I'm A Polymath, How 'Bout You?
I have many praises for education, I was once an educator. I love learning and I love sharing my knowledge. The state that our society is in with education concerns me. I'm not going to get political on you guys, which I could easily do, but more philosophical.
One thing that education has done is narrow the field of study. I believe that the goal for education in our present society is to define a person by a particular study or degree. One time in my life this really irked me. It turned into one of the main reasons that I chose the education field. To earn a Bachelor's at UNT in education, you couldn't get a degree in education, it had to be in Interdisciplinary Studies. For a person who loves to learn that was magical. I could learn about British, French, American, African-American Lit. along with Astronomy, Physics, and Biology I&II. I also took classes on the Renaissance, and the Spanish conquest of South America along with my education classes. It was diverse and I loved it. To sum it up I was in Heaven!
This love of learning has expanded from my classes and into my personal time. I recently checked out books on the Beat Generation. I wanted to learn about the time as well as the literary works. Along with studying the Beat Generation, I picked up some books on historical feats in photography as well as some books on Astronomy. Being the dork that I am, I pulled out my telescope to learn more about the spring/summer skies. I know more about the Autumn and Winter skies and I thought that I should expand myself on the other two season's heavenly bodies. I am constantly in the search for more knowledge because the more knowledge you gain, the more you realize that there is soooo much more to learn.
This love that I have of learning has made me a polymath. I know a lot about a bunch of different stuff, but I'm not really an expert at one given thing. I feel that I would have blended more with the enlightenment period than our present day, because they wanted to learn about different topics. With our society today, the goal is to become the best that you can be at one field. Which is good to a degree. My problem with this is that it doesn't make a person well rounded. If your world consists of science and only science doesn't it make it harder to relate to someone who enjoys painting?
99% of making it in the world is relating to people. If you can't relate you're in trouble. I remember having one student who was brilliant. He wanted to sit a corner and work on his math problems all day. The problem with that was that he wasn't practicing his social skills. I would push him to interact with groups. I'd have him work with the slower math learners in order to help him develop interpersonal skills and for the weaker math students to gain math skills. It was a win-win situation. At first the child complained, but towards of the end of the year, he grew so much. He was well liked by the children and I believe that he had the most friends. I believe that's the way it should be, he wasn't defined by his math abilities anymore, he was defined as a person. He learned to relate to all sorts of children.
When did our society change from wanting to learn about everything to something specific?
One thing that education has done is narrow the field of study. I believe that the goal for education in our present society is to define a person by a particular study or degree. One time in my life this really irked me. It turned into one of the main reasons that I chose the education field. To earn a Bachelor's at UNT in education, you couldn't get a degree in education, it had to be in Interdisciplinary Studies. For a person who loves to learn that was magical. I could learn about British, French, American, African-American Lit. along with Astronomy, Physics, and Biology I&II. I also took classes on the Renaissance, and the Spanish conquest of South America along with my education classes. It was diverse and I loved it. To sum it up I was in Heaven!
This love of learning has expanded from my classes and into my personal time. I recently checked out books on the Beat Generation. I wanted to learn about the time as well as the literary works. Along with studying the Beat Generation, I picked up some books on historical feats in photography as well as some books on Astronomy. Being the dork that I am, I pulled out my telescope to learn more about the spring/summer skies. I know more about the Autumn and Winter skies and I thought that I should expand myself on the other two season's heavenly bodies. I am constantly in the search for more knowledge because the more knowledge you gain, the more you realize that there is soooo much more to learn.
This love that I have of learning has made me a polymath. I know a lot about a bunch of different stuff, but I'm not really an expert at one given thing. I feel that I would have blended more with the enlightenment period than our present day, because they wanted to learn about different topics. With our society today, the goal is to become the best that you can be at one field. Which is good to a degree. My problem with this is that it doesn't make a person well rounded. If your world consists of science and only science doesn't it make it harder to relate to someone who enjoys painting?
99% of making it in the world is relating to people. If you can't relate you're in trouble. I remember having one student who was brilliant. He wanted to sit a corner and work on his math problems all day. The problem with that was that he wasn't practicing his social skills. I would push him to interact with groups. I'd have him work with the slower math learners in order to help him develop interpersonal skills and for the weaker math students to gain math skills. It was a win-win situation. At first the child complained, but towards of the end of the year, he grew so much. He was well liked by the children and I believe that he had the most friends. I believe that's the way it should be, he wasn't defined by his math abilities anymore, he was defined as a person. He learned to relate to all sorts of children.
When did our society change from wanting to learn about everything to something specific?
posted by Caryn at 8:51 PM
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