Let me approach this from another angle. I’ve been playing the flute since I was 5. Counting the several competitions and the 5 hours a day I used to practice. I’ve spent more than 10K hours. I probably passed that when I was 12 or 13. I’ve now gotten to the place where I can go for a few weeks at a time and then pick up the flute and be able to play it with aplomb and ease without degradation in skill. Learning does take a long time and even though music is/was still my life, it can be a slog and there isn’t really a faster way to do it especially on very complicated things (like being a novelist) because of the nature of forging the new pathways in our brains.
In my mind this is a great argument for broad-based classical education that touches on a variety of subjects and lets students then specialize in a field of study. It gets your brain ready for learning, gives you plenty of knowledge and helps you with your communication skills so that you can do what I do: explain really complicated things to a general audience. It also gives you the chance to speak knowledgeably with other knowledge brokers. In some ways, that is what our society has lost with excess specialization. Look at this site, how many people would benefit from a holistic education in philosophy but are unwilling to put in the hours and study it takes to learn about the conundrums of philosophy?
Let me approach this from another angle. I’ve been playing the flute since I was 5. Counting the several competitions and the 5 hours a day I used to practice. I’ve spent more than 10K hours. I probably passed that when I was 12 or 13. I’ve now gotten to the place where I can go for a few weeks at a time and then pick up the flute and be able to play it with aplomb and ease without degradation in skill. Learning does take a long time and even though music is/was still my life, it can be a slog and there isn’t really a faster way to do it especially on very complicated things (like being a novelist) because of the nature of forging the new pathways in our brains.
In my mind this is a great argument for broad-based classical education that touches on a variety of subjects and lets students then specialize in a field of study. It gets your brain ready for learning, gives you plenty of knowledge and helps you with your communication skills so that you can do what I do: explain really complicated things to a general audience. It also gives you the chance to speak knowledgeably with other knowledge brokers. In some ways, that is what our society has lost with excess specialization. Look at this site, how many people would benefit from a holistic education in philosophy but are unwilling to put in the hours and study it takes to learn about the conundrums of philosophy?
I think is a great argument for broad education.