Today is Independence Day in the US, so we’re all off celebrating, each in our own way (although food, family, and friends will likely be common themes). If online learning is on your agenda, we’d of course suggest our Introduction to U.S. History, among others, and you can’t go wrong with Joanne Freeman’s American Revolution lectures (peppered with anecdotes and laughter) from Open Yale Courses.
The majority of the people in the Saylor.org community may not be celebrating anything today, but we’d like to invite you to share in the spirit of the holiday nevertheless. Leaving aside the problems of politics and all questions of history, “independence” can be about lots of things: access to learning that isn’t locked up in books you can’t get or at schools you can’t attend; opportunity to explore careers and passions that would have been unavailable in the pre-WWW days; encouragement to discover that you really are a math/science/history/literature person after all.
In short, the things that used to separate you from the reinvention of yourself through education — money, borders, attitudes, access — are melting away. Twenty years into the Web, we’re not there yet, but opportunity is expanding daily.
So help us here at the Saylor Foundation celebrate July 4th, the day that thirteen united colonies declared independence, by declaring your own independence from the days of closed doors and missed opportunities. The education you want, increasingly, is within your reach — and even better days lie ahead!