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The internet has made most teachers useless for any kid who has a bit of motivation and curiosity.
Inspiration is important in any field, not just liberal arts. Mathematics, computer science, physics, all of these I had at least one professor that really made the subject matter more interesting than it would have appeared simply from a straight reading. I would like to hope I do the same for at least some of my students, but who knows!But then there are other areas of education where trying to divorce the subject from the teacher/student interaction is harmful. You can read history out of a book. I had a lot of history teachers that did exactly that. And replacing that with online education will be no better or no worse. But I also had history teachers that had passion for the source material (shit, I had a chemistry teacher with that sort of passion), and the "inspiration" that they provide is available in only that one specific way. It's not just liberal arts, even if it's mostly liberal arts. When you start getting into the nitty-gritty of biology (and I assume any deep subject, tbh), you NEED that sort of interaction in order for real education to happen.