ABSTRACT
In the slow-moving world of the ancients, who wrote and drew in the sand, on clay and parchment, education followed the master-disciple model, whereby only a select few were chosen to be educated by a very few teachers. Civilization, cities and trade changed all this, and in a period of less than 200 years the transition from the farming and rural existence to the Industrial Age was completed. Mass education started to take off; formal systems, teachers and classes grew in size and number throughout the developing world. In fast-moving areas of technology many degrees now have a half-life of less than five years. Moreover, the time when a single discipline degree was sufficient for a lifetime of work has long gone. The key discovery has been that the downside of apparent isolation at the desk can be overcome by a series of short communal periods where everyone on the course meets and works together.
