Forward Thinking

While slogging through endless hours of meandering lectures and thirty-page academic articles during my time at UC Riverside, I gleaned proportionally few worthwhile ideas relative to the time spent extracting them. One of those important ideas however is becoming louder in the public discourse - the real goal of education in America.

For the past sixty years, education in America created experts. A student does well in math or science and attends an engineering school, or shows a proclivity for writing and enrolls in a fine arts institution. From there, the student earns a bachelor and enters the narrow world of their specialized field. Or, they earn a master's or even doctorate, and each additional level of education proportionally narrows their effective working field. Eventually someone may become such an expert that the only option left to them (unless they choose to work "beneath" their level) is further research - thus, the college professor.

The problem now is that the rest of the world caught up with us. Asia, especially India and China, are producing enormous numbers of students with equal or better educations that our own. And its a very easy decision for a business to choose between paying an American worker or an Asian worker with equal credentials - one is required by law to health care, standard-of-living costs, insurance, and proportional salaries, while the other is happy making $500 a month. So, simply being an "expert" in a given field is no longer enough to guarantee success.

The recent push for examining our educational system focuses on something I've felt strongly about since before I became a teacher: cross-discipline education, or holistic teaching. A chemist must now master both their chosen field and be able to communicate effectively, or even better, apply their knowledge across the spectrum of modern living and synthesize a new understanding, create a new idea, for lack of a better word.

Academic subjects are viewed as discrete from one another. Reaching across the divide is essential if we want a versatile, flexible, talented, and better population. By becoming a "jack of all trades", you have a work force that is not only easier to employ but essential to have. Think of it this way: the recent trend in football has been multi-position players that can function as, say, a quarterback, running back, and receiver all in the same game. Obviously this person, who can access skills from a variety of sources, is much more desireable than a single-skill person.

Beyond that, the entire population (both rising through academic training and the current work force) must realize that in the new, faster evolving world, one's education does not stop. You must never stop learning. The stagnation that comes from accepting a station is now dangerous. If you will not improve yourself, add skills to your resume, and become invaluable, than you are simply a one-trick pony with much less value. Continous learning does not mean enrolling in college courses, taking tests and writing essays (although it could!). Instead, expanding your own skill set by learning from others or exploring a seemingly unrelated realm is sufficient. The more you take in, the more valuable you become.

Lastly, I would like to say that it is foolish to think one has "learned enough". You are not a jar that can be filled with knowledge until it tops off. There is no limit to your understanding. Perhaps you'll never become a doctor or author, but you can certainly add some of those abilities to your personal palate. "How do you educate and train people for jobs that don't exist yet?" asks Michael Thurmond, Georgia's labor commissioner. "As long as you know how to learn, [employers] can train you to do a job."