This quote leads me to compare this type of education where students and teachers inhabit the same space and online "education" where "students" read and write away from their "classmates" and "teachers." The differences between these two approaches expose the reality that what is actually being argued about (or should be argued about) is the very definition of education. According to Barzun, it is people who convey truth to other people through their very eloquence and personality. Taken from Barzun's Teacher in America, pp 51-2:
"Now what makes a lecture legitimate and good? The answer is - a combinations of eloquence and personality.... The lecture room is the place where drama may properly become theater. This usually means a fluent speaker, no notes, and no shyness about "effects."... The speaker projects himself and the subject. The "effects" are not laid on, they are the meaningful stress which constitutes, most literally, the truth of the matter. This meaning - as against fact - is the one thing to be indelibly stamped on the mind, and it is this that the printed book cannot give. That is why hearers never forgot Huxley lecturing, nor Michelet, nor William James. Plenty of facts can be conveyed, too - the more highly organized the better, but in the hands of a great lecturer it is feelings and principles that illuminate the soul as does a perfect play or concert."
