Librarians have traditionally (and probably unfairly) had a conservative reputation. But they and their libraries are the best example I can think of for a replacement for schools and their teachers. After all, libraries are publicly-funded learning institutions, open to everyone and mostly free to use…but usage is not compulsory nor monitored in any way. They provide a service that people want, so they are used. And now, librarians have been shown to be much closer to the leading edge of learning technologies than either teachers or school principals. A recent study of K-12 public educators found that school librarians are more adventurous users of computers – especially social media – that teachers or administrators. And they’re much more likely to adopt a variety of content-sharing tools for personal, professional and classroom use. When I went to school and when I taught school in the early 1970s, sending a non-compliant kid to the library as punishment was popular. I hope that still happens today, because a library can be a better place to educate oneself than a classroom.