Self-Directed Learning

SEE HERE The cost of a college education has reached simply astronomical proportions and it isn't clear that people think they are getting what they are paying for.  What is an education anyway?  I think I can tell you what it isn't.  An education isn't indoctrination in a series of subjects so that you know the facts and are issued a piece of paper that says you weathered the storm and survived the experience.  Certainly an education includes the knowledge that you gain by focusing on a major or a topic, but that's not the heart of an education.  As my mentors in high school taught me long ago, a real education is the development of the skills and the disciplines to be able to learn anything you want to learn by employing the learning skills that you have learned.  So learning how to analyze, how to critically think, how to research, how to take notes, how to practice and achieve mastery are the important skills.  Marks on exams are meaningless and forgotten almost as soon as they are taken.  The question is: When will the educational system return to true education?  Not soon enough for my taste.