A CD-ROM can hold a lot of data; 650 megabytes is plenty of space to hold an entire education, if the space is used wisely. An entire liberal education could be placed on one disc.

This is a “desert island” kind of problem. Suppose you were stranded on a deserted island with only a cheesy solar-powered plain-text reader and one CD. What would be on the CD?

Assumptions

• The student is literate (8th-grade education?)
• This is an English-language education. (Though some foreign-language material will be included.)
• It should be possible to master this material without a teacher.

This entire program is verbal. This makes the material applicable to many students (including the blind and deaf) and it can be reproduced in many media.

• Verbal instructions for creating simple line drawings are in a language suitable for automation.
• A combination of Wikipedia and ETexts from Project Geutenberg might make a good start.
• The use of ASCII art is very limited.
• Use a very limited wiki syntax system.
• 8.3 filenames and no directories?

Let's start with the reading list from the St. John's College curriculum. Project Gutenberg has a CD-ISO creator available. It may help to get an index of all their books.

Wikipedia has a list of good articles, and one of vital articles. They are also planning a cd elease. However, these include images.

• One music CD

• A Lifetime's Reading: The World's 500 Greatest Books by Philip Ward
• Great Books Lists
• The Reading List of the St. John's College curriculum