"The University of Everywhere"

I've been thinking a lot since last week's discussion about rural poverty and lack of access to services. This issue is not news to me (or, I'm sure, most of us). My parents both grew up in rural Maine, one in a farming community where probably 80% of the people are related by blood or marriage, and another in a town that was centered around Bass Shoe until Bass began shipping jobs south and across the Pacific. I am also reminded of the disparity every time I field a call on the Alzheimer's Association Helpline from someone in Washington County, Aroostook County, Pistcataquis County (whose low population density qualifies it as a "frontier"), who desperately needs caregiver support and other services that simply aren't available within 2 hours (or even 3) from their home because our agency, like so many others, simply can't afford to staff multiple offices in Maine.

It's loosely in that context that I wanted to share an interesting conversation I had earlier this week with a colleague at my internship, about a "Fresh Air" podcast with Kevin Carey, author of The End Of College: Creating The Future Of Learning And The University Of Everywhere. Casey believes college in its current form merely serves to perpetuate privilege--with tuition for a bachelor's degree at a private institution often exceeding a quarter million dollars over four years, it's not hard to see his point. Certainly, there are exceptions, including my cousin's daughter, who grew up in that aforementioned farming town in rural Maine and received a full scholarship to Yale, where she recently graduated with a degree in political science (but I digress). 

In his interview, Casey talks about his experience of taking a class on EdX, which offers free online courses on a wide array of subjects. EdX was originally started as a partnership between Harvard and MIT to create free, open access to the same curriculum and classes their students take (and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for); participating universities now include dozens of institutions in the US and around the world. Casey himself decided to take a biology class that is required of all first-year MIT students, whom one would presume to be some of the brightest minds in the US (and the world). This is not a watered-down free version--it is the same class, with the same lectures, assignments and final exam that is required of all first-year MIT students, whom one would presume to be some of the brightest minds in the US (and the world). Casey was proud to earn a final grade of 87/B in the class, which was taught by someone who was involved with the Human Genome Project (i.e., no slouch!). But what he found most interesting is that, among the thousands of people who took the class, only about 100 earned a perfect score on the exam--one of those was a teenager in Mongolia. As he notes, this kid was literally about as far away, geographically (and demographically/socioeconomically, I'd guess) from MIT as anyone on planet earth...yet he had the same intellectual ability and potential (perhaps more) than many students who are fortunate enough to be able to attend one of the world's most prestigious universities. In fact, that same kid ended up becoming Mongolia's first-ever student at MIT. Pretty amazing.

I find it incredibly exciting to think of the potential a system like EdX has to create opportunities for people in rural areas--whether a world away or right here in Maine--to access a world-class education and feel empowered to imagine possibilities for their futures that may never have seemed realistic before.