In this article, the author analyzes three common strands of current thought about education and the Internet. First is the idea that the instant availability of information online makes the memorization of facts unnecessary or less necessary. Second is the celebration of the virtues of collaborative learning as superior to outmoded individual learning. And third is the insistence that lengthy, complex books, which constitute a single, static, one-way conversation with an individual, are inferior to knowledge co-constructed by members of a group. The three current strands of thought regarding memorization, individual learning, and books have led to a profound mistake: the idea that the tools of the Internet can replace the effortful, careful development of the individual mind--the sort of development that is fostered by a solid liberal arts education. (Contains 19 notes.)