For part 2 of my manifesto, I shall radically reform education! Here’s how it should be: Every 10 years—say, the years we turn 30, 40, 50, and 60—we all go back to school for a year. Those interested in a career change can enroll in a vocationally relevant program. Everyone else can revisit the history or math they’ve forgotten since high school, develop a newfound interest in poetry or painting, or take up carpentry or gardening.
During this year you receive a reasonably generous living stipend that takes into account your family situation. Your tuition is free. (You can take for granted, in my imaginary utopias, that tuition is free.) Your job is waiting for you when you come back. (We'll take our model from countries, companies, and industries that successfully implement sabbaticals and generous parental leave--and, as a side benefit, parental leave will stop seeming like such a big deal.)
If you love your current work and truly don’t want to take a year away, fine, you don’t have to. But that’s the exception, not the rule. Adulthood now has built-in, socially accepted periods for reflection and redirection. Education is a life-long endeavor informed by mature experiences. People who aren’t inclined toward studying as teenagers, who have other responsibilities in young adulthood, or who go to terrible high schools will have multiple other chances to concentrate on education. We can all study philosophy at the appropriate age (if not always, alas, as the appropriate sex).
What I’m not sure of is whether students of different ages take classes together or separately. I can see arguments in either direction. In theory, 20-year-olds and 60-year-olds have a lot to teach each other; in practice, they may have differing enough priorities and backgrounds that they mostly talk past each other. I guess we’ll just have to see how it goes.