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The case against over-specialization in education and knowledge
By Paul J. Balles*
11 March 2008
Paul J. Balles argues against over-specialization in education and knowledge which he says makes the specialized vulnerable to fakes, deceivers and manupilators who often appear to know so much that others cannot challenge them.
What do Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Hannibal Lecter, Mr Spock of Star Trek and James Bond have in common? They're all fictional polymaths.
A simple definition of a polymath: "one who has learned much" or "a person with encyclopaedic, broad, or varied knowledge or learning". It especially means the person's knowledge is not restricted to one subject area.
Renaissance genius Michelangelo (1475-1564), painter, sculptor, architect, poet and visionary was best known for his fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and his sculptures David and The Pieta.
Those who have been polymaths have been referred to as Renaissance Man, Homo Universalis, Generalist and Universal Genius, with Leonardo da Vinci a prime example.
Who was the last man who knew everything? Was it the philosopher Leibniz, or Thomas Young or Athanasius Kircher? What's the significance of anyone out of our past knowing everything? Is it important to know "a little bit about a lot of things" as the song goes?
One indisputable fact about the last and current centuries is that it’s no longer possible to become a know-it-all. The total amount of knowledge has passed anyone's ability to know much about everything.
The inevitable result seems to be that fewer people strive to become well-educated about many things and turn to becoming specialists. Not even scientists learn science in the general sense. They become focused and specialized in narrow fields.
At one time, the philosopher Immanuel Kant was able to say, "Science is organized knowledge." It wasn't in depth knowledge about nuclear physics or integrative biology or any of the other highly specialized fields of scientific study.
What's wrong with too much specialization? (1) Specialists get paid too much and generalists get paid too little, attracting increasing numbers into specialized fields and (2) too much learning depends on the demands of specialist fields, leaving knowledge without any overall organization and in the hands of "experts".
The result? Curiosity dies, imagination stagnates, Interpretation becomes dependent on a few self-anointed leaders in their fields, analysis is misguided and synthesis loses its importance for any major creative achievement. We lose our independence.
Psychotherapist Carl Rogers once wrote,
| If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing
conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present
system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which
make for uniqueness, for self-direction and for self-initiated
learning. |
One thing that was shared by all of the great geniuses of the past those polymaths who knew everything was their capacity for self-direction and self-initiated learning. Schools can actually be bad for students. When learning gets bad for students, it's bad for the community. If bad for enough communities, learning is dangerous for the planet.
What makes schools bad for students? When schools get so narrowly focused on specialized subjects, they (1) make the students dependent on the experts rather than developing their capacities for independent learning; (2) students focus narrowly on learning the marketplace needs rather than learning what humanity needs and (3) the students become dependent on fakes, liars and manipulators to put knowledge in broader perspectives.
How does this become bad for communities? Fakes often appear to know so much that others cannot challenge their fakery. Deceivers can lie and be responsible for murder and mayhem before those who know better can catch up with them. Pundits working for major media chains can mislead readers and listeners who are too specialized to question or challenge them.
No one will know it all, but more self-initiated learning will go a long way toward independent, unique and self-directed thinkers.
*Paul Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for 38 years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.
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