastry chef.

Just focusing on the adult education market, it is extremely clear that the most well-known educational products are those associated with non-educational marketing factors: institutional prestige (MOOCs), television advertising (Rosetta Stone), famous people (Bill Gates & Khan Academy).

You rarely, rarely, rarely hear about educational startups that are excellent, financially independent and successful. It CAN happen, but if you are planning to build a startup with that in mind, you will have a much harder time than if you raise cash and put education behind marketing, marketing, marketing....

Re:The Unexotic Underclass by SomeCallMeTim on Wednesday September 10, 2014 @10:15PM (#8300517)
>Socrates had the example that if schoolboys could choose their teachers, they would elect the pastry chef.

Socrates also basically invented the strawman argument as an educational tool.

Read about Sudbury Schools. Not only do kids choose to really learn, they don't all pick the modern equivalent of pastry chef.