On the importance of mastering

“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” - Kant

Hello, my name is Daniel and I am a coworker of Daryl (the other contributer). We have similar opinions on changes that are needed in the current education system.

The biggest change needed, which this blog is about, is that students must master topics rather than barely learn them. There are many aspects to this: the benefits vs drawbacks, how to change the education system to make this happen, etc. In this blog post, I will discuss my viewpoint on the importance of mastering topics.

You may have heard the phrase, "Jack of all trades, master of none." This phrase of course refers to a generalist: a person with a wide array of knowledge, the opposite of which is a specialist. Are we saying that it is better to live as a specialist rather than a generalist? Not really. It's okay to know a little about everything, but it is more important to be able to make the connections between ideas.

The above diagram is an example of what we mean. When Joe wants to learn about basket weaving, Joe needs to learn about X, Y and Z. To learn X, he also needs to learn A, B and C, and so on. There is a hierarchical tree of subtopics to learn, and if Joe doesn't know B, it is obvious that Joe cannot fully understand X or basket weaving. Mastering a topic requires mastering a dependency chain of subtopics.

But isn't it okay for Joe to just learn B enough to get by (e.g., a school test grade of B)? No, because Joe's problems may increase exponentially over time! As Joe moves on to bigger and better things in life, he may want to learn about topics that require understanding basket weaving, but he cannot move forward! The point is that mastering the fundamentals is essential to an education that will last a lifetime.

It is the fundamentals that "stick in our head" as we move on to learn new topics. Mastering these fundamentals and connecting them is an important brain exercise that will allow us to solve problems more easily in the future.

As you have probably already guessed, I am not focused on child students, but rather everyone as a student, no matter the age. This is one small difference Daryl and I have. Daryl is more focused on child education (elementary/middle school) since he has kids in this age group.