As a teacher, do we want the students to be well-rounded or to be an expert? What is being well-rounded? Is it just providing them a taste of everything or expecting them to achieve a certain level of everything? For instance, children do not always follow what the teachers expect from them. Especially, when you want them to achieve everything that has too much information; the children will only get lost and it would only be an ineffective learning. Like the old proverb saying, “Less is the best”. I think in order to successfully approach a certain goal, we need to focus on one thing at a time; step by step. Focusing until the students become an expert on a certain subject and finally, we can focus on other things and so on… Therefore at the same time, it is possible to teach the students to be well-rounded and be an expert.
However, as we discussed in class, in reality, we often face on choosing between a well-rounded person versus an expert. We have to sacrifice between one of them because being an expert requires an immense amount of concentration and time. When there it comes to time it is limited, how much time you spend on a certain subject can make tremendous differences. In our society, it is a competition we cannot survive if you are not an expert of certain subject. If you are an expert on a certain area, you would have a better chance of being successful as that profession then, someone who does not have a specialized area; a well-rounded person.
Being an expert also means he or she has characteristics that are different than others and provides personal identity. For example, there are two different students, let’s say Mike and Peter. Mike is a student who is doing well on everything and Peter is not doing well as Mike but he is exceptionally good at a certain subject. Maybe, we can say Mike is well-rounded and a successful student in the school. However, when we see their future, does Mike seem more successful than Peter? In the real-world, we cannot say Mike is going to have a success life than Peter. Mike seems to have no specific characteristics. He is just one of hundred-millions of people who are doing fairly a good job on everything. Then, do you want your students to be just one of hundred- millions of people or be an expert who is different than others?
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It all depends on what the student wants to do after school is over. It's interesting to think throughout middle and high school you have to take every academic subject and some electives in what are considered non-academic classes, but when you get to college, you have a "Major" and focus on one type of skill sets. In that way the school system kind of prepares you as a well rounded person, until college where you're no longer getting well rounded education because you need to get a job, ONE job. Its the way society is arranged.
In regard to the last question you asked, I don't think it's the responsibility of the teacher to decide that.
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