Forgive me for disagreeing, but I have a few issues with what you are saying. First of all, what is wrong with getting credit for life experience? If a person gains experience in, say, accounting, through a summer job at a friend's business, why should he have to take a class to learn what he already knows? In my opinion, it is an excellent idea to offer credit for proven life experience (i.e. reports of work done, photocopies, etc.).
Second, much of a "liberal arts education" is garbage anyway! The first two years of almost any degree consists of basically the same general courses, such as calculus, natural science, etc. Which is the more sensible option: to sit in a class with 200 other students listening to a professor (or more likely a graduate student) lecture on fluids in a steady state (and most people in the class couldn't care less what he's talking about), or to "take charge" of your own education by applying yourself to the subject at hand in order to pass the related test? Please don't tell me that the average student in our country's prestigious "liberal arts" colleges actually cares about what he is "learning"!
Check out this real-life example: my brother is currently going to a local community college, and he told me that the class recently had a group project where pairs of students had to give 5 minute graded presentations to the class. One of the groups openly admitted that they had not prepared at all in terms of research or planning for the presentation, yet they did the best job out of any in the class. That is the state of our public education system!
What programs like CollegePlus! and colleges like Thomas Edison are doing is placing the reigns of an education back into the hands of the student. Who cares if Thomas Edison didn't get into some list. Education at the end of the Middle Ages was the responsibility of the student. If he did not graduate, it was entirely his fault. Yet, most colleges are letting students coast through college instead of demanding excellence. I believe that motivated students, students who truly want to pursue excellence in life (most homeschool students I know are this way), are hindered by the ridiculous hoops that everyone has to jump through in order to graduate college. Such motivated students usually excel at abstract thinking, critical reasoning, and ability to learn, so why should they be forced to follow the same path that public education has cleared for them?
I believe that you are placing the mode of education as being more important than the student. Motivated students are the ones who succeed in college, regardless of the method. I commend anyone who takes their education into their own hands so that they can excel.
. I would appreciate any counsel as to how I can do this. Thanks
