I began preparing for this post by watching the video "The Future of Learning" but didn't get very far in because one of the first things I heard took me elsewhere. They start discussing how students learn differently. So while this focused on how, I started thinking about the what people know. What they want to learn and what they like to have knowledge about. I thought of the quote "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." I wanted to be able to reference the quote correctly, but my google search took me to an article called "Why we should forget Einstein's tree-climbing fish" by Professor Todd Pettigrew from 2013. I was able to take a new perspective because of this article.
He makes some excellent points. He says, "But worse, lines like the supposed Einstein quote above reinforce an idea that is actually quite dangerous to education generally: the idea that some people are just good at some things and some are not. This notion is anathema to education because the whole notion of learning is that you can, well, learn things." He goes on to analyze why he believes this is never something Einstein would have said anyway and he has a point. In an address, Einstein said, "The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost." I believe he's saying that at least in the mandatory education and core classes (K-12) that we should not be focusing so specifically on peoples' innate abilities. That time is later, but general learning that will help a person overall needs to be the focus before that time comes.
Where I think Pettigrew gets some of his argument wrong is when he says, "For while I would concede that various people have various relative strengths and weaknesses, it's quite clear to anyone who really looks, that there are a great many people who are not geniuses in anything." I think this is slightly ridiculous to say because no one is going to observe every aspect of a person and reasonably reach that conclusion unless it is about a person who they interact with almost daily. People have hidden abilities. Some people are math geniuses, but they don't have regular opportunities to share that ability, which means that the notion suggesting simple observation of a person to determine whether they are geniuses in anything is often inaccurate. Maybe if he could elaborate on what he means by "really look" his argument here would have more support.
"We all like to imagine that we are all, somewhere deep down, geniuses, and that the only reason we fail in school, or indeed, in life, is that our teachers and bosses can't see our natural brilliance. We're fish and those ignorant bastards are making us climb trees!" This quote from Pettigrew's article is what resonates most with me. I agree with this because my personal experiences as a student have given me evidence to support the truth of this attitude in people and the problems it causes. There have been many instances in school where I have heard people say they're not going to try in a certain subject because it's not their thing. Why go to school then? We go to school to learn. If something is not your thing, you can try to make it something you at least understand instead of whining about a teacher or subject. I mean, how dare the schools try to make you more intelligent overall and give you a good base for a variety of subjects.
Other evidence that backs up this attitude is the fact that I am part of a generation that receives participation trophies for everything. We're awarded for not being good at something. This notion reinforces the idea that if something doesn't come naturally to someone that they don't need to try because the world will say that showing up is enough. This attitude does not promote learning. It does not promote growth. Feelings of incompetency are not enjoyable, so learning can be hard. Education is not meant to be easy though. You are not in school to get a participation trophy. You're there to learn.
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