Sunday, April 19, 2015

Specialization in Education

I think we need to be spending more time thinking about what our education is getting us, and
gearing it towards giving the most it can to students. This is particularly relevant in college education, because we need to have more specialization in our education. If we are here to get jobs and degrees, the way that our education needs to be focused is on getting qualified for a job, and being as qualified as we can possibly be. That means we need to be focusing more on one specific field—which we do already as we pick majors—but we can do this more. We can make a difference in our own educations, and make the educations of our children more efficient, if we can move towards more specialization.


Specialization is an idea that dates way back in history, and there are many examples of it. Most notably, we can see specialization in the Industrial Revolution. People were trained for one job in a factory and a work place and then things started moving faster. When everybody got really, really good at their one job, then the process got sped up and the quality was better, because everyone was doing great work—since they were focusing on one part. Even before the industrial revolution, people began to realize that if one farmer grew vegetables, and one farmer grew the wheat, and one farmer raised the cattle, then they could all have a well rounded dinner without having to learn how to make the best vegetables and best wheat and best beef all by themselves.

That’s a pretty simplified version of specialization, but the concept spills over into the modern economy and the modern job market. In our modern day, it means that everyone needs to be very good at one job, so that together, we get everything done that we need to. So, instead of having this perfectly “balanced” education (like you see in the diagram below) we need to cut our focus down to the marketable skills and knowledge that we need in order to get a job that will benefit the whole. This may mean less general education classes—or only general education that is vital, like finance and writing, etc.—and it will mean that before you set about getting a degree, you will have to know what you want to do. But that’s a good thing! That means wasting less time once you know what you need to be learning, and what the main goal is.



This was not the topic that I started with. I actually began this process of finding a call to change by fighting for nearly the opposite idea. I made the argument that education is about more than getting a degree or getting a job—education should be about learning and becoming a better person. The longer I’ve thought about that, the more I agree with it. We are here at school—and here on Earth—to learn everything that we can, and to learn to be better people.


However, I can see in our education system that this is not the system we have.  Perhaps High School can be like that: a time to learn about everything, explore different types of fields, and learn more about ourselves. Parts of college are like that too—living on your own for the first time, having roommates, making new friends, etc. But those are all outside the realm of the university system. Universities are for learning that specifically gears you toward a degree that will get you a job. That doesn’t mean that you won’t learn—in fact it means that you HAVE to learn. You have to learn to be the best in your specialized field. You have to learn how to apply your skills in a specific area so that you can do the most service, and the best service. The university system is leaning that way already, since we pick majors and are separated into colleges, but I think that we need to do more. We need to capitalize on this opportunity for specialization, and make it work for us, so that we are the best prepared that we can be for getting “grown-up” jobs and making our mark on the world.

Update: This proposed change would be for the way we approach university education. I think that as this change happens, more generalization of education in High school would help prepare students for a more intense specialization once they get to college. If we put a bigger focus on specialization, then it will help students to know that as they explore options, they are picking something that they are going to stick with and get good at. The emphasis for education will change, the systems will change, and in the end, that means the students will change.

3 comments:

  1. Awesome call to change. I like the simple example of specialization. I makes sense that this specialization should be extended to education. Perhaps you will explain this in your actual presentation but I am curious about some of the more specifics of your idea. Are you proposing just changing university curriculum to have less generals? (There's already trade schools for that right? Do we just want more of those?) Or have you thought about extending your call for change into public sphere? And if that is that case when does that specialization start to happen? Few kids in high school really know what they want to do and in middle school and elementary school kids certainly don't have a clear view of their future profession.

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  2. Your presentation was very enjoyable. I admired how well thought-out it was, and you explained everything really well. The presentation was pleasing and easy to appreciate because of its simplicity and clarity. The main thing I thought of that you could change was the delivery. The speech was a little repetitive, and perhaps some additional explanation or some different suggestions could have filled in those repetitive spots to enhance the presentation as a whole. Otherwise, well done! It was great when you practiced in our little group, and it was great for the final.

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  3. I really liked your comparison to the Renaissance man in your presentation. It was really helpful to compare specialization to the Renaissance man in my mind because when we were in that section of our class I laughed at the reading we had where the Renaissance man was described with all of his wonderful characteristics. I thought to myself, how could I be a fantastic bull-fighter, lion tamer, intellectual, etc.? And I think today (as you said) we are kind of expecting people to become this man, but that is spreading ourselves too thin. We don't need to be spread that thin and we ought to take time to really dig deeply into one section and become the best at ONE thing. For instance, I want to be a grant writer and nonprofit consultant and I plan to spend the rest of my career developing these specific skills and using these skills to help nonprofits. On the other hand, my husband is going to be a pilot and is going to spend all of his time developing that specific skill set. I don't need to be a pilot to be successful and he doesn't need to be a grant writer, but we can work together to make a great society. Overall, great presentation.

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