Education Posts

In 1926, compulsory education was still a recent invention in much of the world. The idea that all children should spend a decade or more in formal schooling—rather than working in fields, factories, or homes—had emerged only in the previous century. Universal literacy was a goal, not a reality. Higher education was for the elite few.

Medical school takes four years after four years of undergraduate education.⁴ Law school takes three years. A PhD takes five to seven. Becoming a licensed plumber requires four to five years of apprenticeship. A software engineer might spend four years in university plus years building experience.

In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed that "everyone has the right to education." Seventy-eight years later, this right remains unrealized for hundreds of millions.

In 1984, educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom published a study that haunted education researchers for decades. Students who received one-on-one tutoring performed two standard deviations better than students in conventional classrooms. Two standard deviations. The average tutored student outperformed 98% of classroom students.¹