Students_Should_Be_Required_to_Take_Courses_in_Many_Fields_and_Not_Concentrate_on_One_Area

“STUDENTS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO TAKE COURSES IN MANY FIELDS, AND NOT CONCENTRATE IN ONE AREA.” The current education system is nothing but a machine that churns out a set of highly specialized educated professionals who have nothing to do with the world at large except for the parts that pertain to their areas of study. And hence these professionals are mostly insulated from other areas of education, which prevents them from appreciating the importance of the work done by other professionals in other fields of study. This highly specialized education system has stood in the way of producing people who are intellectuals in the correct sense of the term, because their intellectuality has nothing to do with a wholesome understanding of the world. A very pertinent example here would be that of a social scientist. The main function of a social scientist is to study a society and its behavior and analyze the current trends in society. However, it would be impossible for him to do so if he does not have a clear idea about the history and the culture of that society. Similarly, a literature student who is studying the works of a certain poet will understand nothing of the works, unless he understands and appreciates the culture or the society that the poet might have lived in or that might have influenced his works. Again, a film student who is studying a certain foreign film needs to know about the languages, traditions and ways of life of the foreign country to understand the poignancy of that particular film. However, it might be argued that, in present times, when students have to study their particular discipline in such great detail, it must become really difficult for them to devote time to other areas of study. But the problem with this argument is the basic lack of understanding of the way an education system must work. Studying disciplines other than one’s own is not just a way of gaining extra knowledge; it has got a very important function in understanding one’s own area of study. When it comes to gathering extra knowledge, curiosity never killed the cat, because it always helps a student in fully understanding his own course of study. History is replete with examples of scholars who have dabbled in diverse areas of knowledge, and who have been equally successful in all of them. The iconic Leonardo da Vinci was a painter par excellence; at the same time he was also the first person who devised the idea of an aero plane, an idea way ahead of his times. Not only that, he is also remembered for his contributions in the field of medicine, and not to forget, the Vitruvian man. Another iconic example of such diversified knowledge is the father of modern evolution theories, Charles Darwin. Originally a student of religion, his theories of evolution are considered a path breaking theory by modern biologists. Thus, the modern education system, in its effort to go into the depth of things, has only managed to isolate students of one discipline from another, thereby preventing them from realizing the importance of the connection between disciplines. It, therefore, does not come as a surprise that today’s society is severely lacking in scholars such as the ones mentioned above.