I don't understand the skepticism either. If people want to engage a great text with a community, what's the harm?
I mean, no grades, no cost, no degree at the end, four people per 'class' -- is it closer to a conventional university, or a book club? Not to knock book clubs -- they are great (especially if people read the books for once), but they probably won't solve the education system either.
If the Catherine Project is indeed just one more form of that kind of decentralized ad-hoc learning, then the only downside is that it'll be just as successful. That is to say, a bunch of random people learning random things without a curriculum. Which is not really "an education", and carries a series of challenges and burdens for a great number (maybe most) of the population, that traditional academia is intended to address.
The thread's been jumped on by mysoginistic conservatives?